45 minutes will be allocated for this item

The Chair invited questions from members of the public upon matters that were relevant to the Wirral West Constituency. Some questions had also been received in advance of the meeting –

·  A resident, referring to a comment earlier, commented that devolution did not just stop at Councils but also went down to community and voluntary groups and then to individuals and the Chair acknowledged that this was indeed the case.

·  A resident referred to funding raised for improvements in Coronation Park, Greasby and the time taken to progress this with the Council. He was surprised that a notice on consultation had not been placed in a more prominent position in Greasby and no consultation had taken place with the people involved in Coronation Park and local residents.

o  The Chair responded that there was a need for the Council to take into account the learning from the constituency grant programmes and issues and obstacles for groups.

o  Councillor Whittingham, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, commented that over the last five years the Authority had lost £151m in funding and as a consequence there were now less staff within the Council to look into such matters. The Chair commented that facilitating community-led activity should be prioritised by the Council.

·  A resident referred to the Hoylake Golf Resort proposal to be considered by the Cabinet and queried how the Council would consult with all its residents and how it would take account of non-responses of those living in the southern part of the borough.

o  The Chair stated that he was unaware of how the consultation process would run but that local Councillors would undoubtedly have their own mechanisms for speaking with their own constituents.

o  Councillor Ellis commented that each part of the borough should have their own meetings for consultation as would be happening in Hoylake.

o  Councillor Whittingham commented that he did not have an answer as to how the formal consultation process would be undertaken but that he would find the information and pass it on to the Constituency Manager.

·  A resident referred to the use of the word ‘aspiration’ in the Hoylake Golf Resort report.

o  Councillor Whittingham commented that he understood the use of the word in this context meant to create jobs and value in the economy.

·  A resident had submitted a question about the Council Plan – a 2020 Vision, the cost of its production and who would see it.

o  The Constituency Manager stated that she would provide a written response, the 2020 Vision document was commissioned from an external designer at a cost of £2,400 as it was designed to be an interactive document, and therefore viewable on smart ‘phones and tablets. A very small amount of documents had been printed, the Plan being available to view online.

·  A resident referred to the current consultation on the Council’s Allotment Strategy and stated that a lot of residents were not aware of it.

o  The Constituency Manager stated that costs were too prohibitive to send consultations out by post to everybody and that whatever consultations were taking place the Council always tried to ensure that copies were made available in libraries and in one stop shops. She would continue to work with departments and the community to try and ensure any consultations had as wide a circulation as possible.

·  A resident referred to the issue of road safety in Trinity Road, Hoylake and the possibility of a 20mph speed limit.

o  Councillor Ellis responded that there had been lots of discussion on this issue and the possibility of road humps had been discussed but the Police and Fire authorities had raised objections. He would follow this up again and see what could be done.

·  A resident had submitted a written question on the HYPE group and the award of funding from Constituency Committees.

o  The Constituency Manager stated that a written response would be supplied and that HYPE had been awarded £4,000 by the Wirral West Constituency Committee, a £3,000 public health grant in March 2014 and a Community Fund grant of £1,000 in February, 2015. They had not received any grants from any other constituency committees. She was satisfied that the Public Health grant had been used for the purpose awarded. With regard to the February grant she had been notified that the closure of the HYPE Shop at Eltham Green, Woodchurch was not a factor in the delivery of the project. All grants were monitored.

·  A resident referred to an individual who had been living in a camper van for approximately 10 weeks on West Kirby promenade and asked if any bye-laws could be introduced to prevent this in future.

o  Councillor Gerry Ellis commented that liaison had taken place with both police and social services and the situation had now been resolved.

·  A resident had submitted a written question about an incident at the Hoole Road Hub regarding the length of time for an ambulance to attend to a lady who was requiring hospital treatment and the fact that when the ambulance did attend it had come all the way from Bootle.

o  The Chair stated that he would write to the North West Ambulance Service about this specific incident and response times and report back to the next meeting.

·  A resident queried whether the proposed golf resort, would, as in other golf resorts discourage people from going off the resort once they were staying there.

o  The Chair responded that there was a need to see the full plans in terms of how the resort element would work. He understood, however, that the hotel element of the proposal would not be an all-inclusive one and that it would be unusual for the Council to mandate a business model.

·  A resident, referring to the response earlier on the subject of the individual living in a camper van on West Kirby promenade, queried whether the same response would have occurred if the person had been living in Birkenhead.

o  The Chair responded that, as stated earlier, liaison had taken place with both police and social services and the situation had now been resolved.

·  The Constituency Manager referred to two further comments from residents by email who were not in attendance and that responses would be provided in writing.