The Chair, Councillor P Hayes, welcomed forum members and 31 members of the public to the area forum at St Mary’s College.

Apologies were noted from Inspector Peter Kolokotroni, Inspector Mike Barratt, Bob Little, Mark Williams and Dave Green

2.1) The Area Co-ordinator, Andy Brannan, went through previous minutes pointing out the matters arising on page 4. There is a written update for all the issues raised at previous forum.

Dave Hanlon gave information that his friend Dave Watson who recently passed away was the General Secretary of Rockville Football Club and that the club is the oldest club in Wirral.

An update was provided on the St Peter and St Paul’s Church. Much of the information is still confidential but there will be Mass every Friday morning at 9.15am.

Q)-Cllr Glassman enquired about the funding SOUL received from the New Brighton and Wallasey Area Forum for a feasibility study and if there is a need for this study now that progress is being made on the church?

2.2) Andy gave information on the area forums asking for suggestions for locations for grit bins as all area forums have further funding for the allocation of grit bins.

2.3) Andy announced the date of the Coastal Towns Funding event for New Brighton. To be held at 7.00pm at Wallasey Sea Cadets, this meeting is for New Brighton residents only and will allow residents to have a say on how funding is spent in their area.

3.1)-Graham Bottle gave the presentation on the Census 2011, what residents will have to do, why it is important and how the forms can be filled in.

Q)-What about people who are in the armed forces, do they have to fill a form in?

A)-if they are based in the UK special provision will be made to record the information. If they are abroad they are not obliged to complete the Census.

Q)-What are there different questions in this Census questionnaire compared to the previous one?

A)-Sometimes different questions are included to try and capture different information that wasn’t included in the last Census.

Q)-What guarantees are there that the information will be confidential as there have been times when people’s information has been lost by the Government?

A)-The company who are handling people’s information are UK based and there are several security safeguards in place to ensure that any information doesn’t go missing and isn’t used by any other organisation or council department.

Q)-Will anyone in the EU have access to the information?

A)-No

4.1)-Mark Camborne gave a presentation on the progress of the Parks and Countryside Services Procurement Exercise which included the services which will and wont be included within the contract that will go to an external organisation and the dates of the forthcoming consultation events.

The following meetings will all be held at Wallasey Town Hall starting at 5.30pm

3^rd March  Discussing parks and countryside

8^th March  Bereavement service

15^th March  Discussing the golf courses

23^rd March  Sports services

If anyone has any questions concerning PACSPE they can contact the council’s call centre on 0151 606 2004.

Q)-Will the tender be advertised in the public?

A)-Yes, because of the value of the tender the council has to follow EU procurement laws.

Q)-The bereavement service and golf courses make money so why are they included in the tender?

A)-Only the grounds maintenance part of these services are included in the tender and it won’t affect the profit making side of the bereavement and golf course services.

Q)-Is the maintenance of the golf course too specialised to go to a single organisation?

A)-The company which takes over the maintenance of the golf will have to provide assurances that they have the ability to carry out the work properly.

Q)-What is happening to the Ranger who was situated at Wallasey Central Park?

A)-The Ranger who was at the park has left the council under the recent EVR scheme. However the walled garden will still be open Monday to Friday and every alternative weekend.

Q)-The information given tonight indicated that the council is going to invest £5m into parks and countryside service. What will this investment be?

A)-It is a capital investment such as sports changing rooms and will be discussed at the consultation events in March.

Q)-The football pitches are still a mess and the some of them are unplayable?

A)-This is the information that will be covered at March’s meetings. The council have recently announced that money will be put into cleaning up parts of Wirral, this will include open spaces and football pitches.

Q)-If the contract is for 10 years will there be anything in place to ensure that the standard of work is maintained?

A)-Yes, there will be service level agreements to ensure this happens.

Q)-The Wallasey Cricket Club leases its facilities from the council. Is there any chance of the facilities being included in the PACSPE contract?

A)-Will we look into this and contact the club.

5.1 Trish Mcleod (merseyside police)

All crime, except burglary offences have decreased. A spate of burglaries in one block of empty flats has contributed to this.

The police have recently taken a group of young people to Oaklands during the school holidays. This has allowed the police to engage with younger people in the area.

If anyone wants to raise any policing issues they can call Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111. This also includes anti social behaviour issues.

5.2 DAVE BAIRD (MERSEYSIDE POLICE)

Again, crime is down except for burglaries. 3 cannabis farms have been found in the Wallasey area and there has been an increase in cannabis production recently. 

Q)-Is the police force to reduce in size?

A)-Yes, but it hoped that this will be through natural wastage of officers retiring initially.

Q)-Youths have been congregating in the Cherrytree car park in Liscard. This is very intimidating for people in walking through the car park?

A)-This will be looked into

Q)-Grove Road has been bad for cars speeding, is it possible to have a speed trap?

A)-A operation will be undertaken on the road to discourage cars from speeding.

5.3-PUBLIC QUESTION TIME

Q)-Radio Merseyside reported about the closure of Fernley Centre for temporary respite, are people aware of this?

A)-This has been reported throughout the press to keep people up to date with what’s happening. Some care homes in the authority will be closing to permanent beds, however some of these homes will be converted into respite centres. 

Q)-What is happening with the plans for a roundabout at Bayswater Drive?

A)-Unfortunately when investigating the road for the roundabout, gas pipes were found under the road. This has added significant price to the amount of the scheme. Talks are on going with Neptune about how this cost will be met.

Q)-Will Neptune be able to cope with the additional traffic that the resort will bring?

A)-This has always been a concern of local residents and councillors. It was deemed that the surrounding areas will be able to cope and has been given planning permission. If there are problems then all the concerned organisations such as the council and police will look at all solutions.

Q)-Wellington Road in New Brighton has numerous pot holes after the recent bad weather?

A)-Additional funding has been put into road repairs, this road will be highlighted and an investigation done.

Q)-The shop at the corner of Zig Zag and Rake Lane is applying for a second license, will it be rejected?

A)-Objections have been submitted to the committee and the ward councillors will be attending the committee itself to put forward these objections again

Q)-Will all pot holes be repaired?

A)-Additional funding has been made available for repairing pot holes. Inspections will be carried out to identify the areas of biggest need. Following this, as many pot holes as possible will be repaired.

Meeting was closed at 8.45pm.