Website contents

Home page

A protest campaign over poor walking and cycling safety


Effective road safety planning: what should be happening

What the vision should be
Road safety planning and policing: what we have a right to expect
Poor Merseyside road casualties should be considered
Other relevant information
Past strategies
Options that should be considered

Merseyside road safety failures

Merseyside / national road safety failures

Merseyside road safety concerns

So-Mo project on pedestrian casualties

Merseyside road safety improvements

Taking action on poor road safety

Current campaigns

Newsletters

News

About

Contact
Wirral Council's failing road safety scrutiny committee
Road safety requires that the responsible agencies all perform to the highest standards. Councils have scrutiny committees of councillors that should periodically scrutinise the council's performance to ensure that it is as good as it can be.


Cllr Mike Sullivan chairs the Committee
The Wirral Council's scrutiny committee that is responsible for road safety is the Business Overview and Scrutiny Committee, chaired by Cllr Mike Sullivan.

The available evidence indicates that this Scrutiny Committee is failing badly, and that this is contributing to the deaths and injuries on Wirral's roads.

Failings

Concerns were raised in December 2016 that Wirral Council Cabinet Member Cllr Stuart Whittingham and Council officer Mark Smith lied to the Business Scrutiny Committee in their report for the 13 September 2016 meeting in order to conceal the poor road safety performance of Wirral Council (see https://wacm.org.uk/6.html). No response to these concerns has been made by Cllr Whittingham, Mark Smith or the Council Leader Phil Davies.

Cllr Mike Sullivan and the Scrutiny Committe members were made aware of these concerns in December 2016, but by April 2018, despite numerous reminders, Cllr Sullivan has still not given a clear answer as to whether the Committee that he chairs was lied to. He should have given careful consideration to the concerns, carried out any appropriate investigation, obtained appropriate assistance if necessary, and responded promptly.
Either Cllr Sullivan has not properly investigated the concerns or he is concealing the results of his investigation.

Cllr Sullivan and the Scrutiny Committee are acting in breach of the Hillsborough Charter (see https://wacm.org.uk/59.html) which specifies that public bodies will
  • recognise that they are accountable and open to challenge
  • ensure that processes are in place to allow the public to hold them to account
  • approach public scrutiny with candour, openness, honesty and transparency
  • place the public interest above their own reputation.




Last updated: 12 Jan 2020