Including: Matters Arising from June 2008

The Area Co-ordinator, Andy Brannan, gave an overview of his report, copies of which were available for members of the public at the meeting.  The minutes of the meeting of the Area Forum on 25 June 2008 and matters arising were included on pages 3-13 of the report, and asked if anyone wished to raise any issues on these:

Issues raised / Matters arising:

Minute 1 – paragraph 2: Councillor Taylor requested that the “Friends of Tower Gardens” be amended to read “Friends of Tower Grounds”

Minute 4 – paragraph 6: Councillor Wood requested that this be amended to mention Church opposite St George’s school and to reflect that it is not the pupils of this school causing the problems.

Matters Arising – paragraph 1: Cynthia Stonehall (Bravo) requested that this be amended to reflect that it was the drinkers on the pavement who were targeting passers by.

The Chair agreed that the minutes will be amended to reflect these points.

Minute 2 – paragraph 2: Dave Hanlon informed the forum that the drainage problem at Wallacre Park has gotten worse and asked what the Council plans to do about this.

Councillor Rennie – the Council are still looking into this matter, which is also affecting the surrounding residential properties. Bob Beresford from the Environmental Health department is looking into the problem. Councillor Wood added that United Utilities are also involved in this.

The Chair informed the forum that the issue of the early removal of goal post from playing fields has been resolved as details of fixtures have been passed to the Council. Dave Hanlon added that a copy of the fixtures had been sent to Leisure Services and the last fixture for the junior League is 11^th June.

Minute 4 – page 7 – paragraph 2: Councillor Wood informed the forum that seven police officers have been allocated to schools and that a detailed report on this will be issued by Merseyside Police. Four officers were allocated to Wirral schools earlier this year, and a further three have been allocated. New recruits have been employed to replace neighbourhood officers that were moved to Croxteth following the Rees Jones murder. 

Page 13 – Item 4: The Area Co-ordinator informed the forum that the Wirral HART (Home Assessment and Re-enablement Team) will remain within the Council and will offer an intense 1 – 2 week period of re-enablement. If further daily care service is needed, then independent companies will be brought in to offer this.

The member of the public that raised this issue informed the forum that his concern was to do with employment and not the service to the client. The Area Co-ordinator agreed to respond to this at the next meeting. 

Page 13 – Item 5: The Area Co-ordinator informed the forum that four new signs have been placed down the Promenade end of the park, and this will be monitored. Further signs will be added if required.

The Area Co-ordinator informed the forum that the following were available at the meeting:

• Forms for the nomination of roads requiring repair for consideration in the next round of the roads maintenance programme
• Information leaflets on repair work / accessibility by Merseyrail
• Exhibition / information on the Probation Service (Barry Humphreys will be available at the end of the meeting to answer any questions on this service).
• Respect Bus, brought along by Alf Mullin form the Community Safety Team, for visiting at the end of the meeting.

He also informed the forum that funding is still available through the forums and requested that details of any groups that may be able to benefit form this be passed to him as soon as possible as the closing date for applications is 12 noon on 10^th November 2008.

The Chair thanked the Area Co-ordinator for his report

Minute Decision:

Resolved that:

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

(ii)  The minutes of the meeting held on 25 June 2008 and matters arising be amended to reflect the issues raised

(iii)  The Area Co-ordinator respond to issue over employment of members of Wirral HART at the next forum meeting