Tory leader demands Wirral Council administration resigns in wake of libraries report

Wirral Globe by Justin Dunn »


THE leader of Wirral's Conservative group is demanding the resignation of the council's ruling Lib-Lab administration after publication of the Charteris report into the now abandoned plan to close 11 libraries.

In a statement, Cllr Jeff Green said: "The Wirral public know that the Labour/Liberal Democrat Administration had been given a copy of the Sue Charteris Library Inquiry report on July 27 and that Wirral Council Officers were subsequently informed on September 29 that the Secretary of State’s decision on the administration’s library closure plan was going to be announced on October 1.

"The public will find it shocking, having now had an opportunity to read Sue Charteris’ report, that following their midnight meeting on September 29 the Labour/Liberal Democrat administration, having created so much distress to Wirral residents including some of our most vulnerable citizens and spent so much of Wirral residents' own council tax on developing and defending the their library closure plan, decided not to accept that through their own failings they had got the biggest decision in Wirral’s history wrong.

"The public will be disgusted that members of the Labour/Liberal Democrat Administration thought only of themselves and how to protect their own positions, carrying out the biggest political ‘U’ turn in Wirral history and, under the cover of secrecy and then seeking to characterise it as 'decisive leadership'.

"The contrast between the way the ruling Liberal Democrat/Labour administration has behaved over their library closure plan and the professional and inclusive way Sue Charteris conducted her inquiry could not be starker.

"Her report has laid bare the unwillingness of the Labour/Liberal Democrat Administration to listen to anyone who disagrees with them and the confused and incompetent decision-making process currently in use by council officers and members of the administration.

"The Wirral public will not forgive those council officers or members of the Labour/Liberal Democrat administration who have brought such a stinging repudiation from Sue Charteris, nor will the public forget that Sue Charteris has exposed them for seeking to impose these closures without even considering the needs of local communities, children or the elderly.

"The public of Wirral owe Sue Charteris a huge debt of gratitude, she has exposed the way this administration has treated the Wirral public and how they disregarded the needs of the most vulnerable in our community.

"This coalition has tried to take the public for fools and been exposed for what they are, they have lost any moral authority or any lingering trust of Wirral residents.

"They should just go – and go now."

Liscard Conservative Cllr Leah Fraser said: "This is an explosive report, not only into the disgraceful decision to close our libraries, but also in exposing the shadowy, secretive nature in which this Labour-led council operates.

"The report states that the council's leadership has now understanding of the range of services in libraries nor any kind of plan for the service.

"Nor had the needs of older people or the unemployed, both of whom are key users of the libraries in Wallasey Village and Seacombe, been considered let alone addressed.

"There is now only one honourable course of action for the people who got us into this mess - and that is their resignation."
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© copyright . Reproduced under fair use for the dual purposes of comment and news reporting
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Conservative leader Jeff Green's response to the libraries report

Wirral News by Liam Murphy

The leader of the Conservative opposition group has responded to the libraries report:

Cllr Jeff Green said the "public of Wirral owe Sue Charteris a huge debt of gratitude".

He added: "She has exposed the way this administration has treated the Wirral public and how they disregarded the needs of the most vulnerable in our community."

Cllr Green's comments:

'The Wirral public know that the Labour/Liberal Democrat Administration had been given a copy of the Sue Charteris Library Inquiry report on 27th July and that Wirral Council Officers were subsequently informed on 29th September that the Secretary of State's decision on the Administration's Library Closure Plan was going to be announced on the 1st October.

The public will find it shocking, having now had an opportunity to read Sue Charteris' report, that following their midnight meeting on the 29th September the Labour/Liberal Democrat Administration, having created so much distress to Wirral residents including some of our most vulnerable citizens and spent so much of Wirral residents own Council Tax on developing and defending the their library closure plan decided not to accept that through their own failings they had got the biggest decision in Wirral's history wrong. The public will be disgusted that members of the Labour/Liberal Democrat Administration thought only of themselves and how to protect their own positions, carrying out the biggest political 'U' turn in Wirral history and, under the cover of secrecy and then seeking to characterise it as 'Decisive Leadership'.

The contrast between the way the ruling Liberal Democrat/Labour Administration has behaved over their Library Closure Plan and the professional and inclusive way Sue Charteris conducted her Inquiry could not be starker. Her report has laid bare the unwillingness of the Labour/Liberal Democrat Administration to listen to anyone who disagrees with them and the confused and incompetent decision making process currently in use by Council Officers and members of the administration.

The Wirral public will not forgive those Council Officers or members of the Labour/Liberal Democrat Administration who have brought such a stinging repudiation from Sue Charteris, nor will the public forget that Sue Charteris has exposed them for seeking to impose these closures without even considering the needs of local communities, children or the elderly.

The public of Wirral owe Sue Charteris a huge debt of gratitude, she has exposed the way this administration has treated the Wirral public and how they disregarded the needs of the most vulnerable in our community. This coalition has tried to take the public for fools and been exposed for what they are, they have lost any moral authority or any lingering trust of Wirral residents. They should just go - and go now!!'
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© copyright Liam Murphy/Jeff Green. Reproduced under fair use for the dual purposes of comment and news reporting
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COUNCIL MEETING - TONIGHT

Council Meeting
Monday, 2nd November, 2009 6.15 pm

NOTICES OF MOTION
Notice has been given, in accordance with Standing Order 8(1), of motions on the following subjects.


1. MOTION: ADULT SOCIAL CARE - PUBLIC INTEREST DISCLOSURE
Proposed by Councillor Simon Mountney (7 minutes)
Seconded by Councillor Geoffrey Watt (3 minutes)

(1) This Council recognises that a number of concerns were raised by a Council ‘whistleblower’ in October 2007 under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, which in turn has resulted in the Audit Commission issuing Wirral Council with a Public Information Disclosure report.

(2) Council notes the findings of the report:
• Although 30 accredited providers are used by the Council only 12 contracts have been signed and returned by providers.
• No formal arrangements have been established for the contract monitoring of
supported living providers.
• There are no arrangements at present for feedback from service users where there is dissatisfaction with services or where quality standards have not been met.
• There remains a substantial risk that users receiving services from one of the
Councils service providers are being charged unfairly.
• The Council does not always know the actual contributions that the provider rquires service users to contribute for services they provide. Consequently the Council is not in a position to know whether the aggregate of charges levied on
service users by the Council and contributions required by the provider are in
compliance with the guidance of fairer charging. It is not clear who is currently ensuring that these service users are receiving adequate protection for the risk
of financial abuse.

(3) Council notes the fact that these findings had previously been raised with officers of the Council by the whistleblower and, whilst thanking the Audit Commission for the production of this report and bringing the matter out into the open, condemns the fact that the Council’s own procedures are so defective as to have needed the Audit Commission’s intervention to bring them to the notice of the Council and the public.

(4) Council believes that this PIDA report and the Department’s unwillingness to bring to the Council’s attention the whistleblower’s concerns regarding the treatment of those in our care demonstrates a lack of effective governance, management and leadership within the Department.

(5) Therefore this Council instructs the Chief Executive to appoint an independent person of sufficient standing and experience to investigate these matters fully, speedily and rigorously and to bring their findings to the Council’s attention, including any disciplinary action, if required, at the earliest possible occasion.

AMENDMENT
Proposed by Councillor Denise Roberts (7 minutes)
Seconded by Councillor Ron Abbey (3 minutes)

Delete all text after the end of section (2) and replace with the following:

(3) Council notes the serious implications of the findings and recognises that they point to serious management failings in adult social services in the past over a long period of time. Council acknowledges these findings and notes that the Director of Adult Social Services has prepared a report addressing these failings and their consequences and that this will be presented to Audit and Risk Management Committee on 3rd November.

(4) In relation to allegations of bullying of the whistleblower, Council notes and supports Cabinets decision to instruct the Director of Law HR and Asset Management to commence an investigation into the treatment of the individual, in relation to allegations of bullying. Council also notes that an outside, independent person will conduct this investigation.

(5) Council welcomes the Audit & Risk Management Committee recommendation to reimburse service users at Bermuda Road, Curlew Way and Edgehill Road Moreton, between April 2003 and February 2006.

(6) Council also notes that the audit and risk management committee will tomorrow (3 November 2009) receive a report providing further information with respect to the charging that took place between the period 1997 - 2003, and based on that will make a recommendation on whether re-imbursement will take place for that period.

AMENDMENT
Proposed by Councillor Leah Fraser (7 minutes)
Seconded by Councillor Jeff Green (3 minutes)

In addition to the existing Conservative Notice of Motion add the following:

(6) This Council recognises that the concerns raised by Mr Martin Morton in October 2007 under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, and earlier to Senior Officers, are both well-founded and serious.

(7) Council further notes that in the twelve months since the PIDA was published

(a) It has now been established that a vulnerable group of people with learning disabilities in the care of this Council were unlawfully financially abused by this Council over many years. The full extent of this financial abuse and the level of unlawfulness is yet to be established, however, the original figure of £78,499.62 first quoted by the Director of DASS is now recognised as woefully short of the total amount improperly obtained from the residents within our care.

(b) Despite the contributions made by Directors and the most senior officers in its production, the most recent report by Internal Audit has gone only part of the way to revealing the truth. What is much clearer is that much of the evidence presented by Mr Morton and all of his relevant knowledge of this ongoing financial abuse has been ignored or mistakenly omitted from the report.

(c) This Council continues to applaud the efforts of Mr Martin Morton in attempting to ensure that the full extent of the financial abuse and wrong doing is brought into the open

(d) Council expresses its concern that the Cabinet member for Adult and Social Care is yet to make a full comment to the Audit committee or Council regarding how aware she was of this situation and why she had not taken any action prior to the publication of the PIDA report.

(e) Therefore this Council requests that the Chief Executive, in conjunction with the three party leaders selects a person of suitable standing, who is totally independent and fully qualified to carry out a full public inquiry into the PIDA report, in order to draw this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.

Right of reply: Councillor Simon Mountney (7 minutes)

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© copyright Wirral Borough Council. Reproduced under fair use for the dual purposes of comment and news reporting
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EXCLUSIVE: Wirral Tory leader piles pressure on council law chief over libraries report

Wirral Globe - by Justin Dunn »

WIRRAL Council's head of law is coming under increasing pressure to explain why he excluded the leader of the local Tory group from seeing a confidential report into the library closure programme.

The Conservatives were the only political party on the council not to be shown the contents of the document produced by government-appointed inspector Sue Charteris following a local inquiry in June.

In a letter, which is sure to inflame already strained relations between the Tories and the council's head of law Bill Norman, group leader Jeff Green demands to know what criteria was applied by Mr Norman when considering who was deemed appropriate to read the report.

In all, fourteen people including Mr Norman were allowed to see the report, which is widely believed to be highly critical of the council.

They were five members of the Labour and Liberal Democrat ruling cabinet committee and nine senior council officers.

The names of all those individuals were revealed in an email from Mr Norman to all councillors and senior officers on Tuesday evening, in which he said he had no objection to its contents being passed on to the press and public.

The council was sent the report on July 27 for "fact checking". The cabinet made its surprise announcement that it was scrapping the closures programme on September 30.

Mr Norman received his letter from Cllr Green by email today. The Globe has also obtained a copy.

In it, Cllr Green writes: "I have raised with you and the Chief Executive on many occasions my concerns over how this matter is being handled.

"I have also asked you why Lesley [Rennie, Tory group deputy leader] and I were not deemed suitable to be included in the fact checking exercise and my sincere belief that our knowledge (charged as we are with representing the largest number of Wirral residents) was essential to checking any of the facts Sue Charteris wanted scrutinising in her report.

"Now you have provided a list of those you did deem suitable to see this report, can I to begin with, ask you to provide me with your reasoning (based on the list you have provided) regarding:

"What role you thought [head of tourism and marketing] Emma Degg should play in the fact checking exercise? (Of course I understand that Emma develops and manages the council’s media strategy – but if she was given a copy of the report for that reason it would suggest that it was sent to her to provide expertise on a handling strategy rather than any direct expertise she could provide on the accuracy of any facts contained in Sue Charteris’ report).

"What role you thought the Cabinet Member for the Environment should play in the fact checking exercise? (Of course I understand Gill [Gardiner] is the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group – but if she was given a copy of the report for that reason it would suggest that it was sent to her because of her political position rather than any expertise she could provide on the facts contained in the report).

"I would also welcome your guidance on what the current policy is regarding officers who have told me direct untruths in that a number of the people listed below have told me directly that they had not seen the report and one listed below told me they had seen it but it did not contain recommendations?"

Cllr Green goes on to ask "whether external legal or professional services were used in developing the Council’s response to the draft report?

"Whether the Council has had any direct communication with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport regarding the council’s response to the draft report and when an announcement (prior to the Cabinet’s change of policy) was due or would be made?

"I would also like to know from you whether you have checked with the people listed as having seen the report under the 'obligation of confidentiality' whether they have shared the content of the report or its recommendations with anyone and if they had what the consequences would be?"

The Globe has been asking similar questions of the council since Tuesday morning and last night received the following statement in response:

"The Director of Law, Human Resources and Asset Management shared the initial draft of the report with the senior Members and Officers who were required to provide information or assistance to enable him to respond to Sue Charteris on the content of the draft report.

"He would like to emphasise that this decision was absolutely not intended to be a reflection on any individual Member’s ability to respect confidences."
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© copyright Wirral Globe. Reproduced under fair use for the dual purposes of comment and news reporting
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