Wirral Council officers ordered to cut costs of hiring lawyers (From Wirral Globe)
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Wirral Council officers ordered to cut costs of hiring lawyers
11:32am Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News Exclusive By Leigh Marles
Wirral Council officers ordered to cut costs of hiring lawyers
A REVIEW is underway into the high costs Wirral Council has racked-up seeking legal advice.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that in the last financial year, more than £160,000 has been spent by the authority “out-sourcing” legal issues.
The lawyers’ bill will hardly help Wirral’s current financial predicament - it was revealed last week the target figure for cost-cutting has rocketed from £38m to a staggering £77m.
The FoI request by a Wirral resident shows the highest sum was paid to Weightmans solicitors, which charged £80,931 for its services.
Second highest was Eversheds with £68,956. A further £11,500 was split between three other law firms.
Council leader Cllr Phil Davies has instructed chief officers to find ways to cut the bill.
Councillor Davies said: “Last year was very unusual with the suspension of three statutory officers and the director of technical services.
“We spent a lot more on external specialist advice than we would normally do.
"But we have to seek this advice to ensure we are legally watertight.
“However, I have asked our chief executive Graham Burgess to look into these issues and find ways of reducing the legal bill.”
The council also spent around £28,000 - excluding legal fees - hiring independent consultant Richard Penn to conduct a review into a critical Audit Commission investigation.
Under the Public Interest Disclosure Act, the commission probed the manner in which an out-sourced council contract for highways maintenance with the Colas group had been handled.
Technical services director David Green and three other chief officers were suspended from work while the inquiry was carried out.
Mr Penn’s final report was presented to the council on Christmas Eve and found Mr Green had no case to answer; he was invited to return to work in early January.
Two of the other suspended officers left the council's employment: finance chief Ian Coleman took early retirement while legal head Bill Norman opted for voluntary redundancy. A council inquiry had found Mr Norman also had no case to answer. The third officer remains suspended.
• The council’s cost-cutting rocketed after it was discovered a series of “bad budgets” has been allowed to go through adding £39m to the target figure for the next financial year.
Comments(14)
WirralAl
says...
4:28pm Wed 6 Feb 13
Hugo1008
says...
4:52pm Wed 6 Feb 13
What little information that has escaped the copious White Wash attempts, would seem to point to Large Scale Deceit, Bullying, Disinformation, Strange Accounting, Cruel Accusations against a handful of Whistle Blowers, and possible Auditing Maladministration, not to mention many costly mistakes carried out over a number of years.
All carried out under the Superb Governance of elected Councilors, but seemingly no Accountability or Culpability from any highly paid Officials or Councilors as yet.
What a curious state of affair's that has led Wirral Borough Council to be labeled as the Worst Managed Local Authority in the whole of GB and disturbing items of interest dropping out of the can of worms on an almost daily basis. Must be time for some serious examination, by responsible Government Inspectors.
PaulCa
says...
5:32pm Wed 6 Feb 13
Once a bully, always a bully. They can't help but flex their muscles and abuse their power...
Growl Tiger
says...
6:28pm Wed 6 Feb 13
In the past my comments too have been removed for reasons beyond me as I only tell the truth about my experiences with the Council which WBC (or whoever) find difficult to accept.
bigfoot
says...
6:59pm Wed 6 Feb 13
Why out source legal services? What was the Borough Solicitors Dept doing?
Growl Tiger
says...
7:40pm Wed 6 Feb 13
Positive thinker
says...
8:01pm Wed 6 Feb 13
Boredofthis2
says...
9:09pm Wed 6 Feb 13
PaulCa wrote:It was removed on the grounds of keeping this stuff vaguely interesting.
Globe very twitchy on this. Deleted a previous post. Not surprising given the tendency for those who should know better to get all litigious and reach for the chequebook we foolishly entrusted them with.
Once a bully, always a bully. They can't help but flex their muscles and abuse their power...
You say exactly the same thing, after every story. It gets repetitive after the 500th time or so, you see.
Accountability! Scandal! Whistleblowers! Yawn, yawn, yawn.
Go get a girlfriend, do us all a favour.
PaulCa
says...
11:06pm Wed 6 Feb 13
Boredofthis2 wrote:I don't think my wife and kids would be happy if I did that Mr BOT.
PaulCa wrote:It was removed on the grounds of keeping this stuff vaguely interesting.
Globe very twitchy on this. Deleted a previous post. Not surprising given the tendency for those who should know better to get all litigious and reach for the chequebook we foolishly entrusted them with.
Once a bully, always a bully. They can't help but flex their muscles and abuse their power...
You say exactly the same thing, after every story. It gets repetitive after the 500th time or so, you see.
Accountability! Scandal! Whistleblowers! Yawn, yawn, yawn.
Go get a girlfriend, do us all a favour.
Can I suggest you start looking for a position somewhere else? You're on a hiding to nothing you see, defending your employer / owner like some rabid, misguided, yappy, demented little pup.
Ultimately there'll be no thanks, plaudits or chocco buttons thrown down in payment for your misguided loyalty. You'll be disposed of cheaply or for nowt - set loose on the streets.
So there's a good boy Mr BOT, instead of scampering around, hiding behind your owner's petticoats, or coming on here barking and dribbling, and lurching back into this endless, perpetual, repetitive, tedious monologue, why don't you invest your spare time in something worthwhile, interesting and constructive?
In fact, shhhh. Come here boy. Sit!!! Stay.
Now listn. A word to the wise Mr BOT. The top brass are ripping the p1ss out of you behind your back every time you post on here, didn't you know?
"This idiot is still actually.... wait for it..... defending us!!!" Hahahaha :)
Boredofthis2
says...
10:50am Thu 7 Feb 13
PaulCa wrote:Now, now, no need to get all worked up. It's all a bit of fun.
Boredofthis2 wrote:I don't think my wife and kids would be happy if I did that Mr BOT.
PaulCa wrote:It was removed on the grounds of keeping this stuff vaguely interesting.
Globe very twitchy on this. Deleted a previous post. Not surprising given the tendency for those who should know better to get all litigious and reach for the chequebook we foolishly entrusted them with.
Once a bully, always a bully. They can't help but flex their muscles and abuse their power...
You say exactly the same thing, after every story. It gets repetitive after the 500th time or so, you see.
Accountability! Scandal! Whistleblowers! Yawn, yawn, yawn.
Go get a girlfriend, do us all a favour.
Can I suggest you start looking for a position somewhere else? You're on a hiding to nothing you see, defending your employer / owner like some rabid, misguided, yappy, demented little pup.
Ultimately there'll be no thanks, plaudits or chocco buttons thrown down in payment for your misguided loyalty. You'll be disposed of cheaply or for nowt - set loose on the streets.
So there's a good boy Mr BOT, instead of scampering around, hiding behind your owner's petticoats, or coming on here barking and dribbling, and lurching back into this endless, perpetual, repetitive, tedious monologue, why don't you invest your spare time in something worthwhile, interesting and constructive?
In fact, shhhh. Come here boy. Sit!!! Stay.
Now listn. A word to the wise Mr BOT. The top brass are ripping the p1ss out of you behind your back every time you post on here, didn't you know?
"This idiot is still actually.... wait for it..... defending us!!!" Hahahaha :)
Just to clarify though, soft lad, I don't think you heard me "defend" anyone. I couldn't care less about the council.
You lot on here just make me laugh with your Daily Mail, "how very dare they", tiresome outrage. So I'm just having a few pokes at you.
You boring, obsessive, buffoon.
No offence like, obviously.
Positive thinker
says...
6:38pm Thu 7 Feb 13
antisthenes
says...
11:50pm Thu 7 Feb 13
Senior Partner Waldorf J. Flywheel was introduced to Council Leaders today and later speaking to the press said Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel was looking forward to working with Council Leaders who shared the same values and culture as his firm.
'The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made'.
Hiutsuri
says...
7:09pm Sun 10 Feb 13
Cammell Laird Shipyard,Birkenhead have made a man redundant 1 week before death.
On informing them his only treatment was palliative Cammell Laird made the employee redundant.
The man died one week later.
His widow was therefore not entitled to death in service benefit.
Contact the following for further information.
Cammell Laird HR Manager Danny Hart
Cammell Laird Chief Executive John Syvret
MP:Frank Field / Alison McGovern
Union:Amicus / Unite
Growl Tiger says...
2:17pm Wed 6 Feb 13
As we have heard nothing about the demise of Mr David Taylor Smith (Deputy Director of Finance) who was suspended on 28 June last year presumably he is the “third officer” remaining suspended. Under a FOI request I note WBC said all the officers were suspend on full salaries so are we still paying a full remuneration to a senior officer who isn’t actively in post?
Dare I suspect that if there is a third officer still suspended there may be yet more legal fees accruing that haven’t been included in the out sourcing costs because they haven’t yet been finalised?