2nd May 2011
Dear Steve,
I hope you have been enjoying this election campaign. As we reach the final few days and as you are seeking to lead the Council once more, I wanted to give you this opportunity to publish your Party’s plans, should this happen.
Indeed, I, and many others, have been disappointed that your Party has said so little of your plans. The only policies I can divine from your voting pattern in Council and from what you have actually published are to scrap the ‘deep clean’ of our shopping centres and to reintroduce parking charges after 3pm in all Council car parking spaces.
For this reason, I would ask you to urgently reveal your Party’s plans so that the electorate can make an informed choice ahead of the vote on Thursday.
1. Would you continue the implementation of our Action Plan to tackle the weaknesses and failures in the Council’s adult social care which occurred during your time in office, as revealed by the inspection report of the Care Quality Commission?
2. So far you have been silent about my decision to offer Martin Morton re-employment with Wirral Borough Council. Knowing now how he was treated while you were Leader of the Council are you going to join me in apologising to him for the way he was treated and do you support my decision?
3. Given the support for our policy by business and trader organisations, can you explain how widely you consulted on your plan to reintroduce car parking charges after 3pm?
4. Your Party’s national Local Government Spokesman has described the Council Tax freeze as ‘a gimmick’. Do you agree?
5. I have given a commitment that no library or leisure centre will close while I am Leader of the Council. Can you give the same commitment?
6. Within weeks of gaining power in Liverpool, your Party scrapped free swimming for children and pensioners. As you know, because of action my administration took, Wirral has retained both. If you become Leader, would you maintain that policy?
7. So far, your Group has refused to reduce their allowances. If you were to regain control of Wirral Council, would you increase allowances paid to Cabinet members to the level they were under your previous administration?
8. As you know, we have opened up Cabinet by reducing the number of reports marked as exempt and we were one of the first to meet the request of Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to publish all spending of £500 or more. Would a Labour-led Council go back to the way things were before you were removed from office?
9. Your candidate and councillor in Liscard claimed we have ‘cancelled’ help for Liscard. Do you accept this is wrong and, if not, can you explain exactly what it is we are supposed to have cancelled?
10. I am proud of the fact that we included every part of Wirral in our consultation exercise and we have made this approach standard operating procedure for the Council. Given your Party’s hostility to the last consultation exercise, would you give all of Wirral’s communities and public an opportunity to share their views with the Council again this year?
11. You opposed the early voluntary retirement and voluntary severance given to 1,100 staff and have previously said you will ‘re-employ’ a number of senior managers. Given that all of 1,100 staff who have left the Council volunteered to leave and we have reduced the number of senior managers in the Council by 25%, which ones will you re-employ, in which departments and at what cost?
I hope you will take this opportunity to explain to the people of Wirral what your vision is
for our communities and people and what you would do,
Leader of the Council
Councillor Jeff Green
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Town Hall
Brighton Street
Wallasey
Wirral CH44 8ED
0151 691 8652
jeffgreen@wirral.gov.uk
www.wirral.gov.uk
www.leaderofwirral.com
www.twitter.com/cllrjeffgreen
