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Wirral Council road safety malpractice

Questions that need to be answered

  • Did Council officer Mark Smith and Cabinet Member Stuart Whittingham lie to conceal Wirral Council's poor road safety performance?
  • If YES, why are they still in their posts?
  • If NO, why does the evidence strongly suggest that they did?
  • After 3 years, why have these questions not yet been answered?

What it this about?

It is about Wirral Council's report to the Wirral Council Scrutiny Committee meeting on 13 September 2016. The Committee was scrutinising Wirral Council's road safety performance. The Cabinet Member responsible for the report was Cllr Stuart Whittingham, and the Council officer responsible was Mark Smith (then Head of Environment and Regulation).

What is the evidence that they lied?

It is set out in a document https://www.wacm.org.uk/files/ann_scr_rep_13sep2016.pdf .
This is the officers' report for the meeting, which has been annotated with the concerns of misleading and wrong statements. It is labelled "Draft" so that any errors or omissions can be corrected if notified by Wirral Council. No notification of any errors or omissions has yet been received. There has been no engagement until August 2020.

Who has been made aware of these concerns?

  • Cllr Stuart Whittingham (Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure)
  • Cllr Phil Davies (Leader of Wirral Council, 2016)
  • The other members of Wirral Council's Cabinet (as at December 2016)
  • Eric Robinson (Chief Executive, 2016)
  • Mark Smith (Head of Environment and Regulation, 2016)
  • Cllr Mike Sullivan, Chair of the Business Scutiny Committee, and the other members of the Committee (as at December 2016)
  • The four Wirral MPs
  • Paul Satoor (Chief Executive, 2020) (see below).

No response from Wirral Council

After three years, and numerous reminders, there has still been no proper reply to these concerns. Nobody has disputed the evidence that has been presented, and nobody has disputed the conclusion of malpractice - there has just been a brick wall of non-response - just like the scandals of child neglect at Rotherham and Rochdale.

This failure to engage is a breach of the Hillsborough Charter, set out in The patronising disposition of unaccountable power - see https://wacm.org.uk/59.html.

Aug/Sep 2020 update

The concerns were raised again on 17 Aug 2020 by email to the current Chief Executive, Paul Satoor. A reply was received the same day that the issues raised would be looked into and a response would be made as soon as possible, but as of 15 September, no reply has been received.








Last updated: 7 Oct 2020