Meeting documents
Area Forum (New Brighton and Wallasey)
Tuesday, 11th October 2005
Present
Chair
PJ Hackett
Ward Councillor
WA Duffey, DJ Hunt, Mrs LA Rennie, Mrs K Wood
Community Representatives
Rita Fraser (New Brighton Community Partnership), Major Roy Tipping (Faith Representative), Mark Williams
Business Representative
Ron Jones (President, NBTABA), Martin Revans
Lead Officer
Derwent Derbyshire (Deputy Director of Technical Services)
Area Service Co-ordinator
Michelle Gray
Birkenhead & Wallasey PCT
Jane Harvey (Director of Public Health, Bir. & Wall. PCT), Jane Lunt
Merseyside Police
Constable Dennis Evans, Inspector Ian Hassall, Sgt M O'Callaghan
Council Officers
Jan Evans, Chris Jones (Area Streetscene Manager), Bob Little (Community Safety Team)
In attendance:
Chris McGovern (Wirral Healthy Communities)
Apologies
Inspector John Hogan, Cllr A Pritchard
Index to Minutes
- Minute 1 - Welcome and introductions
- Minute 2 - Area Co-ordinators report
- Minute 3 - Public question time
- Minute 4 - Presentation: Working together for Wirral's Children and Young People - Children Services Development Team
- Minute 5 - Presentation on how Wirral Healthy Communities as a part of Healthlinks works for the community - Christine McGovern, Community Health Worker
- Minute 6 - Community initiatives fund
- Minute 7 - Primary Care Trust update
- Minute 8 - Date of future meetings
- Minute 9 - Any other business
Minute 1 - Welcome and introductions
Minute Text :
The Chair welcomed 14 members of the public and members of the area forum introduced themselves.
Minute 2 - Area Co-ordinators report
Minute Text :
Michelle Gray talked about the Area Co-ordinator’s report and gave an overview of the contents.
The Area Plan Sub-group had met the previous evening and decided to concentrate on the Safer Communities Theme.
There is a link from the Youth Forums to the Area Forum and young people are encouraged to come along to the forums.
There are two issues that a member of the public has requested be brought up at the meeting, the skateboard park at Tower Ground and the play area in Vale Park and by Earlston Library.
Councillor Hackett was able to provide information about these issues:
Fair Shares money has been secured for Skateboard parks on Wirral. One of the sites identified is Tower Grounds. There are people for and against the project. If people have objections they need to make these at or before the planning committee that will consider the application.
Roger Calvert from Leisure Services has made an assurance that the play area near Earlston Library will be painted shortly.
The area co-ordinator will contact the person who raised the questions with this information.
Councillor Wood said that she had made several requests for Wallacre Park to be cleaned up. There is graffiti, broken glass etc and the areas need to be looked at on a regular basis. At present this area is unusable by people with children. It has had a lot of money spent on it by New Wallasey Regeneration.
Minutes from the last meeting and matters arising
Councillor Wood requested that the word ‘permanently’ be added to the minutes of the last meeting in paragraph 5 of section one, on the last line referring to the ‘dips’. Other than this the minutes were agreed as a true record.
Councillor Wood expressed concern about the closure of wards 6 and 7. There is all party agreement in opposition to this. She requested that a letter be written on behalf of the area forum to express their dismay over the closure of the wards and their concern that the Birkenhead and Wallasey Primary Care Trust did not listen to the majority of Wallasey residents.
Councillor Rennie is liasing with the Director of Education and Cultural Services in relation to the water logging on the playing fields at Wallacre Park, which is making the pitches unplayable. She will keep the area forum up to date on the situation. A member of the public said he understood that topsoil was going to be put on the pitches.
Councillor Wood asked the Police what arrangements are being made to deal with retailers selling fireworks and people using fireworks irresponsibly?
Inspector Hassall said that this fell into the area of anti-social behaviour. The Police have powers in relation to people selling fireworks and can remove them from under 18’s. There is a marketing campaign and the Police will visit shops in the neighbourhoods who sell fireworks. If anyone experiences problems they should contact Moreton Police Station for the West Wallasey area and Wallasey Police Station for the New Brighton area. Merseyside Police see anti social behaviour as a high priority, it is a matter of trying to balance needs of young people with the needs of the community.
Merseytravel had been contacted in relation to upgrading the station at Wallasey Village. A letter had been received stating that it is not prudent to offer a date for Wallasey Village station to go into programme at present due to limited funding. The chances of a lift at the station look remote at present.
Cllr Hackett reported that ‘Pride in the Proms’ have appointed a project co-ordinator. There are three priority projects, Vale Park is one of these. Work will take place with Vale Park Community Centre and the Friends of Vale Park.
Minute Decision :
Resolved that:
i. the area co-ordinator to forward information on the skateboard park at Tower Ground and the play area in Vale Park and by Earlston Library to the member of the public that raised these;
ii. the word ‘permanently’ be added to the minutes of the last meeting in paragraph 5 of section one, on the last line referring to the ‘dips’;
iii. a letter be written on behalf of the area forum to express their dismay over the closure of the wards and their concern that the Birkenhead and Wallasey Primary Care Trust did not listen to the majority of Wallasey residents.
Minute 3 - Public question time
Minute Text :
Q. - Barbara Hardcastle - What can the Police do about the sale, in local shops and car boot sales, of drug paraphernalia i.e. bongs, papers, herbal cannabis? A local school held a car boot sale and items like these were on sale there. A local shop is selling a substance to young people, which they believe to be skunk.
A. - Inspector Hassall - The use and sale of cannabis is illegal, however, the selling of paraphernalia is not a criminal offence and the Police have no powers in this matter. If people have any knowledge of drugs being sold they should contact the Police.
Tony Edgar - raised the issue of the commercial selling of cars on roads. This is causing a nuisance and is quite widespread.
Councillor Rennie is dealing with it the issue. At present there is limited legislation to deal with this but this is about the change. The Director of Technical Services is having discussions with the Inland Revenue regarding some of the people responsible running businesses from home. A letter has been sent to Mark Reaney, the Borough Solicitor, in relation to this. Councillor Wood said she was disappointed by the lack of progress being made on this matter. Derwent Derbyshire said he is liasing with the Council’s legal department over the options available to the Council.
Dave Hanlon - The issue of a poor local bus service has been mentioned at a number of meetings, in particular the 407, 409 and 433. He requested that a representative from Merseytravel and Arriva be asked to attend the next meeting.
Councillor Wood reassured him that the local Councillors have been chasing this up.
Q. Daniel Fish - Why have the Police been in the area of Mossland School a lot recently?
A. Inspector Hassall - There had been a number of complaints about graffiti, anti social behaviour and damage to cars. They are trying to find out who is responsible (local people have reported that it is pupils from Mosslands School) and have increased police activity to try to stop the incidents.
Member of the public - The Highways Committee held in July considered residents parking schemes for around 500 streets, for which residents may have to pay a charge for putting these into place. Is Virginia Road still on the list for residents parking? Local residents have been trying to get something done for 10 years. Traffic calming measures have been introduced, which included planting shrubbery that is now in a neglected condition. She felt that consideration should be given to limiting the number of cars per household.
A. Derwent Derbyshire - It will still be on the list if it was on it before. Committee has been considering how to advance these issues, and have agreed to ask cabinet how they would fund these schemes.
Councillor Rennie said that people could check the agenda for Cabinet next week to see if the item is listed for discussion. It will probably be considered in the budget for next year.
Member of the public - Raised concern over problem of emergency access and was re-assured that if need be emergency vehicles will shunt other vehicles out of the way to get to an incident.
Inspector Hassall - The Police are working with the Community Safety Team, which includes a representative from the Fire Brigade. He asked the member of the public to give him the details of the area and he will ask the Fire Brigade to look into the emergency access.
Member of the public - There should be a bus service linking the leisure strip i.e. Victoria Road, Floral Pavilion with the station.
It was agreed that this will be discussed further when Merseytravel attend the meeting.
Minute Decision :
Resolved that:
i. Representatives from Merseytravel and Arriva be asked to attend the next meeting;
ii. Inspector Hassall to ask the Fire Brigade to look into the emergency access issue.
Minute 4 - Presentation: Working together for Wirral's Children and Young People - Children Services Development Team
Minute Text :
The Chair introduced Jane Lunt to give a presentation on the proposed changes in the way services for children will be organised in Wirral to comply with ‘Every Child Matters’ the new green paper set up following the death of Victoria Climbié, that forms part of the Children Act 2004. This instructs all services to work together to deliver the following five key outcomes for children in Wirral:
- Being Healthy
- Staying Safe
- Enjoy and Achieve
- Make a Positive Contribution
- Achieve Economic Wellbeing
A new green paper 'Youth Matters' picks up these issues for 14-19 year olds.
The services must integrate services and processes and join this up into one strategy. Now we have one single plan for children and young people, which all agencies will work to and work together on. It has been agreed that from April 2006 there will be one department - Social Care and Education.
The Children and Young People’s Plan will be available by the end of this month. It will work in partnership with universal services (such as teachers and GP’s) and targeted/specialised services (such as Youth Offending workers, Paediatricians, etc.).
Multidisciplinary Children’s Services Teams, of 11 areas and 4 districts in line with the area forums, are to be set up to add value to what we are doing and the delivery of our targeted and specialised services. The aim is to ensure that the specific needs of neighbourhoods are taken into consideration when supporting children, and we are seeking advice on who should be involved in these (it may be that representatives from the area forums will take part in these district management services).
Copies of a consultation paper are available at the meeting and we would welcome your comments on this. There is a form to fill in at the back of the consultation paper (it is also available online). It is important that people should be aware and provide feedback by 30/11/05 (the end date for the consultation).
The following questions were raised:
Q. Has the system been tested?
A. All evidence was there in the Victoria Climbie report. It has been tested in a number of areas, which were designated Children’s Trust Pathfinders. The information coming through is that this is working.
Q. Will it give access to medical records to co-ordinate this?
A. Health workers already have access to the information they need. An information sharing protocol is being drawn-up which will deal with issues of confidentiality. It is not always necessary for everyone to know everything.
Q. Will this require new resources and new employees?
A. It is about enabling existing staff to work better together, there are not the resources for lots of new staff. For example Sure Start and the Children’s Fund are examples of multi-disciplinary teams which have been successful, this type or way of working can be used to plan for the new service.
Q. Who will be accountable (when something goes wrong the accountability always seems to be passed down)?
A. The Director and Lead Member will have responsibility.
Q. How will problems be reported, will it be by a parent or teacher?
A. This will vary according to the situation. Once we are aware of a problem the first port of call would be the parents. We would try to get the parents to work with us to resolve the problem.
Jane Lunt was thanked for her presentation.
Minute 5 - Presentation on how Wirral Healthy Communities as a part of Healthlinks works for the community - Christine McGovern, Community Health Worker
Minute Text :
The Chair welcomed Christine McGovern, a Community Health Worker from Wirral Healthy Communities who gave a presentation about the work they are doing locally.
Originally the Healthy Communities project was funded through the National Lottery and was the local healthy living centre.
It has now moved on and has been absorbed into the Primary Care Trusts, working from Healthlinks. The project can now operate Wirral wide and not just in pre-identified areas. Workers will go where people have expressed a need for health promoting activities. The activities can take place in community venues, in the workplace or within NHS establishments.
Over 35 activities are available, and community and voluntary groups have taken on a lot of these. The aim is to encourage lifestyle change by taking part in activities, encouraging people to be responsible and promoting prevention is better than cure. Lifestyle is related to a lot of chronic diseases. We are trying to pass skills onto people e.g. expert patient programme – learning how to self-manage – national initiative, food education, staff training. The project trains people to go into the community and teach healthy eating. Any groups that would like help with should get in touch.
Christine McGovern was thanked for her presentation.
The following questions and points were raised:
Member of the public – have had personal experience through a family member of the expert patient initiative and thought it was excellent.
Q. Member of the public - Are groups mixed or related to a condition?
A. At the moment we are in the process of building up specific groups.
Jane Harvey said that patients becoming more able to speak up is a good thing and means that GPs have to keep up to date with information on conditions.
Minute 6 - Community initiatives fund
Minute Text :
Michelle Gray gave an update on CIF. Area Co-ordinators will provide regular progress reports on organisations who have received funding.
There are three funding areas available through the area forum, Community Initiatives Fund, Community Safety Fund and Local Agenda 21 Fund. The money that has been carried forward will be re-advertised in November. People in attendance at the area forum were asked to publicise the funding to any local groups they are aware of.
Minute 7 - Primary Care Trust update
Minute Text :
The Chair welcomed Jane Harvey. She explained that the two PCTs (listed below) have been in existence for two years. However the Government wants to re-organise and re-align their boundary with the local authority boundary, involving a move back to one PCT, and the PCT Boards are currently preparing a strategy for the change. The Health Authority is the monitoring body and there will be one for the North West area.
-Bebington & West Wirral
-Birkenhead & Wallasey
Service users should not notice any difference to the ways services are delivered.
Jane Harvey drew attention to the Your Health, Your Care, Your Say consultation. Copies of survey were available at the meeting. The aim is to find out what people want from their local health and social care services. It can also be accessed on www.nhs.uk/yoursay
Jane Harvey was thanked for her update.
The following questions and points were raised:
Q. Councillor Wood - How we will ensure that representatives on the new boards are local people? It is important that there are local people to speak up for local issues.
Ian Lewis - This is particularly important in relation to what has happened with the closure of wards 6 and 7, where local views were ignored.
A. Jane Harvey - Don’t know what the guidelines are, but will find out and let the area forum know. The new board will not come into existence until October 2006.
Ian Lewis – Will the new board have powers to review decisions made by the current board?
A. Jane Harvey – No it will not.
Minute Decision :
Resolved that Jane Harvey to report back to forum on the guidelines for the board.
Minute 8 - Date of future meetings
Minute Text :
The next meeting will be on 28th February 2006 at 7pm.
Hollins Hey was suggested as a venue but it was felt that this might be too expensive. St James Church in New Brighton was suggested and agreed as the venue for the next meeting, subject to availability. The area co-ordinator will look into the cost for Hollins Hey as a potential venue.
A microphone is needed for the next meeting.
Minute Decision :
Resolved that the area co-ordinator to look into the availability of St James Church, to arrange for a microphone for the next meeting, and to find out the cost of hiring Hollins hey for future forum meetings.
Minute 9 - Any other business
Minute Text :
Bob Little from the Community Safety Team gave information on the Crime Disorder Reduction Strategy. If anyone would like to discuss anything then they can contact the Community Safety Team, and the team will be available to do a presentation if required.
Derwent Derbyshire said that the area forum’s assistance is required in providing a list of roads and pavements that are in need of repair. People should provide these details by 22nd November.
The meeting was closed at 8.30pm
(Minutes Published: 28 October 2005)