Councillor Phil Davies informed the Forum that the Chair, Councillor Jean Stapleton, was unable to attend the meeting due to feeling unwell and that he would be chairing the meeting. He opened the meeting, welcomed the Forum members and thanked the 7 members of the public who had made the effort to attend this Area Forum meeting in Well Lane Primary School. He invited the Forum members to introduce themselves.

Apologies were received from Cllr Jean Stapleton, Cllr Brian Kenny, Hazel Roberts and Lenny McCormick.

The Area Co-ordinator, Andy Brannan, thanked everyone for attending and informed the Forum that copies of the report were available at the meeting, and included:

• the minutes from the last meeting, on page 4
• matters arising, on pages 10-11, covering issues raised at the last Forum meeting

Andy added that he would be happy to deal with any questions / issues arising from the report and that his contact details were included on the report.

Peter Exley mentioned that he was still waiting for confirmation of how much each yellow sign costs. David Ball confirmed that Gary Cummings would find out and contact Peter about this.

You Decide 09/10 – Andy informed the Forum that this was the second year of the project and confirmed that £20,000 was available for additional Council services and that the top results of the recent questionnaire were as follows:

·  Positive outdoor activity days for young people

·  Temporary CCTV

·  Household security

·  Deployment of 3 youth respect workers

·  Community sports festival and community environment day

In addition to this £18,200 was available for highway and road safety improvements, with the following top results:

·  More street lighting

·  Additional dropped kerbs

The area should see some positive results from these additional services / improvements.

Andy also informed the Forum that consultations were taking place for the following:

·  Shoreline Management Plan

·  Governance Review

Information on these, along with details of how to get involved and have your say, was available at the meeting.

The Chair thanked Andy for his report / update and asked if there were any issues / questions. None were received.

Minute Decision:

Resolved that:

(i)  The Area Co-ordinator be thanked for his report / update

(ii)  Garry Cummings contact Peter Exley re: cost of yellow signs

David Ball informed the Forum that the Area Plan needs to be refreshed and discussions were taking place with the Chair on how this should be done. Information on this will be sent out in the next few weeks and it is hoped that a draft plan will be available for discussion at the next Forum meeting.

The following questions / issues were raised:

1. Jim Cadwallader – are there any plans to try and reduce the carbon footprint for police / emergency / council vehicles? The Council could look at putting resources into place for this, e.g. setting up a green energy petrol station, where fuel is produced from waste, for such vehicles

2. The Chair asked if there were any initiatives on this from public agencies. David Ball informed the Forum that carbon reduction was important and that some work was going on nationally on the introduction of electric vehicles, but that not enough facilities were available at present. He agreed to see if he could get any more information on this.

3. Inspector Blease added that Merseyside had trialled a dual fuel vehicle (in Heswall) but that the results were not available on this yet. All police vehicles went to diesel, but the expected savings were not made, and prove to be very costly.

4. Peter Exley added that bio-fuel has to be refined and filters and requires additives. It is sought after and can be purchased, but demand is leading to the production of crops for fuel rather than food. Electric vehicles are not suitable for police cars.

5. Richie Clarke informed the Forum that he had been on various conferences about this. A lot of effort was being made both nationally and locally, to reduce energy consumption and the Carbon Trust are putting resources into reducing the carbon footprint. Bio-diesel is not suitable for emergency vehicles as they are too big but initiatives, such as replacing ancillary vehicles more often, are in place.

6. Peter Exley – Rock Ferry shore was mentioned at the previous Forum. £10m of funding is required to put into place plans to sort out the wall between Rock Ferry and Seacombe, is this dependent on private or council funding?

7. David Ball – the funding will need to come from external sources and will form part of a larger scheme, including:
   1. Yacht club - improving facilities, access to water, opening up the pier, the esplanade
   2. Shorefields area – New Ferry
   3. Bromborough Landfill Site – part of a major scheme through Newlands Phase 2 programme
   4. International Business Park down to Eastham

8. The next step will be to get external funding and the whole project will take several years to complete.

9. Peter Exley – Which external sources are being looked at to fund the above project?
10. David Ball – North West Development Agency, National Lottery, English Heritage. The local MPs (Mr Chapman and Mr Field) are in support of this, along with the local ward councillors.

11. Richie Clarke – Are there any plans for the disused jetty, as this is a safety issue?

12. David Ball – the Admiral PH is to be demolished to make way for a new yacht club and boat storage area adjacent to the slipway. It is proposed that the structure of the jetty will be refurbished for use as a public view point. The plans are at a very early stage  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chair invited the partners to give brief updates:

NHS Wirral:

Tina Long informed the Forum that a detailed briefing was available in the Area Co-ordinator’s report and highlighted the following:

·  Planning permission for the redevelopment of St Catherine’s Hospital has been approved

·  Swine Flu – Wirral still has a relatively low number of incidents, but this could increase in the winter months. In most cases the symptoms are fairly mild, but tammy flu vaccinations for vulnerable groups will start next week and people will be invited in by their GPs along with the seasonal flu vaccinations.

The Chair thanked Tina Long for her update and the following questions / issues were raised:

1. Jim Cadwallader – How often do specialist dieticians go into schools to ensure that issues such as children with celiac disease are picked up, as it can result in young people being chastised for creating a disruption when it could be that they have such a disease and that the food they have eaten has triggered off their change in behaviour? I have been working in schools on a drumming project and am concerned about this.

Tina Long – we are doing a lot of work with schools and working with the Council to put sessions into schools looking at all aspects of health.

Wirral University Teaching Hospital Trust:

Sandra Shannon informed the Forum that she was pleased to be attending her first Forum. She confirmed that leaflets and information on the Trust were available at the meeting, and highlighted the following:

·  Infection control – there has been a lot of successes in reducing infection with MRSA down by 50% from last year and bowel infection further reduced by 30% form last year.

·  Improvements - there has been a big focus on improvements and capital investment, including:

o  £1.6m investment by NHS Wirral to provide a specialist stroke centre

o  Development of a multi-purpose women’s / children’s hospital service, including birthing pools, overnight facilities for parents, ward upgrades. Photos of the new facilities were available at the meeting

o  New dialysis unit

o  Installation of a second MRI scanner at Arrowe Park Hospital.

The Chair thanked Sandra Shannon for her update and the following questions / issues were raised:

2. Chair – when will the new hospital open?

Sandra Shannon – it will be a phased approach over the nest 18 months. The Ronald MacDonald accommodation facility for parents has opened.

Police:

Inspector Mike Blease informed the Forum of the following:

·  Robberies were down; there had been no robberies in the neighbourhood since 26 July 2009.

·  Since 1 April 2009 we have had to improve public confidence levels re: anti-social behaviour, the police ran a survey on this and our neighbourhood had the best return figures (80%).

·  We have been working hard at reducing crime and levels have dropped compared with the previous year

·  Bernard Lawson is the temporary Acting Chief Constable and a new Chief Constable should be in place by January 2010

·  New Police Station  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Thursday 11^th Feb 2010 (Venue to be confirmed)

The Chair informed the Forum that there will be a report on the Area Plans and that it had been suggested that some of the groups that had been funded through the Forum could be invited to give a brief presentation on the project funded. It was agreed that this would be the main item at the next meeting.

The next meeting will take place on 11^th February 2010 at Rock Ferry Community Centre.

Minute Decision:

Resolved that - Andy Brannan to organise an Area Plan update and presentations by groups funded through the Forum for the next meeting

Publicity / Forum attendance

The Chair – are residents groups informed of the Forum dates as part of the forum advertising?

Area Co-ordinator – the Forums are advertised in the Globe, Information Points (Libraries / GPs / Dentists etc.) and through the Voluntary and Community Sector Network. He explained that areas had been leafleted in the past, but this had not led to an increase in attendance at the meetings.

Bethany – commented that she went onto the Council website and only found dates of forums up to June 2009. The Area Co-ordinator agreed to look into this.

Collette McDonagh – could the Ward Councillors include details of the Forums in their quarterly newsletters?

Chair – felt that this was a good idea and agreed that this would be done.

Peter Exley – added that he was aware of at least five residents’ representatives that had been told about this meeting, but that only one of them was at the meeting. He added that, with some co-ordination, information on the Forums could be included in the leaflets handed out by Tranmere Together.

The Chair requested that the Area Co-ordinator follow this up

Garry Cummings – the forum dates could be included on the bin calendars

David Ball – information on the forums could be sent by e-mail

Councillor Meaden added that a previous forum held workshops rather than a meeting over 100 people attended.

The Chair agreed that this would be considered for a future meeting.

Tranmere Together

David Ball informed the Forum that Tranmere Together Neighbourhood Management will merge with Lairdside Trust from 2^nd November 2009.

Community Action Nepal

Ian Lowrie informed the Forum that a fundraising event was taking place on 16^th November 2009 – 7pm at Birkenhead School to raise funds to provide educational facilities and urged everyone to attend. Leaflets were available at the meeting.

Promenade Improvements

Jim Cadwallader – the costs for works on the promenade improvements could be kept down by the following:

·  Working with the long-term unemployed, using them to work on the project and just paying their expenses / providing meals.

·  Working with Jails to utilise skills of prisoners (such as scheme is in operation at Walton Jail).

The Chair thanked Jim for these suggestions and David Ball confirmed that he was aware of such initiatives and agreed to consider using such schemes.

The Chair thanked everyone for attending at the meeting closed at 8.40pm

Minute Decision:

Resolved that –

(i)  Andy Brannan to look at updating Council website with forum dates and to liaise with Tranmere Together to arrange for the Forum dates to be included in their leaflets

(ii)  Councillor Phil Davies to arrange for forum dates to be included in the Councillor’s quarterly newsletters

(iii)  The Chair to consider workshop style format for future meeting