Councillor G Davies by virtue of him being a member on the Magenta Living Community Fund Working Group declared a prejudicial interest in Agenda Item 3 – Constituency Managers Update, Paragraph 2.6 – ‘Your Wirral’

Councillor D Roberts by virtue of her being a Board Member of Magenta Living declared a prejudicial interest in Agenda Item 3 – Constituency Managers Update, Paragraph 2.6 – ‘Your Wirral’

RESOLVED:

That subject to the amendment of Minute 13 (Question 2) to read “Gautby Road” not “Gorsey Road”, the minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2014 be approved.

The Committee considered the report by the Head of Neighbourhoods and Engagement that updated the Committee on progress on the actions taken following its last meeting on 24 July 2014 (Minute 8 refers).

Attached to the report were appendices which the Constituency Manager presented to the Committee in relation to theAntenatal Breast Feeding Project Quarterly Report (July-September 2014);proposals to increase signage in Birkenhead, reduce anti-social behaviour; development of  Community Researchers and the ‘Love Wirral’ funding; requests for Dropped Kerbs in Birkenhead and a performance overview of the Seven Beats Project.

The Constituency Manager updated the Committee on the following:

 Community Publication – Birkenhead

The Constituency Manager indicated that the tender process had been concluded and she would inform Members of the details of the successful tenderer in due course. The 12 month contract was due to start on 1^st November 2014.

Improving the Environment

The tender was currently being advertised with a closing date of 24 November 2014. She had also been contacted by various community groups indicating that they were interested in getting involved in this project.

Public Health Outcome Fund

A Member reported that an expression of interest had been received and the panel had met with staff at St Pauls Catholic Primary School, following this, the panel formed a task and Finish group to monitor the developments to evaluate the impact of the project and provide updates to the committee at each meeting. Funding was available to award £25,000 to two schools, only one application was received, therefore it was decided that the Task and Finish Group would use their local knowledge and understanding to discuss and progress with other schools. Following this the Panel had received a proposal from Rock Ferry Primary School and a further meeting would take place with the school at the end of November 2014.

Constituency Committee Budget 2014/15

The Priorities Task and Finish Group met on 12 September 2014 to discuss proposals for the remaining £40,000. The proposals discussed and recommended were:

1.  An allocation of £2993.24 to improve the environment by increasing the signage in Birkenhead to act as a deterrent for environmental crime and increase awareness of enforcement proceedings as detailed in appendix 2 to the report; and

2.   An allocation of £35,000 to be allocated for a service to aim to reduce anti social behaviour as detailed in appendix 3 to the report;

3.  An allocation of £2000 to develop Community Researchers in Brikenhead

The Chair indicated that in relation to the proposal regarding anti social behaviour that he and Councillor P Davies had met to discuss this issue and felt that all public services and external organisations had specific budgets to canter anti social behaviour and that all budgets should be combined to tackle this issue collectively.

A Member indicated that at the meeting, it was clear that activities were being undertaken but there was no evidence of the outcomes; a Member indicated that residents needed reassurance and physical evidence as to what was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Further to Minute 11 of the meeting held on 24 July 2014, the Committee considered a verbal update from the Senior Electoral Services Officer regarding the progress of individual electoral registration.

The Senior Electoral Services Officer indicated that the transitional canvassing was currently being undertaken. Canvassers were visiting homes to encourage residents to register; however, those that did not register would be automatically re –registered.

Online registrations were going well with over 3 million people nationwide now registered, 7,000 of those were in Wirral. In response to a Member, the Senior Electoral Services Officer clarified that of the 7,000 people registered, 50% of those were duplicate registered voters.

RESOLVED:

That the Senior Electoral Services Officer be thanked for his attendance and update.

The Chair invited representatives from the young people who were taking part on the National Citizen Service project to update the Committee on their recent activities.

A Support Worker from the Children and Young Peoples Department introduced the group of young people and explained that the NCS (National Citizen Service) was a government project engaging with young people aged 16 – 17. The project offered young people life skills, whilst they were taking part in the programme.

The young people in attendance had achieved and completed the summer programme, which was carried out in six phases as follows:-

Phase One: Keeping them warm - meeting young people giving them an insight of the possible achievements meeting up and making friends with people within their cohorts.

Phase Two:  Away Residential Taking the young people outside their comfort zone, many of the young people had not been outside Wirral

Phase Three: Home Residential within Wirral gaining qualifications such as; First Aid and Basic Food Hygiene

Phase Four and Phase Five: Planning Social Action and delivering Social Action in the community - All the planning, preparing and delivery of the social action plan was completed by the young people

Phase Six:  Graduation - A celebration event for the young people to receive their certificates from here the young people do post sixteen hours, within the social action plan they have previously delivered or a new project, to serve the community to make a difference and work for it to become sustainable. The young people have worked in partnership with the Birkenhead Elders Luncheon Club, to deliver this programme.

It was reported that on the 22nd December 2014, the Elders Luncheon Club had arranged for a Christmas Luncheon for the Homeless with the support of the young people.

A Member indicated that she was aware of the excellent work that the young people had undertaken including the food kitchens which the young people had raised money for and cooked the food themselves. She commended the young people on their hard work and thanked them for their commitment to helping others in the Borough.

RESOLVED:

That the young people be thanked for their informative update and their excellent work and commitment to helping others within the Borough.

The Assistant Chief Executive presented the report of the Chief Executive on the Future Council.

The Assistant Chief Executive informed that the purpose of the report was to provide Members of the Birkenhead Constituency Committee with the opportunity to provide feedback on the Chief Executive’s Budget Proposals which were currently out for public consultation.

Members were advised that the Future Council project had completed a full review process across every Council service.  The information gathered had been used to redesign the Council through merging similar services, streamlining senior management and getting better value for contracts and goods purchased. This work had resulted in proposals being developed which would reduce the budget gap for 2015/16 from £18 million to £2.5 million as well as achieve the already agreed savings of £9.4 million through remodelling the Council.

The report provided Constituency Committees with a reminder of the options which were out for public consultation and gave more detailed information as to the direct impact on the Wirral West constituency area should the option be accepted.

In response to questions from Members, The Assistant Chief Executive provided further details in respect of ‘Play Schemes’. He advised that a number of representations had been received in relation to this option.

Ms Eve Barratt asked a question about the consultation process. She indicated that she worked closely with residents in Bidston Rise and the North End, and saw how hard ordinary people worked to encourage people to have a say and fill the consultations in. But felt the consultation itself was academic and inaccessible. It was worded in a complicated manner and seemed to have been designed to discourage people from filling it in.

She indicated that people did care and wanted a say and in an area where voting turnout was 36% last May, people should be encouraged to have a say and take part in decision making. Ms Barratt indicated that the easy read version of the consultation document was much clearer to understand; however the image came across as patronising. It implied that people who needed the easy read version had some form of learning disability, and also it emphasised stereotypes of those with Downs Syndrome. In reality, those living with Downs could often read and write and understand perfectly. She asked why the consultation was designed this way and asked the Council if they would consider doing it differently next time.

Councillor P Davies indicated that the Council had made every effort to ensure local people had the opportunity to take part in local decision making. Every year the Council received the highest level of engagement in the UK for budget consultation exercises, and would do so again this year.  However, producing a consultation questionnaire and associated documents was often difficult. Officers are required to explain what were sometimes quite complex budget issues and potential impacts in the simplest language possible. Officers try their best to achieve this, and sought external support to help them, but sometimes residents did raise the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

The Chair indicated that 25 question had been received prior to the meeting all of which had received a response from appropriate officers, copies of which were made available at the meeting.

The Chair invited the following members of the public to ask their questions.

Question 1 John Martin (Friends of Walker Park)

Mr Walker asked for an update on the recent consultation undertaken on Walker Park?

In response it was reported that the Neighbourhood Engagement Officer had been in discussion with Mr Martin regarding the consultation on Walker Park and would be liaising with him in a meeting outside of the Constituency Committee.

The Chair further indicated that he had been contacted by residents regarding Japanese Knotweed. In response, a Member informed the Committee that the area was currently being cleared.

Question 2 - Valerie Price

Ms Price indicated that she had been informed that 10,000 homes in Birkenhead and Tranmere were earmarked for demolition and asked why none of the residents were informed and more importantly I am a home owner who wants to sell in a couple of years how this would affect me and yet I was not informed.

Ms Price had received the following response from the Housing and Regeneration Department.

“Wirral Council did not have any plans to demolish any further houses other than those which were in existing clearance schemes.  There were still around 30 properties to be demolished in the Tranmere and North Birkenhead areas in the next few years.  When houses are to be demolished, it would always follow full consultation with the community and local residents concerned”

The Neighbourhood Engagement Officer for the Birkenhead Constituency Committee had attempted to contact Mrs Price on numerous occasions via email and telephone to obtain further information regarding the exact location the houses she believed were due to be demolished and where she first heard the information being raised. Unfortunately none of the attempts to contact Mrs Price were successful.

Question 3 - Richard Neale

Mr Neale indicated that parking was yet again a difficult issue in this part of Prenton. The business hours parking in Waterpark Road and surrounding roads not in the residential parking area was becoming increasingly difficult as cars were being parked wholly or partly on pavements thereby reducing the effective flow of traffic. This was largely due to the huge increase in estate agents offices in Woodchurch Road with employee totals seemingly increasing four fold in the past year or so.

Some part time employees in other Woodchurch Road businesses were taking to parking well in excess of the 1 hour limit in residential parking areas and along Woodchurch Road.  Might it be possible to reintroduce the old Birkenhead parking disc scheme whereby discs would indicate timings for parking etc?

Another factor was that one or two businesses were now opening longer daytime hours through until 7 p.m.  There were relatively few problems with those using the eating houses etc. in the evening periods.

Traffic wardens could presently only  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

The Chair proposed that due to the general and local elections being held in 2015 the dates set for January and April be moved to February and late May 2015. Therefore it was proposed that the meetings be held as follows:

·  26 February 2015

·  28 May 2015

RESOLVED:

That above dates be agreed.

The Chair announced that Ms Dawn Tolcher, Constituency Manager would be leaving the Authority to undertake a new post in Sport England. The Chair indicated that Ms Tolcher had made an outstanding contribution to the Birkenhead Constituency Committee and on behalf of the Committee wished her well for the future.