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 and residents would like something done about it

o  Schools have a walking bus service and encourage cycle initiatives, Tracey advised the forum that speeding is a priority for the forum area and is part of the neighbourhood plan findings

• Boundary Lane/Miner Road to be reviewed as they are having problems with parking especially on double yellow lines. Police to look into this.

• Parking on pavements especially in the Pensby area and Birches Close – to be reviewed and Tracey to liaise with Wirral Partnership Homes on this matter.

• 20 MPH - There has been a budget allocated to address speeding especially around the 20mph schemes.  £275,000 will be used in high risk areas including residential areas near schools.

• Pensall House - What is happening with this building was used by Age Concern. 

o  Response from Asset Management - The Council owns Pensall House. Although it has mostly been vacated Age UK Wirral still operates a day care service for it.  They will eventually vacate the accommodation they use in Pensall House and move services to other locations, once this has been done We will then dispose of Pensall House

• Young Drivers – to look into a campaign for young people to carry no more than one passenger, suggestion for the forum to write to local MP on looking into this. Other options to liaise with Youth Parliament, any new law has to go to the Houses of Parliament.  Police raised concerns about what would the penalties be and how would it be enforced also not all young people drive dangerously.

Statistics show that new drivers are more likely to have an accident in the first two years after passing their test because of their lack of driving experience. If you know a young driver who would benefit from the scheme they can register at www.wirral.gov.uk/roadsafety

Response from Road Safety Department - Currently there are no legal restrictions on how many passengers a qualified driver can take, but there are some examples of limitations being applied in other Countries.  The Government will need to lead on this but as an authority we could be supportive of it ourselves.  Road Safety are considering how they might develop a "young drivers contract" between newly qualified/young drivers and their parents which would suggest something similar but only on a voluntary basis for those who signed up to it. This will take some time to develop and promote. 

Road Safety within Schools – Fire Service visit schools and educate young people, however they have struggled to try and visit the following schools: Caldy 6^th Formers and Neston 6^th Formers.  Tracey Smith to liaise with David Rees in Road Safety.

Public Transport – lack of Transport for the local area especially in the evenings.  Young people can not travel to places and they don't have anything to do.

Miscellaneous

• Van was stopped and issued with a traffic order, concerns have been raised by residents with people going round taking items from properties without permission, also items that have been left out for charity organizations, these have also been taken by others.  Police are looking into this seriously, as scrap is quite valuable and this can be taken to any scrap yard and bought/sold no questions asked.