The Chair welcomed everybody to the meeting and noted that apologies had been received from Councillors John Hale, Anita Leech, Julie McManus, Tracey Pilgrim and Chris Spriggs.

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Members are reminded that they should also declare, pursuant to paragraph 18 of the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules, whether they are subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

Members were asked to consider whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Members were reminded that they should also declare whether they were subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

No such declarations were made.

Attached to the agenda are:

·  Call-in procedure (page 1)

·  Call-in form (pages 3 – 5)

·  Cabinet Report of 27 June, 2016 (pages 7 – 24)

·  Cabinet minute 20 (pages 25 – 26)

In accordance with the procedure agreed by Council on 27 June, 2016, the Chair referred to the decision of Cabinet (minute 20 (27 June, 2016) refers) relating to a proposed monthly Council publication containing community and public service information.

The decision had been called in by Councillors Jeff Green, Ian Lewis, Tom Anderson, Bruce Berry, Chris Blakeley, Eddie Boult, David Burgess-Joyce, Wendy Clements, David Elderton, Gerry Ellis, John Hale, Paul Hayes, Andrew Hodson, Kathy Hodson, Tracey Pilgrim, Cherry Povall, Lesley Rennie, Les Rowlands, Adam Sykes, Geoffrey Watt and Steve Williams, on the following grounds –

‘To date the Secretary of State has issued Directions under section 4A of the Local Government Act 1986 to 11 Councils relating to Council publications. All 11 Directions have included references to the contravention of frequency of publication specifically: “where local authorities do commission or publish newsletters, newssheets or similar communications, they should not issue them more than quarterly.”

The Royal Borough of Greenwich has spent £48,000 in legal fees defending its publication ‘Greenwich Times’ which the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) argued contravened the Recommended Code of Practice for Local Authority Publicity. The Greenwich Times was published for the last time by Greenwich Council on 28th June 2016 following an agreement with the DCLG to abide by the Code of Practice for Local Authority Publicity. We believe it is a costly miscalculation for the Labour Cabinet to believe it is somehow above Government guidance. 

Within the Cabinet report and at the subsequent Cabinet meeting there was absolutely no consideration given to the variety of successful community publications that operate across Wirral. We believe this shows a complete disregard for the years of hard work that a great number of community activists have given to Wirral and jeopardises the invaluable goodwill that the Council relies upon to deliver its significant community engagement agenda. 

We believe this is not the time for novices to the newspaper industry to be launching a new print title. Wirral has two established, free, independent newspaper titles the Wirral News - circulation 28,095 copies and Wirral Globe total circulation 97,368 copies (71% of households). The Labour Administration cannot control what these papers print and we are concerned that this may be the driving force behind the creation of this Town Hall Pravda.

The Government has shown it is committed to ensuring that the independent free press does not face unfair competition from municipal publications. We believe Cabinet’s disregard for the Recommended Code of Practice for Local Authority Publicity is tantamount to Labour playing fast and loose with Council Taxpayers money.’

The Chair then invited the lead signatory to address the Committee for up to five minutes

Explanation of Call-in by the Lead Signatory – Councillor Jeff Green

Councillor Green acknowledged that the Council should indeed be keeping residents informed and was delighted with the efforts made to do this through its website and social media. He expressed surprise that the local Messenger publications had only been consulted after Cabinet  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.