Motions to Council - Coroners and Justice Bill

The new(ish) system in Liverpool is that while any councillor can submit a motion for Full Council, they won't all get selected for debate. The ones that don't will still end up being discussed and voted on - but at a committee rather than at the Full Council meeting. This one (below) is one I wrote with Cllr Colin Eldridge. We expect it to be discussed at the Overview and Scutiny Committee in mid March.

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Council notes the progress of the Government’s ‘Coroners and Justice Bill’.

Council, whilst welcoming the strengthening of the laws surrounding child pornography, and witness protection believes that the proposed legislation leaves open the opportunity for the Government to possibly amend the data protection act.

Clause cl.152 if passed would potentially allow ministers to make 'Information sharing orders’ that can alter any Act of Parliament and cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to use information obtained for one purpose to be used for another.

Council believes this to be illiberal and threatens the civil liberties of Liverpool residents.

Council calls on the Chief Executive to write to the Merseyside MPs asking them to oppose this element of the Coroners & Justice Bill.

Citizenship Ceremony

Today I was the "dignitary" at one of the Liverpool Citizenship Ceremonies. These take place (usually) at the register office and are the ceremony at which people officially are granted their UK citizenship. My job was to make a short speech and then hand over certificates and some lovely Liverpool medals. There were about 25 people taking part , plus some friends and relatives of course. Everyone was dressed up and looked really "smiley". I have sat and watched one of these ceremonies before, but this was the first time I had been booked in as the speaker. It was a lovely experience and I am glad I'll be there again in April. Actually I may be there before then as there is going to be a special ceremony at the Town Hall in March with Lord Goldsmith as the speaker.

Garston Hospital update

This is a quick update on the situation re plans for the rebuilding/development/demolition of Garston Hospital (Sir Alfred Jones Memorial). The PCT (local health service) has put in two planning applications. One is for the demolition and building work and the other is for use of the site for the demolition (car park for workers etc). There is still time for comments re the second one. However there has since been an application to English Heritage for "spot listing" which is basically a way of getting listed building status quickly and therefore stopping certain types of activity - including major changes and demolition. The result of this should be through in six weeks or so. If the building is spot listed the PCT is now saying they will look elsewhere in South Liverpool for a site for the services they were going to start running on the Garston site. I am reporting this with no comment as I don't know how realistic that statement is as it clearly depends on what other sites are avaialable in the area that fit the various criteria identified for that level of provision. I'll be keeping in touch with these developments and will update via the blog when I can.

Sainsbury's planning application - Booker Avenue

Sainsbury's have let us know that they are withdrawing their planning application for the site on Booker Avenue. Several residents were in touch about this so hopefully this news will be good news for those who were worried about parking and traffic. They can of course re submit another application later on and I'll post details here if that happens.

Meeting the police

Along with a small group of other councillors I am meeting the Chief Constable later this week.

I'm then, with a separate group of residents, meeting the neighbourhood inspector for Garston, Speke and Cressington next week.

If you've got any issues you think I should raise, please let me know. You can post here or use my council e mail which is paula.keaveney@liverpool.gov.uk

Why can't the bus companies get it right

I am a great supporter of public transport. I don't own a car so I get around by bus or train (or sometimes by cycling). But I have a major winge about the bus companies, particularly on services in the mornings. Regularly now if someone gets on to a bus and needs change (and we are often talking about 40 pence change here) the driver says he/she doesn't have enough coins to give it out. So people end up paying more for their fare than they should do. It surely can't be beyond the wit of Arriva (and it's on their services I've seen this happen the most) to give their drivers enough of a float at the beginning of the day. Imagine if you had a shop. You wouldn't take the chance of waiting for customers to provide your change - you'd have the float when you opened up. The same should be true of the bus companies. I've seen this happen too many times now for it to be a one off so I have banged off some letters this morning. After all why should people using public transport have to pay over the odds because of a management failing?

Overdoing the diary!

I've always had a tendency to take on too many things and this Thursday just gone was a case in point.

Luckily for my sanity though even I realised I couldn't possibly do everythig I was meant to and so managed to get some things moved.

I was meant to be marking some student work, doing a screen test for an Edge Hill University DVD, taking part in two heavy meetings, doing a live book review on local radio and presenting a research paper at Liverpool University. Looking at the list earlier in the week the perils of saying yes to too many things became clear.

I shifted some things and got to the end of the day (relieved to have got the research paper out of the way) but I think in future I am going to ask more questions before I agree to things.