• Minutes are a summary only, issues raised with individual officers after the main meeting are actioned separately with the relevant officer, minutes from area forums will highlight the main actions only.

Welcomed over 60 members of public to the Heswall, Pensby & Thingwall Area Forum.

Tracey Smith gave a presentation on “your neighbourhood” The street where you live theme, part of the Neighbourhood Plan for the area.

Key Points that where highlighted for the area forum to address:

• Road Safety & Maintenance
  • Parking
  • Speeding
  • Pedestrian crossing
  • Pot holes
  • Uneven pavements

• Street Cleanliness
  • Weekly collections for green bins
  • Dog fouling

• Parks & Leisure
  • Improve play areas
  • Recreational facilities

What next: June 2012 - all 11 area forums will cover the next themes of “Your Family” and “Your Economy”. All themes will be collated and form an action plan to address issues and developments for the local area.

• Fire Service - Natalie Hayes

The Wirral District is led by Paul Murphy who has overall responsibility for the 6 Community Fire Stations along with the Wirral Community Safety Team which is located at Wallasey Fire Station. The Community Safety Team is a cross functional team which consists of both operational and advocacy staff, and is structured to focus on the Prevention and Protection of Wirral’s communities through engagement with the most vulnerable individuals in our communities.

Wirral Community Safety Team are currently developing and publishing a Wirral Community Safety Plan which will be accompanied by 6 Wirral Community Fire Stations Plans that are linked to the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service Integrated Risk Management Plan. 

We have held a series of planning meetings at local fire stations, involving partners and staff in the design and delivery of community safety activities to improve responsiveness to local needs. The Plans recognise the diverse nature of the communities of Wirral and will enable our Community Safety activity to be tailored specifically to the needs of the local community and complement the delivery of agreed local priorities.

The initiatives within each of the plans will be bespoke to that area however there will be cross cutting themes for the Wirral which will include:

• The reduction of Accidental Dwelling Fires, Deaths & Injuries
• Road Traffic Collisions Education and Reduction
• Reduction in incidents of arson and anti-social behavior
• Seasonal Activities – Fire Watch & Bonfire Strategy

Some of the more innovative initiatives which will be included will be:

• Homeless project
• Excess winter death initiative
• Fire Fit Active Challenge

Feedback on Bonfire period for 2011 – extremely successful on Wirral with an obvious decrease in ASB fires across the District. Local events supported this with Beechwood & Ballantyne and Ridgeway High School holding bonfire night events.

• Merseyside Police - Inspector Mick Blease

Gave an update on the services they run i.e. Have Your Say meetings, Surgeries and One to One sessions that residents can attend to raise issues.

Team/Staff are not being reduced only downsized, we have lost a PCSO as they have moved to Wallasey. There has been a review of all PCSO’s and they are spread across Wirral.  This area still has 7 PCSO’s.

Heswall is a safe area including Hoylake and West Kirby.

• Community Safety – Jim Thompson/Mike Collins

Mike Collins gave update on the development of the Dog Fouling Enforcement Team they now have 5 permanent officers tackling this, have issued over 70 tickets, currently working in parks and open spaces, service operates 7 days a week and covers the whole of Wirra including roads/pavements. Officers are in uniform but also operate non-uniform tackling hot stop areas. Also working with local schools on educating our young people. Fixed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Pensby Road

• Resident has lost their white lines o/s there house due to the resurfacing on this Road
  • Mark Johnston advised that Pensby Road will be resurfaced again and it wasn’t completed this will be at a cost to Colas

Grit Bins

• All funding has been allocated for 2011/2012 – new request for a grit bin on Telegraph Road/Pensby Road by Lloyds Bank
• Lack of Grit Bins in Wirral Partnership Home area – Tracey Smith to liaise with WPH

CCTV

• CCTV provision needed in Heswall/Crossroads – Jim Thompson to liaise with Ian Lowrie and feedback to Tracey Smith
  • There is no additional funding for CCTV

Reporting Incidents

• Resident wanted to report a racial discrimination/harassment incident.  Visited local police station and was told they couldn’t deal with this sort of complaint and sent her to another police station.
  • Mick Blease informed the forum that the SIGMA Team is based at Bebington and that he will look into this

Signage

• Request for better/additional signage needed near Bridge, Farmhall Drive, Wirral Way etc regarding lorries and heavy traffic

Traffic Issues

• Free Parking starts at 3pm, can it be earlier or free
  • Mark Johnston informed the forum free parking after 3pm, costs the Council over 400,000 per year, this is a new initiative and council will review this.

• Free parking around Ravenscroft, this is being used by Taxis and there is little or no parking for customers, Heswall Taxis to be investigated.  Tracey Smith to liaise with Technical Services on this matter.

Response from Technical Services Department - This is something that has been raised in recent years and it would appear there is no formal action that can be taken. The taxis are private motor vehicles and re classed the same as other vehicles in that they can park there for 1 hour Monday to Saturday 8am- 6pm. Outside of these times it is unrestricted.  We are unable to stop them for parking there unless they exceed the time restriction.

• Request for Report/Information on all Car Parking Charges for Wirral.  Suggestion made is that some car parks don’t pay for themselves and therefore would be beneficial to be free.

Jim Lester informed the forum that there has to be a balance between car parking charges, free parking and limited parking i.e. one or two hours etc as if all car parking was free this would not help parking and may be taken for granted. Jim Lester to look into providing report/information on charges to report back to the next forum meeting in June 2012.

• Parking around Heswall needs reviewing and the introduction of parking charges as people park there all day and get the bus to Liverpool, leaving no spaces for local people to park and shop.

• Kylemore/Fishers Lane– problems with speeding cars, lorries parking, double parking.  There are 3 primary schools within this area, and parking is awful, dangerous parking, parking over people’s drives especially round school times.  A petition of over 1000 signatures has been submitted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

• Date of next forum will be: Wednesday 13^th June 2012 at Pensby Primary School, Greenbank Drive, Pensby CH61 5UE

• Anyone who is interested in being part of the Neighbourhood Plan developments to contact the Community Engagement Team. Tel: 0151 691 8026 email: traceysmith@wirral.gov.uk