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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Wirral libraries inquiry: Tories quiz borough solicitor over access to confidential report

Wirral Globe - by Justin Dunn »

WIRRAL’S borough solicitor has found himself at the centre of a political storm by revealing the controversial decision over who was allowed to see a top secret report into the library closure programme was his alone.

Bill Norman told a special meeting of the council on Monday that he had used his own judgement as to who he deemed “appropriate” to be allowed access to the draft report by government inspector Sue Charteris.

Asked to name the councillors and town hall officers who had seen the report, Mr Norman - the council’s director of law and also its monitoring officer - said he wanted time to “reflect” on his reply.

Opposition Tories believe all members of the Lib-Lab coalition cabinet have seen the document, widely believed to be critical of its approach to the proposed closure of 11 Wirral libraries.

They called the meeting on Monday night to discuss the administration's U-turn on the closures, which was announced on the evening of September 30.

The Conservative group believes the administration reversed its plan because of what it had read.

But the Lib-Lab administration insists its decision was made because the inquiry had dragged on so long that any savings to be made this year had been lost.

Council leader Steve Foulkes said the proposed savings would have been reinvested as part of a £20m plan to build 13 multi-purpose neighbourhood centres throughout Wirral.

“That opportunity has now gone,” said Cllr Foulkes, during a stormy debate which lasted almost three hours, in which he also accused Tories of calling the meeting not out of any concern for libraries but to make “political capital”.

There is still no date for when Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw will publish his decision, based on the final report, and the Conservatives fear it may never be released.

Moreton Conservative Cllr Chris Blakeley has now written to the borough solicitor seeking confirmation that it was his lone decision on who was allowed to see the report.

Wirral Council had not responded at the time the Globe went to press.

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© copyright . Reproduced under fair use for the dual purposes of comment and news reporting
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