Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Room 1 - Wallasey Town Hall. View directions
Contact: Michelle Gray Area Forum Co-ordinator
No. | Item |
---|---|
Welcome Minutes: The Chair, Councillor Leah Fraser, welcomed the forum members and 15 members of the public to the meeting.
Apologies were received from Margi Allen and Chris Jones. Best wishes were sent to Chris Jones, who had been involved in an accident, on behalf of the forum with the hope that he gets well soon.
The Chair informed the forum that the interpreters from Merseyside Society for Deaf People would be filming and would only be recording their interpreting and asked if anyone had any objections. None were received.
|
|
Community Engagement
Minutes: The following points / matters arising were raised from the minutes of last meeting held on 11th February 2009:
Fr. Leon Ostaszewski clarified the following, from the February forum
Councillor Leah Fraser added that information was available on benefits available to grandparents who have been left to look after their grandchildren, and agreed to pass this onto Carole Thomas.
The Community Engagement Co-ordinator gave a brief overview of her report, highlighting the following:
The Chair asked if there were any questions on this and none were raised.
Partner Updates
Merseyside Police – Sgt. Diggins highlighted the following:
Ø 8 people being arrested locally for carrying knives Ø 8 retails stores being tested Ø 19 primary schools, 4 youth clubs and local internet cafes being visited, in relation to crime prevention and the danger of carrying knives Ø Safety Arch – this was used in the Liscard and Seacombe area in the evenings. This is basically a large metal detector and was used on people entering licensed premises to check for knives etc.
Ø Seizure of £50,000 of controlled drugs from one address in Seacombe, based on community intelligence information.
|
|
Arriva Northwest
Minutes: The Chair thanked Simon Finnie from Arriva for attending the forum again and Simon gave the following update:
The following questions / issues were raised:
1. Carole Thomas – are there any plans to service Norton Street Coach Station from the Wirral? A. We want to get buses through the tunnel as quickly as possible, if we were to take the 432/433 services through this area it could cause delays to these, but it is something that we will look at with provision of service to Lime Street.
2. There is no 433 service after 6.60 pm or at weekends, leaving many elderly people stranded as would need to go to Poulton Road to get a bus to Liverpool. The off-peak service for the 433 should be extended to remedy this. A. This will be looked into and considered for our September 2009 route amendments. From a business point of view weekends and evenings are areas we would look at to grow our service, especially with more leisure facilities being available in New Brighton and Liverpool One.
3. Dave Hanlon – What is the situation re: traffic problems in Sir Thomas Street; could something be done re: 1hour+ gap in the 413 evening service from Liscard to Wallasey Town Hall? A. The issue re: Sir Thomas Street is being looked at with Merseytravel. The issue re: 413 evening service will be considered at the next review of evening and weekend services.
4. David Hale – can the issue re: 413 evening service be resolved by the next forum meeting? A. The next service change is due in September 2009 (we try to keep changes to a minimum to avoid problems for users and bus drivers) so this should be done prior to the next meeting.
5. Carole Thomas – we had been assured that the new buses were to be in place by the end of May 2009. A. There was a delay due to another large bus operator placing an order with the firm that supplies the new vehicles, then cancelling this. The cancelling of the order led to staff ... view the full minutes text for item 3. |
|
Public Question Time § opportunity to raise your issues & concerns
Minutes: The Chair gave an update on the following:
1. Diane Ledder – when giving the council submission Alan Stennard said that the submission was to be taken to the area forums and created the impression that there had been ongoing discussions on this with the forums.
Chair added that he was probably referring to the special are forum meetings that took place in the parliamentary constituency areas, despite requests that these be taken to the local area forums. She added that on Friday she was informed of an audit of the Council’s assets had taken place, and that she was surprised that the councillors had not been involved in this.
Brian Kendall added that he felt that consultations should be more local than area forum level and that he wanted to get more people from the Seacombe area involved in the Wallasey Village Campaign.
2. Dave Hanlon – there are few youth services in this end of the borough. Mosslands youth club was a thriving place 10-20 years ago but has declined in recent years, besides this there are only the Wallasey YMCA and the Allandale centre. There is no provision in Wallasey village and there should be more provision in the area for young people.
Chair – requested that the forum discuss youth provision and activities within the Wallasey and Egremont area, as there was not one answer to this, and the following discussion took place:
Joseph Lee – we are trying to tackle this problem in partnership, we need to break youth into younger and older sets, bring back role models, respect and give young people a focus. The Allandale centre is only looking at 8-13 year olds and has very limited resources.
Jo McCourt – the three main areas of youth provision (Wallasey YMCA, Allandale Centre and Mosslands Youth Club) used to be run with staff employed by the local authority. Changes in policies mean that they now have no staffing from the council and have to rely on external funding, so have reasonable youth provision buildings with no-one prepared to pay for the staffing of these, leading to an inability to provide adequate services for young people. The YMCA building is owned by the council but the responsibility for all repairs lies with the YMCA.
Tony Mooney – the Fire Station Centre is still being developed. We have been working with partners, such as the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Team to do outreach ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
|
Visit our Exhibition Stands Help yourself to refreshments and visit the following exhibition stands:
Ø “You Decide” 2009 – 2010 (take a few minutes to complete our questionnaire on what additional services you would like to see in your area)
Ø “Funds for You” (funding available for local community groups) Minutes: The Chair thanked everyone for attending the meeting and invited them to look at the exhibition boards, and requested that they complete the You Decide questionnaires.
The meeting closed at 9pm |
|
Next Area Forum Meeting
Minutes: The next area forum will be held on Tuesday 20th October 2009 at Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, Wirral CH44 8ED |