Talking of waste, I would like to express our support from all the Green councillors to all Unite members who work for Biffa waste collection services and their strike action this week.

As a Green councillor I work on a wide range of issues from fairer, greener solutions to the cost of living crises to health & safety on the streets. You can read all about it in Green View newsletters regularly delivered to all 7,200 households across Bromborough, Port Sunlight and New Ferry.

We are talking about co-operating for climate solutions. We clearly all need political change and system change that Chris was talking about and that we know so well.

Where is this leadership going to come from to do that? Led by Sir Kier Starmer, the Labour Party has scrapped most of its manifesto pledges that we heard about here in this hall, we read about, we campaigned for, we voted for.

What does the Labour Party now offer to co-operatives? Really that is a genuine question?

Unfortunately, Labour projections don’t really add up. It doesn’t seem like Labour understand the difference between a budget pressure and a net budget gap.

We are looking at budget pressures of £49 million, so we are told.

But Wirral’s Finance Director said that the gap would be bridged by a government settlement to be announced in December, by £13m of savings (not cuts to services) already proposed…

And things change. Things are changing all the time.

Al Jazeera: In 2016, Labour party member Helen Marks was interviewed by Party officials as part of investigation into her local Constituency Labour Party.

Helen: We’d been accused of antisemitism by a member of the CLP who was also a councillor… I felt it was a totally outrageous accusation. What he was doing was he conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. My father lost all his family during the holocaust. His parents were rounded up and killed either in the Warsaw ghetto or taken to a concentration camp.

AJ: Rica Bird attends the interview as a witness, what is called a silent friend. Both women are Jewish. Three years later, Panorama, the BBC's longest running current affairs programme, broadcast a damning film.

Wirral Council published its accounts for the year ending March 2022 a few weeks ago. What is revealed?

£104.9 million are still held in earmarked reserves

Reserves have been used to keep frontline services open

Contingency money should be used to keep libraries open as Warm Hubs

Capitalisation loans have already cost the Council £346,000

Actual income was £6.6m higher than the £330 million budget set in March 2021

Council income has increased every year since 2017

Actual expenditure was £331 million

I was elected as a local councillor for Bromborough four years ago.

In the last eventful year, the Labour Party kicked me out for speaking up and I was welcomed into the Green Party. We voted for saving libraries and leisure services, while Labour and Tory councillors voted to cut them.

Here are some key landmarks of my fourth year.

I’m very concerned. Clearly throwing bricks at buses, attacking firefighters, smashing windows, and causing harm and distress to the public - is NOT OK. The vast majority of people of all ages are considerate of other people and our environment, and it is disappointing that a small number of people have this anti-social behaviour.

But I’m not convinced, to be honest, that dispersal orders are the way to stop crime from happening. Because it [a dispersal order] does literally disperse it [crime] to another area, pushes it elsewhere, and it can punish a whole community by doing that.

Wirral Greens celebrate 9 Green councillors at the count on 6 May 2022

I joined the Green Party in March, three months ago. I feel happy about that every day. We share our commitment to social and environmental justice. What have I learned from my experience on the Wirral?

1. Lefties are welcome in the Green Party

In the Labour Party, I endured two high profile suspensions before investigation, vilification in the media, and a dozen complaints. I won every case. To get rid of me and hundreds of other members, the Labour Party had to change its Rules and apply them retrospectively.

The cost of living crises is already being felt by thousands of Wirral residents and workers. As the days get colder towards Autumn, even more people on the Wirral will have to choose between eating and heating.

One in four Wirral residents are in the bottom 10% of household income for England…Prices are going up by 9% and rising.

Energy bills are going up and one in six people suffer from in-work poverty.

One of the simplest actions Wirral Council could take to reduce in-work poverty is to ensure all its workers and service providers are paid at least the Real Living Wage. It's currently £9.90 an hour.

Lets have a cheer if you are a Trade Union member.
Cheer if you support Justice for the 97 and don't buy the Scum.
Cheer if you support Black Lives Matter.
And cheer if you don’t want another war based on oil and gas.

And most of all, make some noise for creatives. For the people write songs, make music, post blogs, make videos, write poetry or make us laugh. We love you! You keep us going. Thank you, all our creatives!

Thousands of people are climbing Kinder Scout today [24 April]. Retracing the steps of Kinder Scout mass trespassers, 90 years ago …They reclaimed the hills, mountains and moorland on behalf of all of us, so we could have the Right to Roam and National Parks and everything else - all the well-being benefits - that follow from that.

They were blocked by game keepers, by landowners, by the same kind of cruel Conservatives that today want to stop our right to protest and to criminalise trespass.

So we need to keep on reclaiming these streets, reclaiming these mountains and hills, reclaim our right to protest.

I’m becoming a Green Councillor because the Green Party is better for Bromborough and better for me.

The Greens are doing excellent work for Wirral people all year round and we share a commitment to social and environmental justice. The Greens promote public services, road safety, cleaner air, healthier communities, insulated affordable homes and more.

Bromborough loves our library. Over two thousand people of all ages have signed a petition to save it. Other communities feel very similar: Higher Bebington, Greasby, Hoylake, Irby, Pensby, Prenton, Rock Ferry, Woodchurch and Wallasey village. They love their libraries too. And my amendment, my library amendment, means that we can save them all, at least for one year. 

There is no need for Council cuts to libraries, swimming pools and golf courses. There was no need for a loan from government last year, bringing intervention that’s not welcome. These are political choices.

Even the Council’s auditor says there is over £20m in the reserves that could be used for services.

How are your local elected politicians voting? Are they putting Party first or people first? Are they for the many or for the money?

It’s clear that the recommendations before us are not about BDS or divestment. I’m sorry if talk of divestment has caused any misunderstanding or confusion or raised unrealistic expectations about what decision is before us. It’s not about 'Do we divest from particular companies or a country?' It's about 'Do we engage further on human rights abuse allegations from very credible sources?'

Wirral Council’s budget is like a large unruly household - with money reliably coming in and going out, some savings in the bank and loans to repay from previous years.

We know there is at least £330 million coming in - from council tax, business rates and government grants. Voters on the Wirral make political choices to elect councillors to make decisions about what to spend this income on…

…It is entirely possible to balance the budget without £2.6m cuts to much-needed services: Woodchurch leisure centre, Europa fun pool, a dozen libraries, climate funding, increasing fees for recycling, youth services, golf courses, the Floral and more. Elected councillors are considering proposals to cut these services. None of these cuts are necessary nor acceptable.

Hundreds of thousands of people across the country are outraged about the way traditional political parties are behaving. One of the best ways to change that, and communicate with thousands of people, is to stand for election. Or actively back someone who is willing and able to stand.

In the last four years, I've stood as a local election candidate three times, won twice and significantly increased the share of votes. I’ve also stood twice for election to Labour’s National Executive Committee and was closely involved in four other elections.

I’ve stood to promote social justice. It’s a bonus to win positions of power. But winning hearts and minds for socialism is just as important. Socialism – caring for the many – is the best antidote to reactionary forces of division and fascism.

Council income has gone up every year since 2017

Working with hundreds of democratic co-operative businesses since 1993 has taught me to understand the stories told by the organisation’s income and expenditure accounts. And what processes are in place for all elected members to make decisions that are timely, informed and accountable.

I’ve written and spoken at full Council about Wirral Council’s reserves and actual net expenditure on Adults, Childrens and all other services. The evidence shows cuts to Council services are a political choice.

Applying similar business assessments to Wirral Council’s actual net income shows: