Bootle Trish takes dad’s hot seat for vote to take £700,000 from the poor

Sefton Council’s Cabinet meetings are well-known for taking only a few minutes from start to finish.

The £200,000-per-year’s worth of Cabinet Members who attend usually finish before their coffee gets cold and members of the public do not turn up to watch the non-discussions which are over before they blink. 

Last week’s Sefton Cabinet meeting hit a rock bottom. Neither Council Leader Ian Maher not his deputy John Fairclough attended. So the depeleted councillors had to elect a chair for the meeting. The Leader’s daughter, fellow Bootle Councillor Trish Hardy (above) took on dad’s job for a few minutes. Unlike most Cabinet meetings there was some real business to discuss as the final reports of working parties on Child Mental Health and Residential Homes were received. Sefton Council also took on the lead adoption service procurement role for councils across the whole Liverpool City Region.

The Cabinet received a report that Sefton Council’s budget was heading for a £1.7 million overspend this year. It approved changes in the Council Tax reduction scheme which will take back an extra £700,000 from some of the poorest people in the Borough which will help make up the difference in futire years.