Tales From The Chamber : Chapter 2 – Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes…

Wirral Chamber CEO Princess Paula and new Chair Sandra Kirkham

As the late,great David Bowie once sang ‘Ch-ch-ch-ch -changes…’ have been afoot at Wirral Chamber of Commerce (WCoC) this week. We’ll leave you to judge whether they’re for the better.

First of all there’s the news that Kate Eugeni has been appointed as the new WCoC ‘Visitor Economy lead’ ( and if someone can tell us WTAF that means we’d be grateful)

http://www.wirralchamber.co.uk/Press-and-PR/News/Wirral-Chamber-announces-Kate-Eugeni-as-its-new-Visitor-Economy-lead/

A WCoC insider has contacted Wirral Leaks to comment on this particular appointment and commented as follows:

Because of course Kate has a background in the Visitor Economy. Ffs.

Headline states she’s ‘new visitor lead’ when she’s been appointed as Director of Visitor Economy.

Who’s budget is she being paid from? How many members in the visitor economy exist in Wirral, is it enough to pay her salary and deliver outputs?!

Has the council given money to the chamber to deliver on these outputs? And isn’t Lucy Barrow the lead for Visitor Economy in Wirral?

All valid questions but they need to be put in the context that the poor love once had to return from a Christmas break skiing in France with her father only to find that a treasured sculpture had disappeared from her garden . Can we please just imagine the sheer horror of that situation for a moment? #prayforsuperlambanana

Stolen Superlambanana

Did we mention that Ms Eugeni’s father is, of course , former Parks hamper magnate,Tranmere Rovers owner and current tax exile Peter Johnson. We don’t have to tell you how this insular peninsula nepotism shit works again once again do we?

Meanwhile another source tells us :

Worth noting that another chamber member left this week. ‘An agreement’ was reached and she left straight away. Lisa Furlong was the only person on the Enterprise team who actually had any knowledge of running a business and who was credible to offer business advice. 

Good luck Warren Ward

But the big announcement was the appointment of Sandra Kirkham as the new Chair of WCoC following on from Asif ‘Massive’ Hamid, who having squeezed every bit of financial advantage out of the role, has moved on to pastures even more lucrative as Chair of Liverpool Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

We’ve a bulging file on the previous exploits of Ms Kirkham but her profile hasn’t been big enough . But as this promo video shows it is now :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_4xDpjHMZA

Now as you know we try not to judge at Wirral Leaks but the most interesting aspect we gleaned from the promo, amid the corporate BS,was the fact that ‘Our San’ is a Kylie Minogue fan. But then, let’s face it ,she would be wouldn’t she?

As we can exclusively reveal here are ‘Our San’s Top Five Inspirational Kylie Minogue Tunes’ for Wirral’s business community :

Theme tune : Better The Devil You Know  (even if it’s Kevin Adderley)

I Should Be So Lucky ( to be ‘best buds’ or related to Princess Paula) 

Especially For You ( Duet with Cllr Phil Davies) (but mainly for us)

Spinning Around (spin is what we do – get over it)

Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (but if you sign a non-disclosure agreement it would help) 

 

Rising and Falling Stars

It was three years ago that Wirral Council was named  ‘Most Improved Council’ at the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) awards and anyone receiving an email or a letter from Wirral Council will see they are still desperately trading on this tired and bogus accolade.

As you know we are deeply suspicious of awards and titles as they often serve to provide a veneer of credence to the least deserving. This is something we deconstructed when the LGC award was first announced. Read here : The Bamboozlers

Might we suggest that it would have been more appropriate – or at least in the interest of balance – to include ‘Rated Inadequate by Ofsted 2016′ on official Wirral Council correspondence. After all what would be more indicative of the true state of Wirral Council – a rigorous full inspection of Children’s Services by a team of qualified and experienced inspectors or a 20 minute presentation to a group of gullible local government gurus at Grosvenor House  ,London ? The LGC  judge’s comments from 2015 read :

This is a council that has broken the mould of old ways of working to deliver a dramatic improve to its governance. Under a sector-led approach it has gone from being an abnormal authority known locally as the ‘insular peninsula’ to an organisation that seeks help and inspiration from others and is working with residents in a way they have never done before with impressive results in terms of new jobs.

And yet one year later Wirral council gets slated by Ofsted. But then a LGC award is a notorious kiss of death. It’s just a shame we didn’t get to hear the full story about how Wirral Council got this dubious award . Maybe Jo Miller the CEO of Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council -who were ‘Highly Commended’ by the LGC judges -will one day tell us about the backstage wheeler dealing that went on to ensure Wirral Council won the award. Apparently the judges thought “they’d had a hard time” . So it was the sympathy vote that won it. Bless. No wonder Cllr Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies looks so proud in the picture above. Read more here: Most Improved Council 2015

Is it any wonder that the ‘Most Improved Council’ award has subsequently become so discredited that as far as we understand there hasn’t been such an award since? This includes this year’s shit-glittering ceremony  which is to be held tonight : LGC Awards 2018

As you can see Wirral Council’s sole nomination this year is in the ‘Rising Star’ category and the honour goes to Sally Clark. Wirral Council’s pitch is as follows:

Sally Clark has recently been promoted to assistant head of communications but joined Wirral when it was undergoing major internal redesign. Her role was to help the council engage with employees to help communicate the challenges, the necessary redundancies and reshaping of services. She very quickly embedded herself across the organisation and her work on shaping how those messages were delivered had a huge impact on the final outcome and how the council was perceived. Ms Clark has been key to driving and maintaining pace in changing the way the council engages with staff, and has helped to set up new organisations that enabled Wirral to become a commissioning council.

We’ve got to admit that trying to improve how Wirral Council is perceived is a tough gig and it will be interesting to see whether Ms Clark fares better than last year’s Wirral Council  ‘Rising Star’ nominee, Strategy Manager Lucy Barrow , who we understand is now ‘all things culture’ . We also understand from a source that reclusive Wirral Council CEO  Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson has a ‘special liking’ for Ms Barrow and “can’t stop singing her praises” . But then according to last year’s LGC award pitch “People at every level of the organisation rely on her advice,support and talent” . As no doubt does her husband Mark Barrow – who just so happens to be ‘Campaign Manager’ at Wirral Chamber of Commerce’ ! Proving once again to us that if you impress the right people and have the right connections on the insular peninsula you’ll go far. Is Wirral ‘s talent pool really that shallow? Sadly the answer appears to be yes! Read more here :  Rising Star- Lucy Barrow

Now we can’t comment on the merits and attributes of these ‘Rising Stars’  but we do think it is revealing about what kind of roles are valued and relied upon by Wirral Council  – salespeople and spin doctors.

However such is the mysterious workings of the universe it would appear that it is a truism that for every rising star there is a falling star. And apparently disappearing into a black hole is former Wirral Council Super Duper Director Kevin ‘Addled’ Adderley who having being exiled by Wirral Chamber of Commerce to Egerton House as a glorified facilities manager, has we now understand, gone altogether . Perhaps he didn’t fit with the slick ,glossy image that the aspirational Chamber are promoting. As Her Ladyship said : ” I fear that burgundy cummerbund at the LGC Awards 2015 may have been the beginning of the end for him”  

Sue Perkins points to the offending item (take your pick as to what we mean by that)

If this is the case it’s lucky for Adderley that the £250,000 pay off he received from Wirral Council in 2015 will mean that (unlike others) he won’t have to darken the door of the DWP for whom he worked for 29 years. Perhaps he can give former Wirral CEO Graham Burgess a call to see if there are any jobs going within his burgeoning property empire (Torus /Bamboo Lettings etc;) …….on second thoughts, perhaps not.

But as the stars are going out

And this stage is full of nothing 

And the friends have all but gone 

For my life, my God, I’m singing