Agenda and minutes

Venue: St Marys Church Centre, 127-129 Saughall Massie Road, Saughall Massie CH49 4LA

Contact: Tracey Smith  Area Forum Co-ordinator

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcome, Introductions and Apologies

Minutes:

Councillor Chris Blakely informed the forum that he would be chairing the meeting, as Councillor Simon Mountney was unable to attend the forum, and welcomed 10 members of the public to the meeting.

 

He introduced and welcomed Councillor Steve Williams and Carolyn Curr to their first forum meeting.

2.

Area Co-ordinator's Report pdf icon PDF 520 KB

·  Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

 

Minutes:

Tracey Smith informed the forum that the area co-ordinators report included the minutes of the last meeting and partner updates. She asked if there were any proposed amendments or matters arising – None were raised and the minutes were agreed as a true record.

 

Minute decision: Resolved that the Area Co-ordinator be thanked for her report and the minutes be accepted as a true record.

3.

Specialist Sexual Violence Services in Wirral - Jo Wood Finance and Development Co-ordinator Rape and Sexual Abuse (RASA) Centre

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Jo Wood to the forum, to give a talk on the work of RASA.

 

Jo informed the forum that leaflets about the group were available at the meeting and informed the forum of the following:

 

  • The group was started in 1986 following the rape and murder of a young woman in Borough Road, Birkenhead.
  • Statistics show that one in four will be affected by some form of sexual violence.
  • Contact is made by women of all age ranges (an 87 year old lady called the centre to talk about abuse from her father when aged 8-10 years, as she wished to talk to someone about this before she died).
  • Rape / sexual abuse were a horrible hidden crime that mainly affects young girls/women and we are often the first people they confide in.
  • The Group has a secret safe house in Birkenhead and has 607 live cases, 277 of which are within Wirral.
  • Cases are dealt with depending on when they occurred and how the person wishes contact to be made (some people prefer to make contact just via phone / e-mail).
  • We work closely with Merseyside Police on current cases, and the Police has a unity team (police officers, solicitors etc.) working together on such cases.
  • Statistics across the country show that 6% of rapists, from the 50% that are reported, are convicted.
  • The Group also offers help and support for male survivors of rape and sexual abuse.
  • The annual income of the Group is £80,000.
  • The estimated cost to the economy of the 629 new clients last year taking two days off sick was £518,000+. Many abused children / rape victims end up in prison and the estimated cost to the economy of trial and six month prison sentence was £26 Billion+

 

The aim of the Group was to relieve the emotional and physical distress by listening; helping people to live with what has happened to them and giving them back the power taken from them and empowering them to do what is right for them.

 

The Chair thanked Jo Wood for her presentation and the following questions / issues were raised:

 

Mike Collins – does the group go into schools?

A. Not at the moment as we do not have the resources for this, but we are working towards this with NHS Wirral.

 

Barbara Epstein – are training courses available for people that work with young people and if so how do we find out about these?

A. there can be arranged by contacting the Group, details were included in leaflets available at the meeting.

 

The Chair added that funding was a major issue for the group and much time and work was being put into trying to secure small pots of funding. We should all do what we can to support the group, and confirmed that he had tried to get £40,000.00 of funding from the surplus available from Wirral CDRP but had not yet been successful. Jo Wood confirmed that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Wirral Warm Homes including Health through warmth

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed John Vinson, from to give a presentation on Wirral Warm Homes.

 

John informed the forum that he worked for Energy Projects Plus, an environmental charity based in Wallasey, whose aim was to reduce the environmental and social impact of energy use within Merseyside and Cheshire. The charity worked with Cheshire and Merseyside Authorities and had more projects within the Wirral area than in any other local authority, aiming to offer advice, raise awareness and locate available grants to deliver / tackle the following:

 

  • Reduction in household energy use
  • Reduction of fuel poverty, with special focus in identified areas of high fuel poverty in the following areas:

o  Liscard

o  New Brighton

o  Leasowe/Moreton 

o  Bidston 

o  Woodchurch

o  New Ferry

  • Carrying out visits to 9,000 - 12,000 homes, including:

o  2,100 face to face contacts

o  105 referrals for benefits advice

o  210 energy saving advice

o  2,350 affordable warmth measures installed

o  210 referrals for fire safety checks

  • Events and Talks - 20 talks and 20 community events
  • Training to front line staff - 100 staff trained from POPIN, One Stop Shops, Citizens Advice Bureau etc.
  • Affordable warmth measures
    • Insulation – CERT, Warm Front and Cosy Homes
    • Heating - Warm Front, Health through Warmth and Cosy Homes
  • National Grants
    • Utility Companies CERT - Carbon Emissions Reduction Target offering discounted insulation (currently as low as £99), Free for over 70s and for those on qualifying benefits
    • Warm Front - up to £3,500 to install insulation or new central heating or to replace or repair broken boilers for home owners or tenants receiving qualifying benefits, allowances or tax credits
  • Warm Front 60+ - £300 discount for the repair of replacement of broken boilers (Approved contractors must be used)
  • Local Area Grants
    • Health through Warmth - at least 50% discount to install new central heating or replace or repair broken boilers or install supplementary heaters where someone in the household has a cold or damp aggravated long tem illness

 

The initiative started in Liscard and we have exceeded our targets for contacts and referrals, and will be visiting New Brighton next. Visits within the Leasowe & Moreton area were due to start in June 2010 and will be carried out over three months. The area to be visited is Leasowe estate and around Pasture Meadow, but the roads had not yet be allocated. This will begin with a letter being sent to every household in the roads to be visited, giving details of the charity and the reason for the visits (stressing that we are not selling anything). The Police have been informed that the visits are being carried out. The visits will be done by a group of four people, who will:

  • Issue a voucher to claim a free energy meter (from British Gas) and a power down device
  • Offer energy saving advice
  • Refer people to benefits advice that may result in increased income
  • Look at entitlement to insulation schemes and heating grants

 

The Chair thanked John Vinson  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Public Question Time

Minutes:

The following questions / issues were raised:

 

Why is the Council allowing planning permission for more fast food outlets within Moreton?

Chair – agreed that there were too many take-aways within the Moreton Cross area, and added that Planning Officers look at applications against set criteria and recommend the approval of applications if the proposed applications meet these. The Planning Committee approve applications where they have recommendations by the Council Officers, as 99% of appeals are approved where an application was refused against an officer’s recommendation and the Council is charged for this.

 

Posters notifying the intention to convert a property are not displayed on the premises prior to permission being granted.

Chair – confirmed that posters are displayed prior to granting of planning permission, as this was a condition of planning legislation.

 

Barbara Epstein – Suningdale flats has been targeted by the Fire Brigade re: security that has led to measures that are taking the soul out of the block (e.g. the removal of plastic flowers). The Fire Brigade refused to attend our meetings to talk about this issue and what can be used to replace items such as the flowers, as they said that it was the Housing Association’s responsibility as the landlords.

Sarah Patterson – the visit will have been made by the Fire Safety Litigation Team and confirmed that would arrange for a visit by the Fire Safety Community Safety Team.

6.

Partner Updates

·  Streetscene 

·  Primary Care Trust 

·  NHS Foundation

·  Merseyside Police/Community Safety 

·  Fire Service 

·  Older Peoples parliament 

Minutes:

Streetscene – Chris Jones informed the forum that there was an update in the Area Co-ordinators report and that there was a recovery plan in place for dealing with potholes and repairs following the severe weather conditions, and that were on schedule to carry out the repairs within the next few weeks. He requested that people report any areas of concern via the Streetscene call centre on0151 606 2004.

 

Q. Barbara Epstein – asked if the Council had a list of vulnerable spots as part of its ice-clearing programme, and explained that the elderly residents from Sunningdale has to walk on  a solid piece of ice to get to the shops. 

A. The Council does have a winter maintenance policy covering strategic routes. The winter gritting policy sets out 10 primary and 10 secondary routes and gritters / officers were on call for 20 weeks and monitoring weather warnings. The main aim of the policy was to clear strategic routes and keep Wirral moving. Biffa cleansing teams and Colas were clearing areas along with Community Payback during the severe weather. He requested that areas of concern be reported via the call centre and that we will endeavour to get someone to attend to these.

 

Q. Member of the Public – added that the area outside Birkenhead Town Hall was bad, causing many slips – but that the Council response was that they did not clear pavements.

A. The Council has a priority to keep strategic routes clear, but that resources are diverted to deal with ice when possible, however, grit levels were rationed and controlled by Government this year, but that areas of concern should still be reported.

 

Q. Member of the Public – felt that the Council had coped admirably during the severe weather, but that there was still a problem with glass, syringes and burnt debris at Witley Lyons Estate field, and that this was not fair on the tenants that look after the area.

A. Councillor Ian Lewis – confirmed that Wirral Partnership Homes were running a clean up day and agreed to pass on date for this.

Mike Collins added that discarded syringes should be reported to via the Streetscene call centre or Community Safety (0151 606 2004 –day and 0151 666 5265 -evening and weekends), as they should be removed using appropriate equipment.

 

Q. Margaret Testo – reported that there was still a lot of rubbish and pigeon droppings on the pavement outside Fosters in Upton Road, leading up to Sayers, and that this had not been cleared despite it being reporting to Streetscene.

A. Chris Jones agreed to raise this with the Environmental Health Section.

 

Q. Member of the Public – mentioned a meeting with umbrella groups in Moreton and Wirral Partnership Homes where there was a request for grit buckets to be placed outside centres, and were informed that the Council were unable to provide these.

A. Tracey Smith – advised that the Area Forums had been allocated £5,000 for grit bins  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Date of future meetings

  • Tuesday 8th June 2010.

Minutes:

The Chair thanked everyone for attending, informed the forum that the next meeting would be held on 8th June 2010 and closed the meeting at 8.25pm