Peel have issued their press release following the decision last night of Wirral Council's planning committee to approve the £4.5 billion 30 year Wirral Waters scheme.

If you haven't seen it, the story was in the Daily Post today.

A FORMER senior Labour cabinet member has confirmed he will be seeking to regain a place on the council - three years after he lost his seat.

LABOUR has (finally) come out fighting with a scathing attack against the Conservative leader of Wirral Council, Jeff Green accusing him of "fiddling while Wirral burns".

The rhetoric is neither here nor there, but the debate is needed given the financial problems facing us on a local and national level. Maybe it's just me, but Labour had seemed pretty quiet locally in the aftermath of the election and subsequent formation of the Tory/Lib-Dem coalition (mirroring the national political situation) and I'm glad to see some actino on this front.

Wirral's libraries saga and the Strategic Asset Review were an attempt at dealing with some of these problems, but I'm unconvinced that the problem has changed significantly (so far).

Labour have accused the Government of making £9.5million of cuts to Wirral Council's budget which are "heavily targeted at Wirral's most deprived areas".

They say there will be £5.5m cut from the revenue budget and a further £4m from the capital budget - their breakdown of the cuts is below the main text of the release.

If true, these will represent a major issue for the incumbent Con-Lib coalition, at a time when the budget has a black hole tens of millions of pounds over the next few years.

See below:

HUMOUR is tough in politics, especially following a change of administration it seems.

Cabinet at Wallasey town hall was busy last night, with parents, pupils, teachers and others interested in plans for a new academy in Birkenhead. See the Daily Post story here for more on this.

But one of the more illuminating exchanges took place before the meeting actually started and was between new council leader Jeff Green and former leader Steve Foulkes.

AS Wirral's Tories prepare for the first cabinet in 24 years led by Conservatives on Wirral Council, Labour has started to defend their own record while in power - and attack those who have taken over from them.

Labour group leader Steve Foulkes has hit out at Tory claims that the council was left massively in debt by its previous administration(s). What is not in doubt is that in this "Age of Austerity" cuts will be coming, and the arguments will rage about whose fault it is, and over the priorities about what should be protected when those cuts come.

Anyway, we've heard from the Conservatives and Lib Dems as they took power with their "Progressive Partnership", now read the full text of Labour's press release, below:

I was able to witness Jeff Green and Simon Holbrook, leaders of the Conservative and Lib Dem groups on Wirral Council, signing their partnership agreement to form Wirral's first Tory-led administration since 1986.

The deal sees the creation of a cabinet with seven Conservatives and three Lib Dems, led by Jeff Green. Simon Holbrook retains his position as deputy leader.

The full agreement, "Wirral Progressive Partnership", is below:

THEY should think about adding it to the job description.

"Mayor of Wirral wanted. Must have joke book bulging with cheap gags that will keep audiences groaning for a whole year".

Conservative Councillor Andrew Hodson carried out 568 engagements and raised an impressive £84,000 for charity during his year as Mayor but I'll remember him as much for the jokes which left me shaking my head and reaching for my pen and notepad.

And he didn't disappoint on his last night in the spotlight at Wallasey Town Hall.

Making his final speech, Cllr Hodson said many people had asked him how he felt about handing over the chains of office to Lib Dem Cllr Alan Jennings.

It was, he said, a time of mixed emotions, "something like watching your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your brand new car".

Groan.

Fortunately for me, our new Mayor looks to be cut from the same comedy (if not political) cloth.

Dressed in his shiny new robes and the Mayoral chain, Cllr Jennings said it was an honour to become Mayor and he was humbled to be chosen for the role.

Then I started to suspect we had another comedian on the stage.

"When you become Mayor", he said, "Fellow councillors say nice things about you and you don't have to be dead."

A statement of fact. Can't argue with that.

He said it had been difficult to adjust to having car doors opened for him while Deputy Mayor, and at one point his driver had jokingly threatened to put the child lock on.

Then he started to tell a story about driving through Saughall Massie and seeing a man standing in a field.

On the way back he was still there, so Cllr Jennings decided to stop the car and see what the problem was.

"This is serious stuff", I thought. "Maybe he saved a man's life while being driven back from an engagement?".

I started to think of the headlines. It was definitely a front page story.

Then the punchline came.

"He said 'don't you know Nobel prizes are only awarded to people out standing in their field?"

Groan. Enjoy your year Cllr Jennings.

As I watch David Cameron and Nick Clegg, their deal sealed and taking over Government, my own thoughts turn to how - or whether - this could affect the administration of Wirral.

By Sunday, I'm told, all three main parties in the peninsula had met to discuss the ramifications of the local election result.

You can see the full result here, but the break down is that the Tories remain the largest party having increased their number of council seats to 27 (but still seven short of the 34 needed for an overall majority), Labour moved into second place from 20 to 24 and the Lib Dems dropped five seats and now have 15. Despite this, the Lib Dems hold the balance of power - Steve Foulkes said in the run-up to the election Wirral could be a microcosm of the national picture and has been proved right so far. The question is, how closely will that observation mirror the events unfolding at Westminster.

THERE appears to be some confusion about the tunnel tolls for some of the candidates answering readers' question in this week's Wirral News.

Asked "what are your views on tunnel tolls", Labour and the Liberal Democrats seem to be particularly confused - while pretty much every other candidate is opposed to them.

Let's start with the most senior politician up for election: Angela Eagle (Lab) in Wallasey. She, like others is glad the tolls were frozen this year, and goes on to warn voters against being taken in by easy, what might be characterised as perhaps potentially vote-grabbing solutions.