Notice of questions to be given in writing or by email, by 12noon, Monday 25^th January 2021 to the Council’s Monitoring Officer (committeeservices@wirral.gov.uk) and to be dealt with in accordance with Standing Order 10.

6 Questions were received, all for the Chair

Question 1

From Gillian Homeri.

“Is the Environment Committee able and willing to write to George Eustace asking him to reinstate the ban on neonicotinoids?

Are they aware and concerned that neonicotinoids are toxic to bees and this lifting of the ban will undermine the hard work Wirral Borough Council and others are doing to protect pollinators.

Globally the number of bee species has already fallen by 25% since 1990. We cannot allow this to continue.

I would also like to know if neonicotinoids (should the ban not be reinstated) are likely to be used by famers on the Wirral.”

Answer 1

I am happy to write to George Eustace and can say so. Rest of committee agreed to sign letter.

Question 2

From Louise Stothard from 'For Trees Wirral'

“When will Wirral Borough Council stop felling trees, we’ve lost over 6,000 trees?”

Answer 2

Wirral Council will only fell trees when it is a last resort and is absolutely necessary to protect public achieve and maintain public safety.

Clearly trees are not permanent landscape features so have a finite safe life expectancy when growing in our parks or adjacent to the highway, so we will always have a small proportion of trees which have reached the end of their life cycle and which are just not safe to be left standing.

In less occupied areas we do allow trees to collapse slowly and naturally over time but as I’m sure you can appreciate this natural destabilisation isn’t something we can accommodate next to the highway or a footpath.

Our trees are inspected by fully qualified and highly experienced arboricultural inspectors. This service was outsourced to a private contractor but we have just hired two full time arboricultural inspectors to internalise the service. It is worth noting that the tree inspection company is absolutely independent from the tree maintenance company who carry out the works. Every member of this team is a fully qualified and experienced arboriculturalist.

We are confident that this natural loss is being successfully mitigated through our significant tree planting programme. We have moved beyond just maintaining continuity of tree cover as we seek to deliver the goal of the tree strategy to double tree cover over the next ten years. Approximately 21,000 new trees have / will be planted this current planting season (November to March) which delivers a healthy replanting ratio. We are currently recruiting a dedicated landscape manager who will be tasked with delivering the goals of the tree strategy and seeking funding for future tree planting and habitat creation projects across the borough.

It has been observed from our tree inventory that a great majority of our trees are mature, therefore substantial new tree planting will add resilience to our tree population.  We do value the cultural and ecological value of very old veteran trees and to ensure that we can maintain these trees for longer in confidence there has been significant financial investment in state of the art sonic decay detection apparatus. There are approximately 170 trees which the inspectors have noted basal and stem decay, however rather than just felling these trees without further investigation, these trees will be tested with the decay detection equipment to provide the clearest assessment of their structural integrity to allow a fully informed decision to be made on the management interventions required. If not dangerous, they will not be felled.

Wirral Council recognises the value of its tree population and has grown the tree management team over a short period of time to seven members of staff to ensure that trees are maintained correctly and safely, are given full consideration during the planning process, and are re-planted in abundance across the borough.

Question 3

From John Rodgers

“Recently I enquired about whether or not Wirral Borough Council had a policy or provision to discourage motorists waiting in parked cars with the engine running.
I was prompted to this as each and every day that I walk my dog I see at least one parked car with its engine idling whilst the occupant is engrossed by their telephone.
As I only see about 30 cars throughout my daily journey these are presumably the tip of an iceberg that isn’t melting away.
Can a question be raised concerning enforcement or raising public awareness of existing laws?
Is Wirral Borough Council taking the minimisation of avoidable environmental pollution as a serious matter?”

Answer 3

Thank you for raising your concerns about engine idling.  

As part of Wirral Councils plan to tackle avoidable pollution across the Borough, our Environmental Health Officers have been working with our Highways and Infrastructure team to address issues of idling by educating drivers, where we have had complaints or observed engine idling during our routine enforcement activities. Wirral Council takes all complaints by residents very seriously and Officers are working tirelessly to address problems of this nature.

There are limitations to the current legislation which has made enforcement of the Anti-idling regulations difficult, in order to serve an FPN the driver must firstly be approached be asked to switch the engine off first, if they switch off their engine a notice cannot be served.  It is only if they refuse to turn it off that we can then serve notice.  In addition, the regulations provided circumstances where vehicles are permitted to be stationary with their engine running (e,g. running the engine to detect a defect) and the guidance to the regulations states that enforcement personnel must consider mitigating circumstances.

In addition to these limitations, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has put strain on many aspects of our work and the priorities to protect public health;

With this in mind, we are in the process of planning new targeted education for drivers surrounding the topic, informing them of the dangers to their own health as well as the impact on Air Quality in their communities, which will raise public awareness of the matter. This will be set out in a positional statement in the coming weeks.

I would encourage you to contact our Environmental Health Team (environmentalhealth@wirral.ov.uk), if you do have concerns about specific areas so that we can include them on the enforcement routes, this helps us to build a picture of where the idling is taking place so that we can target these areas specifically.

Question 4

From Ryan Haughey

“I am a resident of port sunlight village, in March 2020 the council installed a temporary lamppost outside my house on central road. The temporary lamppost does not conform to the conservational rules of the village and the light is a stark white light which differs from the other lampposts on the street. When will this modern lamppost be replaced with a traditional lamppost that conforms to the conversation rules of the village?”

Answer 4

Thank you for your question about a lighting column in Port Sunlight. 

Any recently erected lighting column is not temporary has been erected because of concerns over the structural condition of the previous column and risk to public safety.  Where column replacements are carried out we will frequently also replace the lantern with a modern LED one.

Cllr Grey explained that the Council’s funding had been cut by hundreds of millions of pounds in the last ten years and that, unfortunately, this impacted on what we can do.

The funding for the LED replacement programme was approved by the Council only on a strict financial and safety-related business case, and unfortunately there is no budget available for heritage columns or luminaries.  However, we would be happy to work with relevant Community Groups, elected Members and, in this case, the Village Trust, to explore what opportunities exist to secure supplementary funding and whether heritage features may be incorporated into our lighting infrastructure.  Meanwhile, the LED replacement programme will continue as planned.

Question 5

From Kelly Newall

“Over 9000 residents are concerned about the safety of Spital Cross Roads including the phasing of the lights and the very poor condition of the road surface and I am asking this committee to make urgent improvements to prevent any further accidents.”

Answer 5

Thank you for raising your concerns about Spital Cross Roads.

Cllr Grey said that a full written response can be provided and reassured Ms Newall that her concerns were very much taken on board and that Cllr Grey has set up a road safety working group which is currently looking at road safety across the borough and will consider these concerns very seriously as they make recommendations to this committee.

Question 6

From Carmel & Peter Sibbald.

“Will the members of the Committee establish a review of road traffic management in Port Sunlight village with the purpose of establishing whether:

·  Port Sunlight village would be a suitable candidate for 20mph zoning

·  gateway road signage could be improved

·  effective traffic calming measures could be introduced to reduce speeding & anti-social driving

·  CCTV could be installed on an existing street lighting column to monitor the roundabout

·  there could be changes to road surfaces, for example strips of granite setts”

Answer 6

Road safety across the borough is currently being reviewed, including 20mph zones, under a cross party Working Group which will report back to this Committee.