1.  WELCOME, INTRODUCTIONS AND APOLOGIES: The Chair, Councillor Geoffrey Watt welcomed forum members, and the new community representatives and 41 members of the public to the West Wirral Neighbourhood Forum meeting held atWest Kirby Concourse. Apologies received from Councillor Jeff Green, Inspector Mike Blease and John Percival.

·  Neighbourhood Funding Statement - Kevin Adderley read a statement out regarding the suspension of the Neighbourhood Fund:

In September the Director of Finance reported to Cabinet that if urgent action is not taken, the Council would face an over spend of around £17 million by the end of the current financial year. Clearly, we have had to take immediate action, which includes freezing all non-essential Council spending and releasing reserves we no longer require. Unfortunately, this has meant that the Cabinet has taken the extremely difficult decision to suspend the ‘Neighbourhood Funding’ grants programme until we are in a position to make a definite decision on whether we can still afford it. This does not mean the fund has been cancelled, or removed from the budget to offset the over spend. This is a suspension of the Fund, until we are in a position to make a recommendation to Council later in the year as to how we can move forward. That report will be within the next two months, so by the end of the calendar year groups will know the full status of their applications.