Mr Lennon

I would like to express my concern about an arrangement between a voluntary organisation and Wirral Council.

It is my understanding that a Central Government initiative was responsible for Wirral undertaking a series of conservation area character appraisals which were conditional upon a withdrawal of central government funding in the event of any failure to implement the programme.

There are, I believe, 24 designated conservation areas throughout Wirral.  For no obvious reason, only 16 of these areas were selected for inclusion in the programme of the preparation of character appraisals.  Oxton Village conservation area, to the understandable consternation of the Oxton Society, was amongst those excluded from the programme.

The Oxton Society, anxious to discover the reasons for this exclusion, accepted the opportunity for a delegation from the Society to meet with senior officers from the Authority.  Although no reason was given for the exclusion of Oxton Village conservation area from the appraisals programme the Authority initially declined to reverse its decision.  Desperate to ensure that Oxton Village would be able to share in the potential benefit of a character appraisal and the subsequent compilation of an Area Management Plan, the Society and the Authority agreed that the Oxton Society would provide a degree of expertise and that the Society and the Authority would share the £5,000 cost of engaging the services of specialist consultants

This is remarkably similar to a recent previous arrangement when, in return for the offer of a contribution of £1,000, again from the Oxton Society, the Authority agreed to engage specialist consultants to examine the case for an extension of Oxton Village Conservation area. 

Primarily as a Council taxpayer, but also as a lifelong member of the Oxton Society, I have concerns about the current arrangement.

I have received no response from the Conservation Officer [Matthew Crook].  I believe that the Area Co-ordinator is aware that the Authority’s record of response to correspondence is abysmal.  I can give instances where the Local Authority has ignored correspondence.

In desperation, I sent a sheet containing 13 questions, and ask the Officers here this evening because the Local Authority has declined the opportunity to respond in any mature way.

Area Co-ordinator

Chair

Matthew Crook has shared information with me, and I sent the responses to you by email this morning.

You’ve raised serious matters, as the Conservation Officer is not here  to deal with the matter and you have had a response by email I do not think that we can deal with the matter further at this meeting. There is an official complaints procedure you can go through if you remain dissatisfied.

Brian Christian

OPP forum

Attendance at forums.  We have ‘away days.’  If it is a subject of interest and you have an awareness programme you will get people to attend.  Would it be possible to change the ethos of the forum and instead of getting the general public to bring questions, choose a subject which will affect the area directly, and this would generate interest.  When people are interested in a particular subject they will attend.

Mr Taylor

Can I ask at a future forum, we have information on how you become a conservation area and what the benefits are?

Chair

A presentation at the next meeting?

Alan Dollery

1)  There was a letter in the paper from David Green about grass verges.  I have not seen anyone in the local paper being fined for such action.  Prenton Dell is full of parked cars on pavements and grass verges.  I wonder if David Green could enlighten us on whether they intend to prosecute people as they have been threatening to do for years and I cannot see any action in the Prenton area and I would like him to stop the practice.

2)  The new Chief Constable.  A few weeks ago there was a comment from another Chief Constable saying people involved in antisocial behaviour are not committing a crime – they are not robbing or killing anyone.  Antisocial behaviour is horrible and it is a crime.  I would like to know the stance of our new Chief Constable.

Brian Griffiths

The new Chief Constable is Mr Murphy.  I worked with him 23 years ago when he was a Detective Sergeant in Wallasey – he has served the majority of his service on Merseyside.  I have seen a number of communications from him so far.  One of the main issues is that he is setting his stall out to gain public confidence.  The main issue is what has been classed as low level anti social behaviour.  However, anti social behaviour in my view is what affects people’s lives; day to day anti social behaviour does affect people.  I have had some good feedback locally and I work with Wirral anti-social behaviour team and with Wirral Partnership Homes.  We have just had our first closure order for anti-social behaviour, the first on Wirral.  This particular individual was removed from his house because of anti-social behaviour towards local residents.  We are very proud of that and it has made a big difference to individuals in that area.  Our partners are getting much smarter in dealing with ASBOs.  For example, when an individual breached the order we received support from Wirral Magistrates who imprisoned the individual for 12/16 weeks at a time. 

I would ask you to report any issues you have on antisocial behaviour.

Chair

Parking on grass verges.  I have seen people contacted in Holm Lane.

Mark Smith

There has been progress and a lot of interest recently from Elected Members of the Council on the progress we are making on this.  About 18 months ago we brought in a policy to stop parking on verges.  We introduced a relatively small number of trial streets across the Borough.  One of the practical issues, some of the traffic signs require changing and we have added more signs in relation to those restrictions but the money set aside has not gone as far as we initially hoped. 

We are taking a report to the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee and I can let Mr Dollery and other forum members have an update on that.

We are following on with the second phase, bearing in mind the limited financial resources we have.

Mr Dollery

Do you go out weekends and evenings to see perpetrators?

Mark Smith

The Civil Enforcement Officers work at other times and weekends etc as necessary.

Brian Griffiths

[Police]

If it would assist, I would be more than happy for my Officers to provide a photograph of the vehicle registration plate, if a vehicle is parked on a verge.

Paul Haywood

It will give people no choice but to park on the road.  If they park on both sides this will prevent access by emergency vehicles and bin lorries.  The answer is asphalt over the grass verges or make parking bays. 

Member of public

The Police send Community Support Officers, but they said they could do nothing.  They have to see the driver drive on to the grass verge before they can book them.  We have so many cars parked on pavements we have to walk on the road. 

Brian Griffiths [Police]

I think you have been given wrong information. If you drive on a verge and you are causing damage to the verge it is criminal damage.  I think you could go along those lines. 

Patrick Dowling

My question is about the consultation process, and about leadership of the Council.

In June, 22 members of the public attended to hear the Chief Executive Officer of the Council talk about the Local Government structure – an overview of how the Council functions and how decisions are made.  The Council launched a consultation to give the public the opportunity to contribute.  The exercise ended on 30 November, and I was one of only 40 [out of perhaps half a million residents on Wirral] who responded in writing, hence the headline ‘Apathy’ in the local Press.

What happened at that meeting on 21 December and how was the future of the Council decided?