SPECIAL REPORT : Where Your Money Goes

It must be this time of year, as we’ve been musing on money matters (or rather lack thereof). Clearly Wirral Council have been doing the same as they gear up to set their forthcoming budget and pursue a number of punitive charging regimes to offset central government funding cuts.

Yeah,yeah, yeah – we get it when they drone on about how badly they’ve been done to by central government and they have to make tough choices and priorities. But that’s what we take issue with Wirral Council here at Leaky Towers – it’s the choices that they make which indicate to us that their priorities are all wrong. Consequently they lose all moral authority when they start bleating about lack of finances.

So let’s take a quick look at where that money comes from and where it goes :

As we all know Wirral Council’s income stream is increasingly going to be us via Council Tax and any supplementary fund raising scams they can come up with.We look forward to their budget proposals now that they’ve been given the go ahead by central government to put up Council Tax by 3% to pay for the rising costs of social care. Rather frighteningly they also have the the opportunity to raise even more money via this route.Surrey County Council are looking at a total Council Tax rise of 15% but to do so they would have to put it to the local vote. We suggest that this is not something that the ruling group at Wirral Council wouldn’t risk but nothing ,nothing would surprise us about this shower of chancers.

David Hodge, Leader of Surrey County Council, announces proposal to seek a council tax rise of 15%

So , down to business –  we’ve previously discussed the charming operatives from Kingdom Secrurity and their cash for trash extortion agency for the Council. As anyone who has seen a Kingdom Security in action – they go after vulnerable people who don’t have the means to  retaliate . Much like the people they get their contract off.

https://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/cash-for-trash/

It’s not  about caring for the environment. Neither are other money-making scams devised by an increasingly desperate council. Similarly their car park charging proposals have absolutely nothing to do with maintaining the roads or traffic measures. It’s all about the moolah. Your moolah! – so cash cows out there prepare your teats for action as they’re going to be bled dry.

Park and Get Taken For A Ride

We’ve already reported the squandering of £80,000 on the appointment of an Investor Development Manager – rumoured to be a shoo-in for current leading Wirral Council puppet master Martin Liptrot.

https://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/the-power-abusers/

Which again begs the question as to why there isn’t someone on a humongous salary with the requisite skills at Wirral Council – because well ,apparently there just isn’t ! Let’s not even mention what the likes of David Armstrong, Clare Fish and Joe Blott  get paid  – if you throw in Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson that’s half a million big ones per annum between them.

Never mind the recent ridiculous ‘Are Wirral’s 66 councillors Value For Money?’ exercise conducted by themselves and to which the unsurprising answer was a resounding YES! – how about we have a VFM consultation on the above gang of four/flaw? – especially when we consider the damning Ofsted report into Children’s Services.

This has necessitated the appointment of troubleshooter Eleanor Brazil and former Children’s Commissioner for England Professor Maggie Atkinson as the new ‘independent’ chairwoman of Wirral Safeguarding Children’s Board. The appointment of such big hitters suggests us to that Children’s Services is in an even bigger mess than the Ofsted report indicated. Not that we’ll ever know because the Children’s Services Improvement Board meets behind closed doors. Lessons have obviously been learned from the last Improvement Board – no openness, no transparency, no public accountability suits the powers that be. We’re just asked to stump up the bill.

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/15032232.Government_troubleshooter_who_dealt_with_aftermath_of_Baby_P_scandal_to_lead_rescue_of_Wirral_children_s_services/

These consultants seem to be mainly tasked with finding out why Wirral Council can’t recruit and retain staff in Children’s Services. We can tell them free of charge : because it’s rammed with poor calibre middle managers who bully their staff on the instructions of passive/aggressive senior managers who earn a nice wedge spouting platitudes and duping councillors.Plus the fact that who in their right mind would want to do Child Protection work in Birkenhead. Think about that for a moment  – beyond grim.

Another drain on resources that we never to get to hear about are the court cases that Wirral Council get ensnared in because they simply don’t know the difference between right and wrong….but they’ve got plenty of well paid people particularly in the HR and Law Departments who are prepared to blur the lines between the two in return for a big fat salary. We understand that there’s a court case coming up at the end of this month that could prove to be the defining moment of how Wirral Council chooses to ‘move forward’.

We’ll keep you posted.

Wirral Chainsaw Massacre

Shame on those people who clicked on the link with murder in mind ! . After last week’s streetlights story we present more Wirral Council Highways hell only this time we’re talking trees. Our Arboreal Correspondent Roger Merry has written to Wirral Leaks and several Wirral Councillors to tells us :

“As a member of the Mountwood Conservation Area Committee I spend a considerable amount of time, as a volunteer, working with Wirral’s Tree Officer, protecting and advising on best practice for tree work within the conservation area. In spite of our efforts Wirral’s trees are being destroyed not by ill advised residents or cowboy tree surgeons but by the Council.

I had the misfortune to find the latest example of the Councils handiwork in Prenton Road East today. 

It would be hard to find a better example of how not to prune a tree. This mutilation is permanent. It will cause the trees to produce a mass of dense growth that requires re-pruning every 3 years. The trees have now been rendered dangerous without regular maintenance. All aesthetic benefit has been permanently lost as a result of this butchery. If work was required this is exactly how not to do it.

I should make clear that this is not the fault of the contractors. They are not to blame. Responsibility firmly rests on Highways for awarding the contract, it would appear, without a proper management plan and oversight of all work.

Wirral’s own tree officer would not allow work like this on residents’ own trees but I understand that the Council haven’t even consulted their own expert. It increases maintenance workload, produces potentially dangerous trees from healthy ones and requires increased monitoring of tree stock safety, with full, regular, climbing inspections required, rather than a simple visual inspection in a walk past.

Other Councils are systematically removing even properly pollarded trees as they cost so much to maintain. Wirral Council is artificially creating appallingly badly pollarded trees from healthy mature and semi mature trees across the borough.

An important part of Wirral’s heritage is being deliberately destroyed. We have inherited a limited stock of good street trees but those we do have are now being systematically damaged beyond rescue. The whole feel and character of Wirral is being permanently damaged by the Council.

It is a priority that all future work is halted with immediate effect until a proper tree survey is conducted and a planned maintenance programme produced, with input from the Tree Officer, relevant community groups and Conservation Areas. I would suggest liaising and making use of the Conservation Areas Wirral (C.A.W.) Committee’s expertise.”

Coincidentally we had another tree fella who got in touch with the same concerns about trees not far away in Storeton Road, Prenton. As we look at pictures of what looks like trees in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust we ask ourselves is this the work of the same lumber-hacks?.

We’d appreciate further evidence from our readers of similar environmental vandalism. This may be a  way of assisting  Mr. Merry and others in securing  a proper tree survey and planned maintenance programme and ensure that Wirral’s once green and pleasant land does not become increasingly grey and unpleasant.

Until such time it does seem as though Wirral Council really do hate the trees……

Proposed Savings – WBC

Some proposals HERE

And Another HERE

But As long as there’s enough clawed back to keep paying 1 x CEO, 3 x £130k and 66 Councillors

Your Vote (Wirral Globe at 25.11.2012 votes so far)

As the council struggles to cut its spending by a third, has the time come to ditch 22 of our 66 councillors?

YES: It’s a waste of money having so many:
92%

NO: They do a good job for Wirral:
6%

Don’t know:
2%

All In It Together …

As part of his commitment to cleaning up Wirral after a series of damning reports new Wirral Council CEO poacher turned gamekeeper Goofy “Kubla Khan”  Burgess has been true to his word and has purchased a dishwasher for the palatial new Chief Executive Suite.  (Leaker’s also mention a newly installed en suite bathroom)

 It has also been reported that customers queuing at the  Wallasey Town Hall One -Stop Shop were today astonished to see a Jenkinsons delivery van drop off a selection of expensive looking turquoise and green leather settees allegedly bound for Goofy’s stately pleasure dome.

Ironically, this incongruous scene was played out against a backdrop of spineless Unison reps who were also gathered outside Clown Hall to discuss forthcoming cuts to Council services.  Or in other words sneaking a quick fag and swapping hints about exactly which shade of  “Just For Men” suited their skin tone before getting back to the tiresome business of  selling their members (oo-er!!)  down the River Mersey.

 As Lady W said, “Really, don’t these people ever learn – blue and green should NEVER be seen without a colour in-between…”   

 Her Ladyship was reassured by Eldritch’s observation “ Don’t worry m’am – those settees will be soon be complemented…………. with huge swathes of f**king bullshit ………….”