Monday, 19 May 2008

HOW MANY ELDERLY DEMENTIA SUFFERERS COULD £63,000.00 FUND????



EVERYWHERE WE LOOK IN LIVERPOOL, THERE SEEMS TO BE A COMMUNITY SERVICE CLOSING OR CRITERIA CHANGING, THAT DIRECTLY AFFECTS THE MOST VULNERABLE PEOPLE IN OUR SOCIETY.

LIVERPOOL COUNCIL TAX PAYERS ARE OFTEN LEFT WANTING WHEN THEY TRY TO ACCESS THE SERVICES THEY SO BADLY NEED. THIS IS USUALLY BECAUSE LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL HAS CUT THE FUNDING FOR THE SERVICE THEY REQUIRE.

THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED ADMINISTRATION OF LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL, HAVE VOTED TO CLOSE DOWN THE HIGHLY ESTEEMED , MUCH NEEDED HOMES FOR THE ELDERLY AND THOSE WITH DEMENTIA, LEYTON DENE AND BOALER STREET.
NADIA STEWART SET THIS DECISION IN STONE WHEN SHE CROSSED THE FLOOR MAY 1ST 2008 TO BECOME A MUCH LOATHED,(That's what she used to think), LIBERAL DEMOCRAT.


THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS AND ESPECIALLY IT WOULD SEEM, WARREN BRADLEY, HAVE ALSO IGNORED WATCH DOG RECOMMENDATIONS AND INSISTED THE CITY COUNCIL TAX PAYERS ARE GOING TO PAY £63,000, TO SO CALLED "ASSISTANTS" OF THE 10 EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS.


WHAT THESE "ASSISTANTS" ACTUALLY DO FOR THEIR MONEY IS VERY UNCLEAR AS THEY DO NOT HAVE A JOB DESCRIPTION, INDEED THEIR ROLES ARE NOT CONSTITUTIONALLY RECOGNISED.


SO THEREFORE IT FOLLOWS IN A MODERN DEMOCRACY, SURELY, THAT THEY SHOULD NOT EXIST?.


WARREN BRADLEY HAS CLEARLY FORGOTTEN WHAT DEMOCRACY ACTUALLY MEANS.



IT WOULD SEEM THAT WHATEVER WARREN WANTS, WARREN GETS?

WARREN WANTS HIS FELLOW BACK SCRATCHES , TO BE PAID FOR ASSISTING IN A ROLE THEY ARE ALREADY PAID FOR AS THEY ARE ELECTED COUNCILLORS.


WARREN DOES NOT WANT TO SAVE THE LIVES OF NUMEROUS ELDERLY, INFIRM AND DEMENTIA SUFFERERS, WARREN DOES NOT WANT TO SAVE 80+ LOCAL JOBS.


READ BELOW FOR DAILY POST REPORT.


BUT THINK ON IF YOUR ABLE,

EVERYBODY NO MATTER HOW GOOD, NO MATTER HOW EVIL,

EVERYBODY GETS OLD!

TORI


Watchdog says NO to £63k of payouts to cllrs, Bradley says

May 19 2008 by Ben Turner, Liverpool Echo


MORE than £63,000 will be given to Liverpool councillors, despite an independent watchdog calling for their roles to be scrapped.

Council Leader Warren Bradley has ordered that 10 executive board assistants continue to receive £6,349 yearly allowances.

The move was today attacked as “a scandalous waste of money” by opposition councillors who said the posts were not constitutionally recognised.

But a defiant Cllr Bradley insisted the staff were worth every penny and played a invaluable role.

To meet government guidelines the council employs an independent panel of officials from the business, voluntary and personnel management sector to scrutinise and advise on the annual levels of allowances for councillors.

The panel spent 18 months scrutinising the council’s assistants attached to 10 executive members whose portfolios range from education and regeneration to the council leader himself.

Their investigation concluded there was “no clear evidence to measure the responsibility which can be assessed to justify the continued payment” of their of £6,349 yearly allowances.

But Cllr Bradley refused to act on the findings and pledged the assistants will continue to be paid.

Today the moved was attacked by Liverpool opposition chiefs.

Labour deputy leader Cllr Paul Brant said: “I think this is a scandalous waste of money on manufactured roles that are not constitutionally recognised. This money should be going elsewhere given all the cuts people are seeing.”

However, Cllr Bradley pointed out that the council had also rejected the independent panel’s advice that council allowances be raised across the board – with allowances frozen this year.

He said: “The assistant executive members do a fantastic job. My own assistant Cllr Tina Gould, for example, does a tremendous amount of work, including deputising for me on occasions when I’m double booked and leading on projects such as our cultural strategy.”

ben.turner@liverpool.com

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NADIA GETS TO USE MACCAS GOLDEN SHOWER

NADIA GETS TO USE MACCAS GOLDEN SHOWER

QUOTE OF THE YEAR 2007

Council leader Warren Bradley said that some individual councillors’ behaviour was “appalling” and not fitting of a democratic society.

FULL STORY

BUMBLING BRADLEY

FIREMAN'S INTERVIEW WITH ROGER PHILLIPS, AFTER COUNCIL RANKED THE WORST FINANCIALLY RUN

Roger: This is not a good report for us is it Warren?
Fireman:Well Roger we’ve got to put it into perspective really haven’t we and remember where Liverpool was and that’s not thinking back 10 years. Liverpool has come an awful long way. The people of Liverpool were asking for lower Council Tax and the Liberal Democrats have delivered that and they also wanted better services and you look at the services that are now delivered by Liverpool City Council. If we look at the most vulnerable either elderly or the Children’s Services the social care we are now delivering at a level that Liverpool has never delivered before. We also look at the bread and butter your schools, your sports centres, your libraries, One Stop Shops in communities, our parks, we’ve got 13 green flag parks. It’s like a new home to me when you get an old dilapidated derelict building you’ve got to bring it up to a standard and I think Liverpool City Council under the Liberal Democrats have certainly done that and I am certain if we did a survey of people in the City do you want Liverpool City Council to sit on £20m worth of reserves or do you want the City Council delivering front line services that affect the most vulnerable and people’s lives in the City. I think that they would vote with their feet and say that we support the policies of Liverpool City Council. We’ve got to look at the financial regulations put in by Government and if you want my opinion about this Roger it is purely political.
Roger: Well come on, you know the Audit Commission is not a political body
Fireman: Well with respect Roger and I would beg to differ on that
Roger: Well how can it be a political, it’s an independent organisation?
Fireman: We can say everything is independent to a certain extent but you know you look at what we’ve got at the moment in Liverpool and we’re delivering top quality services.
Roger: But the problem with this is that you’ve got an overall score rating of 2 which was adequate performance into 05, overall score in 06 was 2 which is adequate performance.
This year it is down to 1 below minimum requirements inadequate performance.
Fireman: Based around financial regulations…
Roger: Yes I’m talking about the financial…..
Fireman: Laid down by government. I mean that’s what you’ve got to remember. Don’t try and muddy the waters and say oh this is about Liverpool City Council and their overall performance. It’s not. You look at the issue that we’ve done about achievements. Liverpool scoring 3-4 on achievement at the moment through the Audit Commission.
Roger: I didn’t know that.
(EDs: Pitiful, just pitiful.)
Fireman: And we do seem to always go to the negatives when we’re looking for something like this.
Roger: The District Auditor was pretty negative about you wasn’t he and…
Fireman: No, I have got to say Roger I would love to have £50m in reserves. I would also love not to have to put additions of £7m into adult social care and £2-3m into children’s social care. The facts are we have got to do that because of the pressures that are on Liverpool at the moment.
Roger: So are other Councils….
Fireman: I’m not willing as Leader of this Council to take away care to the most vulnerable to allow it to sit in reserve. I am not willing to do that and I will go to the stake on that the people of the City. Liverpool now is only one of a handful of Councils up and down the country that is providing moderate care to the most vulnerable people in the City. Now to give people an idea of what moderate care is that is home care. These people who’ve got no family to support them and require a visit in the morning or a visit in the evening to make sure they’re ok to help them to take the pills, to make sure that they’ve got the food. Most Councils up and down this country have removed that care. Liverpool City Council is still allowing our most vulnerable people our sort of care. Now is that wrong, is that wrong?
Roger: Now no one would argue that’s wrong but everyone. But many people are affected by housing. Housing is really poor isn’t it. I mean you are so poor you’ve had to hand it over to a different group to run it.
Fireman: Well with respect Roger, with respect, you’ve got to know what the Housing Corporation have done and in partnership with the Government again it’s easy to say it’s the Council, in partnership with the Government we’ve tackled head on through the Pathfinder areas of the inner core of the City some of the housing inefficiencies of the City. That hasn’t happened over the last five years that’s happened over 30 or 40 years. The problems in Norris Green in housing were prevalent 30 or 40 years ago and weren’t tackled. As an Authority we’ve challenged what wasn’t tackled and we’ve challenged it head on and I opened a couple of weeks ago with Flo Clucas and Marilyn Fielding with Cobalt Housing the first phase of Norris Green. We’ve transformed that area and its got houses for sale and social housing in Norris Green that people are seeking to live in now. We’ve got in a core Edge Hill, Kensington, Kirkdale the same issues that have been there for 30 or 40 years that we’re tackling now hand in hand with the Government. I’m not taking the credit for it and the Government isn’t. We’ve got a schools’ programme that is second to none. Liverpool’s young people are now achieving at the national average. I want it higher than national average to give new opportunity but again I’ll say I’m not going to suit accountants’ financial regulations in London and leave £millions sitting in reserve while we have still got the challenges Liverpool has got and I think people you know.
Roger: Do you think it was a mistake to keep Council Tax down or freeze it over the past few years?
Fireman: Well isn’t it ironic Roger how last week John Healey said how Liverpool is charging £101 a head...
Roger: Because its inefficiencies….
Fireman: Well we have taken £150m worth of inefficiencies out of our budget over the last 10 years. We’ve kept Council tax down which is exactly what Government policy is and is exactly what John Healey is saying. Councillor Joe Anderson is saying something completely different to the people of Liverpool that he will put taxes up to build reserves to put in reserve well again this administration this Lib Dem administration is not going to tax for the sake of taxing to leave money sitting in reserve. We will build up the reserves over a period of years and then we will be able to tackle some of the other issues that we’ve got to do. We recognise the health inequalities. To improve health inequalities we’ve got to have a real stable economy offering real opportunity and raising the aspirations in them poorer communities. You cannot do that leaving millions and millions of pounds laying in reserves and this administration will continue the robust financial management that we’ve done. We’ll carry on delivering…
Roger: If it was that robust we wouldn’t have this problem of £20m overdrawn on Capital of Culture.
Fireman: Roger, lets put things into hindsight. We are still delivering front line services. We are still…
Roger: It’s about £20m overall that we’re short this year – now that’s not robust management
Fireman: But Roger we are going through a budget setting process. Every Local Authority up and down the country is in the same process as us. I remember reading about Wirral being £50m short. Other Local Authorities. I meet the core city leaders who are £40-£50m short exactly the same as Liverpool . And let’s not forget I haven’t come on here to knock the Government I’ve come on here to say that I believe we’ve got a robust financial programme in place that is going to deal with the shortfall. We’ve delivered year on year but I’ll say again I am not going to allow millions and millions of pounds to lay in reserve. Cut front line services to the most vulnerable and then say that’s acceptable. Nor as Leader of this Council am I going to allow Council Tax to go through the roof again which will drive the inability to bring further investment into this City. While the Lib Dems have been in control we’ve brought Council Tax down, we’ve brought renewed confidence and we’ve brought real investment that will bring opportunities to the most vulnerable and I think that is the most important and I think the people of this City will stand full square with us on that. I’m proud of what we’ve delivered in this City over the last 10 years and Capital of Culture is part of that."