Agenda and minutes
PDF 95 KBVenue: Professional Excellence Centre, Acre Lane, Bromborough CH62 7BZ
Contact: Louise Harland-Davies Area Forum Co-ordinator
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Welcome, Introductions and Apologies Minutes: The Chair, Councillor Tom Harney, welcomed Area Forum members and 20 members of the public to the meeting in Bromborough.
The Chair explained that the format for this evening’s meeting has been changed. The aim is to complete the formal agenda by 8 pm, and to have a drop in session in the final hour when members of the public can meet and raise issues with their local Councillors and representatives from partner organisations.
Apologies: Mrs A Brocksam, Paula Mansley, Area based Community Sports Development Officer and Doug Edmondson, Forestry Commission: Bromborough Landfill Site.
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Minutes and Matters Arising from June Forum Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the Area Forum on 23 June 2009 were included in Section One of the Area Co-ordinator’s report. Matters arising: 2.1 Off road biking and quad bikes: Inspector Wise reported that Operation Longbow, a joint operation between Merseyside and Cheshire Police Forces and the Port of Liverpool Police, had taken place in July in the area alongside the ship canal. The main focus of the operation was to use high visibility policing, stop checking of vehicles with a view to vehicle seizure, prosecution and enforcement action to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour in relation off road motor cycles and quad bikes. The operation had been reasonably successful, some practical difficulties had been experienced and no vehicles had been seized. The owners of the land, Peel Holdings, have strengthened the fencing to make it difficult for bikes to gain entry. Concerns have been raised about motor bikes and other vehicles using the car park. The owners and managers of the car park have made representations to the Council and discussions have taken place between legal representatives. Police Officers continue to share information and more joint operations are planned. Merseyside Officers continue to patrol Rivacre Road and West Road, and there has been a marked reduction in the number of calls about vehicle noise and annoyance in that area since January 2009. 2.2. Area Plan: The Area Co-ordinator reported that a Community Road Show had been held in Eastham last week. A similar event will be organised in New Ferry in February, and in Bromborough in June. The Chair added that the area plan lists the priorities for this area and includes the recurring issues raised at the forum meetings. There is need to refresh the plan and to include the actions and outcomes. Members of the public are invited to put forward their suggestions for inclusion in the plan by filling in the survey form available at the meeting. 2.3 Walk-in Centre in Eastham. Glen Coleman, Deputy Director of Primary Care, NHS Wirral, stated the planned opening date for the Centre is 30 November. Information on services available in the Centre will be sent to GP practices shortly. Family care services will be available during the day and the walk-in facilities will be offered from 5 to 9 pm, and from 9 am to 6 pm at weekends. Further development of the facilities will not be considered until the basic service is fully staffed and the provision is considered to be safe and robust.
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Area Co-ordinator's Report/You Decide/Area Plans Minutes: Section Two of the Area Co-ordinator’s report contained local updates on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Community Safety Team, Anti-Social Behaviour Team, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Wirral Youth Service, NHS Wirral, Streetscene and Equality and Diversity. In 2008, members of the public had filled in ‘You Decide’ surveys to state the additional services they wanted the £20,000 awarded to this Area Forum to be spent on. Based on the responses received, it had been decided to spend £12,000 on sports activities for young people and £7,500 on additional litter bins. Progress has been made on siting the litter bins which have the lettering, ‘Sponsored by the Area Forum’ on them. A meeting has been held to look at the results of the You Decide Survey 2009. £13,800 as been allocated towards activities for young people, and the remaining £6,2000 will be spent on providing more litter bins. The grant of £18,200 for road safety allocated from the Integrated Transport Block has been allocated this year for dropped kerbs, vehicle-activated road signs and ‘Slow’ markings on roads. Advice on locations will be sought from surveyors in the Highways Department, and will be decided in February. Area Forum funding, ‘Funds for You’ is available to voluntary and community organisations in Wirral who fulfil the criteria. An application pack was available at the area forum meeting. Completed applications should be received by the Community Engagement Team by noon on Friday, 23 October 2009. RESOLVED: To thank the Area Co-ordinator for the report.
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Public Question Time Minutes: Q Road Humps: Resident of Cambridge Road: The traffic, including boy racers, passes through the traffic lights at the top of the road very quickly, and it is a matter of time before a child is killed. Raised this with Councillor Gilchrist about humps on the road, but he has been informed this is not a high priority area. What do we have to go through to make something happen? A [Cllr Gilchrist]: It is not only about road humps. Another resident raised the issue of yellow lines on that road. When the traffic lights were installed, I asked the Council to do a traffic survey, but I didn’t get far with that request. A survey on the top road was carried out about three years ago and some residents had argued that it was in the wrong place. A complaint was made to me about Police and vehicle users driving at speed along that road. When I asked about yellow lines, I was advised against it. The residents who don’t want yellow lines would oppose it because they and visitors would be prevented from parking outside their houses. On the matter of the road humps, I looked at Neville Road and Cambridge Road together. Humps are part of the traffic scheme for Bromborough Village. The issue of humps has been raised before and it probably needs an engineer to explain it better than I can. The Council went off the idea of humps because they don’t want to divert traffic into other roads. The other issue was that there were 180 roads which had put in petitions asking for humps and the engineers are looking at accidents to assess if humps would reduce accidents. Our experience of humps in Dawpool Drive was that Greenfields and Dawpool have to be done together. People complained that people raced between the humps. There is mixed experience about humps, you join a process of survey, going through the Scrutiny Committee to decide whether it is a sufficiently serious road to get done. In recent times the Council has only done a couple of roads because of the expense of erecting signs etc. Q What about speed activated signs? They seem to work and they are not as unsightly. A [Phil Miner]. The flashing signs can cause annoyance to houses nearby. There is a trailer system. We can look into the possibility of locating a trailer in that location in the future. [Chair] We need a policy on this in the sense that we need to include it in our area plan it seems that anything above 20 on these roads is dangerous, and the speed limit is 30. We should be enforcing a 20, not a 30. We will aim to identify roads which are a priority Q Trees have been chopped own. Does the Council have a policy to replace trees that they remove? A The Council has a policy of tree replacement, but not necessarily in the places that ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Partner Information Minutes: Partner representatives updated the forum on the issues:- Community Safety: [Jim Thompson]: Fireworks and bonfires. Operation Banger started on Monday. A Freephone number 0800 731 5958 is available to report concerns about the build up of bonfire materials, or the illegal selling of fireworks. Bonfire materials that are considered to be a hazard will be removed. Trading Standards staff are working with partners and agencies to stop the illegal sale of fireworks. Overall crime is down, on average there are about three burglaries per day across the whole of the Borough. Merseyside Police: [Insp. Wise] 3,000 people in the area we cover, when measured in terms of crime statistics, crime per thousand population nationally is 27% and in this Borough it is 19.3%. The figures for anti-social behaviour in Wirral are exceptionally low, and in Bromborough, they are better than in Wirral overall. When you balance that against what is happening in Merseyside and other places, in Wirral, we are not in a bad place for anti-social behaviour. Merseyside is one of the best performing forces in the country. The aim of the former Chief Constable was to be the best. We have a joint responsibility with the Council to improve customer satisfaction. We on the way towards achieving that target: Measured against 15 other forces and out of that 15 the position we are in for crime, violence, theft, burglary, criminal damage etc. is either first, second or third. Working with our partners and agencies, we are working to reduce those crimes as much as possible. Q Security in Port Sunlight. There is a perception that there is no crime in Port Sunlight and this leads to uncertainty that issues reported to the Trust are not being passed on to the appropriate authorities. When we report things to the Trust, do they pass it on to you? A [Insp. Wise]. I am not in favour of third party reports if it is an emergency we need to know straight away. We need to have a realistic view of what is going on. There have been numerous incidents in Port Sunlight which makes people more inclined to ring us direct. If you call us for a service the way we respond is to meet all emergency calls within ten minutes, and we achieve that for 90% of the time. Our target is 95% of the time.. Some calls are responded to within a minute or two minutes. We can only do that if we know where the incident is and we need to receive calls directly, not from a third party. If it is a Police issue, ring the Police; similarly if there is a fire, ring the Fire Service The Older People’s Parliament representative drew attention to Wirral Older People’s Parliament Newsletter. He reported on a successful Away Day on Crime & Respect, which was attended by a local Member of Parliament, Community Safety and the Police. Wirral Grandparents Active Partnership is a voluntary group of ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Date of next meeting - Wednesday 24 February venue to be confirmed Minutes: RESOLVED: That the next meeting of the Area Forum be held on Wednesday, 24 February 2010 at a venue in New Ferry [to be confirmed.] In concluding the main business of the meeting, the Chair invited members of the public to approach and discuss any issues they may have [including how Area Forums work and how they might be improved] with local Councillors and Partner representatives |
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Refreshments and drop in session, meet your local councillors and representatives from:
Minutes:
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