Councillors stage walk out

It may seem a pointless and petty move to some, and I am not going to set myself up as an apologist for the ruling coalition - but there was a point to their decision to walk out.

They had first attempted to move a motion calling for the meeting to close. The motion was:

"This Committee notes that the Conservative Group have withdrawn their call in of the
Cabinet decision of September 24 on the Sail Project, which would have given them the
opportunity to question the Cabinet decision, to call witnesses to support their case, and to allow the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to report back to Cabinet before any final
decision was made.

"This Committee further notes that by withdrawing their call in objecting to the decision of
Cabinet, The Conservative Group have, in effect, notified their agreement that the decision can go ahead and this is now a resolved item which will now be implemented, as reflected in Cabinet Minute 129.

"In view of the fact that the outcome of this meeting, or the statements of witnesses, cannot now affect the decision taken by Cabinet, we believe that it would be unfair to those members of the public present to continue with this meeting as a meeting of the Overview and Scrunity Committee in the belief that it has any power to affect the decisions taken.

"This Committee does not wish to take part in the politicisation of the Scrutiny Process, which is against the Council's constitution, and therefore moves that this meeting now be formally closed in order to allow the Conservative members of the Committee time to debate this issue and talk to their constituents outside the formal processes of the Council."

Not surprisingly, this was rejected by Cllr John Hale who as chair of the committee said the meeting had been called in accordance with the council's rules and would not let the Labour and Lib-Dems - who have a majority - to vote on it. He ruled their motion out of order.

At that point Cllr Ann McLachlan, who was acting as the spokeswoman for the Labour and Lib-Dem members, said they would leave and they did. To my certain knowledge at least one of those members made it to the pub shortly afterwards.

The meeting however, continued, with Conservative Cllr Gerry Ellis, saying he was most
concerned to influence the views of the senior council officers who had to remain. Cllr Ellis pointed out that it was these people who had significant influence on policy decisions, and although he expressed some mild disappointment that, in his view Labour and Lib-Dem councillors had walked out (thereby politicising the meeting themselves) he wanted to direct his opinions at those senior officers who write the reports on which Cabinet bases its decisions.

The Sail Project has had a troubled history at times, and late last year, the hotel element of the scheme was dramatically halved in size and plans for an underground car park abandoned. See here, for just one recent example.

The hotel would be built on the Dee Lane car park and the developers want to use the car park next to the sailing school to make up for the loss of car parking - a move which has infuriated a number of people.

Cllr Hale cited three main reasons for his opposition to the development:  that the developers of the the Sail Project "are not up to it", the loss of car parking spaces and potential for creating traffic congestion, and the design of the hotel which he described as "awful".

Cllr Hale said: "It looks like a 1960s block of flats. What concerns me is that  officers and the Cabinet want to give us a hotel in West Kirby, when we don't want one."

 Cllr Geoffrey Watt spent close to an hour with a detailed description of the process through which the Sail Project had come about, and again emphasised the local opposition to the scheme.

He said: "The whole point is this has got to be a good deal for West Kirby and for Wirral. I do not believe it is a good deal."

There were two presentations from members of the public who emphasised the impact on current lake users - who travel from across the Europe to use the marine lake - as well as traffic, parking and the open aspect of the site as it currently is.

Some two hours after the Labour and Lib-Dem councillors had left Cllr Hale informed the members of the public present that they would have to leave as the next part of the meeting was "exempt".

For the uninitiated, this means that it would deal with financial and private information which the council can keep secret, for example because it affects commercial interests or is about an individual.

Cllr Hale said he was unhappy about this, and before the public left said he was sorry the other two parties had politicised the meeting.