To receive the written reports of the Leader and Cabinet Members and receive questions and answers on any of those reports in accordance with Standing Orders 10(2)(a) and 11.

(There is no report from the Chair of the Policy and Performance Coordinating Committee as not all the Policy and Performance Committees have met).

The Leader of the Council introduced the Cabinet Portfolio summary reports of all the Cabinet Members.

Councillor Blakeley requested an adjournment for 15 minutes to enable members to digest the additional document which had been circulated from the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and also the statement of the Chief Executive in relation to item 11 on the agenda, ‘Notices of Motion’.

With the agreement of the Council the Mayor then adjourned the meeting at 6.45pm.

The meeting resumed at 7.00pm.

The Mayor then requested questions to the Leader on his summary report. The Leader responded to questions from Councillors Stapleton, Roberts, Gilchrist and Harney and made a number of comments, including:

·  He agreed that it was very reassuring to hear the comments of the Corporate Peer Challenge Team, which was made up of Members of the three main political parties and vindicated the focus of putting the Council on a sustainable financial footing and addressing issues of corporate governance.

·  Acknowledgement had also been made at the LGA Conference with Wirral seen as leading the way on the whole sector led improvement model and he paid tribute to the tremendous effort officers led by the Chief Executive.

·  He was pleased with the announcement made at the LGA Annual Conference that Wirral was one of only nine councils in the country to pilot the, ‘Whole Place Community Budget’ scheme.

·  The proposed Combined Authority would focus on economic development, regeneration and transport; it was not a proposal to recreate the former Merseyside County Council under another name. The aim was for it to be in place by April 2014 and an extraordinary Council meeting would need to be held in September to progress the proposal.

·  He had, together with the Mayor of Liverpool, attended a meeting in Brussels with Commissioner Johannes Hahn on changes in structural funding which would mean a cut of 60% in the funding allocation for Merseyside. This cut was indefensible given the importance of European across the Merseyside area.

·  He acknowledged the lateness of the advice from the Chief Executive in respect of the Notice of Motion on whistle-blowing but Mr Burgess had been taking legal advice up to the last minute and it was only right that the Council had had an adjournment to digest the written advice received.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Phil Davies be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor Chris Jones on her report and her response to a question from Councillor McLaughlin included the following comments:

·  There were approximately 40,000 carers on Wirral, 12.5% of the population, of which 1,500 had been identified as young carers, some of whom were as young as 4 years of age. The ‘Caring for our Carers’ strategy, currently out for consultation, would improve ways in identifying carers and improving links with education and training and forging better working relationships with GPs and professionals.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Chris Jones be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor Adrian Jones on his report and his responses to questions from Councillors Green, Walsh, Gregson and Norbury included the following comments:

·  The cost of IT expertise was a bargain at the price and the money to be spent on IT infrastructure had been agreed in January 2010 but not been followed up. Most of the equipment was now three years older and had worsened because of the delay. One of Cheshire West and Chester Council’s IT Manager’s with expertise in Social Care systems was working with Wirral Council’s Children and Young People’s Department and Adult Social Services Department two days a week.

·  It was absolutely necessary to update the Council’s IT, especially with Microsoft discontinuing support for XP in 2014.

·  He was pleased that eight apprentices had been taken on by the Parks and Countryside Service.

·  He agreed that the Government changes in welfare reform were devastating for many on Wirral.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Adrian Jones be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor Tony Smith on his report and his responses to questions from Councillors Clements, Abbey and Norbury included the following comments:

·  He would respond to Councillor Clements in writing and ensure this was circulated to all Councillors.

·  Improvements still needed to be made on the figure of 80% of safeguarding assessments being completed within timescale.

·  Savings of £6.3m were on target to be delivered.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Tony Smith be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor Phil Davies who, in the absence of Councillor Hackett, responded to questions from Councillors Rennie, Williamson and Whittingham. His response included the following comments:

·  A draft Local Development Framework was being produced for consultation to be agreed in the early part of 2014.

·  Central Government was requiring all Councils to provide sites for gypsies and travellers and no potential sites could yet be ruled in or out as all views would be taken into account before any final decision.

·  He welcomed the £5m Regional Growth Fund monies supporting the offshore wind engineering supply chain. Although the manufacture of turbines took place in Germany and they were then transported to Cammel Laird, there was no reason why the turbines could not be manufactured at Cammel Laird.

·  He paid tribute to Kevin Adderley and his team for all their work on the Wirral Waters Enterprise Zone which had been provisionally awarded £5.5m of Local Infrastructure funding.

·  Significant interest had also been expressed from automotive suppliers in the Mobil site in Birkenhead.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Pat Hackett be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor Brian Kenny on his report and his responses to questions from Councillors Lewis, Cox, Brightmore and Crabtree included the following comments:

·  He hoped that by year two, 35,000 households would have subscribed to the garden waste service, the target for the first year had already been exceeded with 30,000 households signed up.

·  Households could still put a small amount of garden waste in their green bins and currently there was no question of any Wirral resident being penalised for doing so.

·  Nobody had been forced to pay for their garden waste to be collected and of those that had subscribed, over 80% had done so online at a charge of £30.

·  Any effect on flytipping following the introduction of the charge was being evaluated and he hoped that people would not resort to flytipping. He would encourage residents to home compost.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Brian Kenny be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor Ann McLachlan on her report and her responses to questions from Councillors Lewis, Kelly, Whittingham and Bill Davies included the following comments:

·  The Labour Group had appointed assistant Cabinet Portfolio holders, they were not within the Constitution but the appointments had been made by the Labour Group to assist their members in getting more involved.

·  Once Constituency Committees were up and running commissioning could be devolved and then more resources.

·  Officer support to Policy and Performance Committees included the Scrutiny Support Team based within the Policy Unit and briefing packs had been provided to all Committee members.

·  The Performance Management Framework would apply consistent methodology on a monthly cycle to address under performance, targeting key priorities identified by Strategic Directors.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Ann McLachlan be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor Chris Meaden on her report and her responses to questions from Councillors Fraser, Mooney, Blakeley and Green included the following comments:

·  She paid tribute to all parks’ Friends groups for their invaluable contribution in helping to maintain and run Wirral’s parks.

·  The reduction in Government funding had unfortunately meant a reduction in the number of such items as tennis court nets being purchased.

·  The figures for not going forward with PACSPE would be supplied in writing and circulated to all Councillors.

·  The team of leisure consultants, V4, had come up with a number of suggestions in respect of the review of leisure centres, sports development and golf courses and it was hoped to present their findings to Cabinet in September.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Chris Meaden be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor Harry Smith. No questions were posed, and it was then –

Resolved – That the report of Councillor Harry Smith be noted.

Questions were then invited for Councillor George Davies on his report and his responses to questions from Councillors Leech, Kelly, Gilchrist and Blakeley included the following comments:

·  He couldn’t give an exact figure as to exactly how many three bedroom Wirral Partnership Homes properties were empty but it was at least 240. There were 13 housing associations across Wirral and there were probably about 400 empty properties on Wirral.

·  The New Homes Bonus was expected to generate an income of around £3.1m.

·  He welcomed the extension of the Affordable Housing Programme to 2017/18 and new provision, including those units at Town Meadow Lane, Moreton.

Resolved – That the report of Councillor George Davies be noted.