Liverpool
‘A complete failure’ and a ‘direct attack on municipal autonomy’: a week in local democracy
What will our local councillors be going on about this week?
Wirral
Events and updates
We’re watching, we’re scrutinising - and this is why it matters
It’s also a good job too because there‘s plenty going on across Merseyside this week. Hello Mersey Monitoroos, You might want to grab a quick cuppa and get yourself comfy before you tuck in to this week’s digest. It‘s a bit of a bumper one, but
Sefton
All kinds going on across Merseyside this week
Flags, finances, feathered friends and other funny business Good afternoon Mersey Monitorers, If you’re new here, thank you for signing up to the Monitor. We’re a little independent public interest news site operating on a not-for-profit basis and our aim, first and foremost, is to keep
Wirral
The government doubled Wirral’s housing targets, could it mean trouble for the green belt?
Just 15 months after approving its local plan, Wirral’s about to start it all over again Wirral is about to begin making a new local plan just 15 months since the last one was adopted, after councillors agreed the first steps this week amid concerns about what it could
Wirral
Putting out the bins: a £350m council contract and plans to buy us all a depot
Why is Wirral Council buying the depot of a bin company it’s awarding a potential £350m contract to? The bins in Wirral could soon be emptied by Biffa, the company that already does the bins in Wirral, after a contract worth £350m over 16 years cleared a major hurdle
Wirral
Staff shortages closed 18 local mental health beds. Now the NHS doesn’t want them back
Two years ago, 18 specialist mental health beds at Bowmere Hospital in Chester were closed due to staff shortages. Tonight, Wirral councillors will be asked about that change becoming permanent. A report going before the council’s Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee argues the beds are no longer
Sefton
He-Man or Steve Rotheram?
A grilling for the metro mayor ‘He-Man or Steve Rotheram?’ is not a question the Monitor expected to be asking random people in Crosby on a damp evening in June. We do, however, go wherever the story takes us, and last night it took us to a slightly confused
Wirral
‘Severe and immediate financial risk’ triggers £130k car park decision
Delays in fixing the issue has already resulted in lost income according to a council report by Lisa Rand A major Wirral car park is at risk of having its ticket machines stop working forever as the council agrees £130k of investment. The car park, at the Pyramids in Birkenhead,
Knowsley
The Mersey What?
Welcome to the Mersey Monitor The Mersey Monitor is a small, independent newsroom focused on accountability, local decision-making and the systems that shape everyday life across Merseyside. The Monitor exists to make sense of how power operates locally, from council decisions and planning policies to housing, services and public
Liverpool
Remembering the 97
Today is a day Liverpool never forgets. Ninety seven people died after the horrific events of 15 April, 1989. Needlessly, senselessly, disgracefully. For decades after, their families were forced into a second, utterly horrific, ordeal, one full of deflection, denial and institutional self-protection. Campaigners, including families and victims of
Wirral
Top hats, house building and not just another planning meeting
Members of Wirral council are meeting this Thursday - we give you the low down by Lisa Rand It’s gone midnight and I’m sitting on my couch imagining what it might feel like to be a representative of the aristocracy at a council meeting. It wasn’t something I