Making your Neighbourhood Cleaner, Safer and Greener Together

Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (, and Wards)

To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Introduction Welcome to your local Neighbourhood Community Charter Tony Robertson - Leader of Sefton I am really pleased to introduce the Neighbourhood Community Charter. It Metropolitan sets out the levels of service you can expect from the major departments of Borough Council. and key partners such as the Police. It also shows how you can help us to achieve and maintain those standards. If we work together we can make our neighbourhoods even cleaner, safer and greener.

Your local Area Committee will be working with you to make sure that standards are met. It is important that you use your chance to have a say about services that affect you.

The Neighbourhood Community Charter is a “living document” that will be reviewed annually. In the forthcoming year we will be actively working with partner agencies to ensure that their services and future plans are included in the next charter. Sefton MBC will also set out its consultation and engagement mechanisms as detailed under the “Duty to Involve” which will come into force in April 2009.

Your Area Committee

Sefton has created Area Committees to give its residents a greater say in Council affairs. The Area Committee meetings are held regularly and provide local people with the chance to raise issues with the Councillors and Police, ask questions, and find out more about what is happening in the area.

There is an opportunity at the meeting for residents to ask questions, raise matters, or present issues which are relevant to the Council. Questions have to be in writing and advice on how to do this is on the website. The meeting also deals with local issues mainly transport and environment

For further information about your Ward Councillors and when your Area Committee meets, visit www.sefton.gov.uk and click on the “council, and democracy” link. Alternatively, ring Sefton Plus on 0845 140 0845.

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To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Your Neighbourhood Profile

The Sefton East Parishes area committee is made up of three wards Park, Molyneux and Sudell.

Sefton is the name of the former parish in the West Hundred, which has given its name to the new Metropolitan Borough, thus preserving the continuity of a name, which has been associated with the area for over 1,000 years. Sefton Parish is one of the most important historical buildings in Sefton. Sefton East is home to the famous Racecourse and also a bustling Town Centre in .

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To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Cleaning Your Streets

We are committed to keeping your streets as clean as possible. The following pictures show the different grades of cleanliness that we are measured against, according to government standards. To do this we need your help to tell us when things aren’t right.

Street cleaning is carried out in all residential areas, on a specified day and frequency. To find out when your street will be cleaned click on http://www.sefton.gov.uk/default. aspx?page=4247

Streets are cleaned from the back of the pavement to the kerb on each side of the street. This is picked up by a litter picker (cans, bottles, etc.) Broken glass and leaves are usually swept up with a brush and shovel. Where light mechanical sweepers are used on the pavement some manual cleansing is also done to clean up hard to reach areas like behind telecoms boxes. Gutters are normally swept mechanically by large road sweepers and this is likely to be on a different frequency to the pavement cleansing.

Street cleansing only takes place when the pavements actually require it and it is quite possible in some areas that only a light litter picker is required. There is no requirement for the street cleansing operative to physically brush each and every street or part of it.

Street cleaning is provided in local shopping areas at least twice a week

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To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Emptying your bins and recycling • Once established, all collections will take place on the same day of the We are changing the way we collect your week. household rubbish. • Wheeled bins will be microchipped For the majority of properties, grey and green with an electronic code to assist the wheeled bins will be provided FREE of charge return of missing bins and collection and will replace black and, where the green round planning. waste service is provided green sacks. We will no longer provide any black or green sacks to • Grey week, Green week, Recycling properties as the new service is introduced. EVERY week

The green wheeled bin will be for Options and variations compostable garden waste.

The grey wheeled bin will be for rubbish that If you live in a property that is not suitable cannot be recycled. for wheeled bins we will introduce bespoke collection services. Please continue to use the current plastic sack system until you are Wheeled bins will be collected on alternating contacted by us. weeks and you will be provided with an easy to understand calendar to show you on which week the grey or green wheeled bin will be Residents that require assistance with refuse collected. and recycling collection services can request this via the Contact Centre on 0845 140 0845. The weekly Green Bee (green box) collection Collection of garden waste for composting, service will remain unchanged. This collects from properties that have a bespoke collection paper, cans, glass and textiles. A new weekly service, can be arranged upon request via the food waste collection will also be offered to FREE bulky item collection service. those who wish to use it. As the new service is introduced, households will be able to request You will receive more detailed information as a free kitchen food waste caddy and external the new service is introduced. YOU DO NOT container for the weekly collection of food waste NEED TO TAKE ANY ACTION NOW. for controlled composting. Information about the refuse service can be Recycling sites in , Maghull, and obtained via the Contact Centre or the Council will be open to the public every day web site at www.sefton.gov.uk except for Christmas day, Boxing day and New Years day for household waste.

Please remember:

• Your collection day may change when the new system is introduced. 5

To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Bulky Waste Collection Graffiti Removal • We will try and remove racist or offensive We provide a FREE household collection graffiti within 48 working hours. service for up to three bulky items at any one time. Please contact Sefton Plus to arrange • Other graffiti will be removed on a waiting a collection. We aim to give you a date for list rotation basis, which is usually within 28 collection within five working days of you working days. contacting us. At busy times this might be • Graffiti will only be removed from private longer and also depends on when you are property with the written consent of the available as our customer. owner and there may be a charge. We can collect: Litterbins • White goods such as fridges and washing • Requests for new litterbins should be made machines. Please make sure that they are to your local councillors. empty. • Litterbins are emptied at least as frequently • Furniture such as beds, wardrobes and as the particular street is cleansed and settees. Please make sure that soft usually more often. furnishings are not left where they could get wet. Abandoned Vehicles • Glass items. These must be taped up or put in a sealed container. We aim to investigate reported abandoned vehicles within 24 hours of notification if the • Gates and house doors. vehicle is in a dangerous condition and up to • Up to twelve bags of garden waste. 15 days if they are not. Your first step should be to report a suspected abandoned vehicle to We can’t take: Police.

• Bathroom suites. Pest Control • Domestic waste, rubble, fences and garage doors. We Offer • Hazardous waste such as asbestos, fluid • Free domestic pest control treatment service containers or drums. for “public health” pests i.e. rats, mice, cockroaches, bedbugs & fleas. Please remember: • Chargeable domestic pest control treatment • All items for collection must be put service for “non-public health” pests i.e. somewhere that is easy for us to collect from. wasps nests and ants. The charges for • Only items that you have already told us providing this service are reviewed every about will be picked up. year and can be found on our website at http://www.sefton.gov.uk/default. • You must list items individually as part of the aspx?page=2836 three that you can have picked up at any one time. A three-piece suite counts as three • A “morning” or “afternoon” appointment 6 items. will be made to undertake pest control treatments.

To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Parks and Open Spaces

We will: • Maintain parks and open spaces in a clean, tidy, litter free and safe condition at all times. • Provide notice boards displaying the Parks Charter standards, information and contact numbers, in all main parks. • Work with other agencies to reduce vandalism and fear of crime in parks & open spaces. by unwanted noise are available on our • Empty Litter & Dog Bins daily and remove website at http://www.sefton.gov.uk/Default. litter in parks twice a week. aspx?page=3768 • Encourage responsible dog ownership. Dog Wardens • Sweep the paths once every week.

• Rake sand in children’s play areas once • We provide a Dog Warden service, which per week; safer surfaced areas will be litter patrols and responds to complaints about picked twice per week. Sand and bark safer dog fouling and stray and/or dangerous surfaces will be renewed annually. dogs. • Inspect play areas every ten days and • We provide support for micro-chipping and ensure that equipment is safe to use. neutering dogs. • Repair play equipment, wherever possible, • More information about the Dog Warden within two weeks following inspection. Service can be found on our website • Investigate repairs in relation to vandalism in at http://www.sefton.gov.uk/default. parks, wherever possible, within one working aspx?page2828 day following it being reported/identified. • Remove offensive graffiti within 24 hours of Highways and Paths reporting / inspection. • We will treat every road in Sefton with weed Noise killer three times a year. This is done in February, June and September. • Noise causes annoyance and stress to people. • There is a rapid response team to deal with hot spots of weed growth. • We aim to respond to all complaints about noise within three working days. • To respond to enquiries or requests for information within ten working days.

More information about how we can work together to sort out problems caused 7

To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Highway Verges • We will cut general grass verges to make sure that they are no more than 50mm high. • We will cut the grass on floral roundabouts so that it is no more than 25mm high. • We will cut rough grass embankments twice a year. Street Lighting Traffic Signs

We usually repair street lighting within three Signs are inspected four times a year and working days (If there is a problem on the replaced if necessary. electricity cable feeding the column, notification is sent to the Utility who usually attend within Bollards fifteen working days of receiving report). If the metal plate at the bottom of the streetlight has All new bollards must be authorised by the Area been removed, we will attend within two hours Committee. Maintenance of existing bollards is to make it safe. limited to basic repairs or replacement in cases of danger to the public. Bollards are inspected Gully Cleansing four times a year.

All gullies within the adopted highway are Highway Trees presently cleaned twice a year, although parked cars and other restrictions may occasionally Highway trees are inspected once every four prevent some from being cleaned. Gullies in years and any necessary urgent maintenance back entries will be cleaned once a year. works are done.

Any reports of flooding or blocked gullies are Wherever possible tree roots that cause a investigated. A 24-hour reactive service is in safety problem on the highway, are removed operation and a free key retrieval service is to keep the highway in a safe condition. Where provided. Regular inspections are carried out this is not possible the tree will be removed for to monitor performance. safety reasons. Street Nameplates The tree maintenance standard does not currently allow for automatic replacement of Each road must have a nameplate at each end. felled trees. These are inspected four times a year. Highways Enforcement Seats The standard of service is to enforce the Limited standards of service are maintained provisions of the Highways Act 1980 without for highway seats. If they are a danger to exception, but within the limits of available 8 the public then they are removed. Seats are resources. Dangerous occurrences are inspected four times a year. prioritised for enforcement action.

To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Community Safety

Inspector Paul We all want Sefton to be a place where people feel safe and Meadows - Sefton where there is less crime and anti-social behaviour. The Council East Neighbourhood is working hard with the Police and the Fire and Rescue Service Inspector to achieve this. Please help us by reporting crimes and anti-social behaviour.

The Council has a small Anti-Social Behaviour Unit staffed with Council Officers, Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. The unit will help you to deal with events on estates which involve criminal and inappropriate behaviour. The type of things it would help you with are noisy neighbours, intimidation and threats, teenagers hanging around on the streets, rubbish, and litter.

Please report anti-social behaviour to your local Neighbourhood Police Inspector or if you live in a rented house to your Registered Social Landlord. You will need to give details of the events and then you will be given help as to what needs to be done next.

The Anti-Social Behaviour Unit can be contacted at: [email protected]. uk or you can ring them on 0151 934 2604.

The Council has a security service called Sefton Security. This has a dedicated manned guarding service which operates throughout Sefton. They patrol all areas and lock and unlock the parks. Mobile patrols are also provided for parks, open spaces and leisure centres to try and stop anti-social behaviour.

Please contact us on our 24 hour phone line on 0151 922 6107 or email us at info@sefton-security. co.uk.

Sefton has divided its policing area into 9 neighbourhoods. These are led by a Neighbourhood Inspector with a team of officers. Your local police station is Maghull Police Station, Westway, Maghull, Merseyside, L31 0AA. Maghull Police Station is open Monday – Fridays 9.00 am. – 5.00 pm.

To make sure that your confidence in the police is improved, we want to make sure that we:

• Have staff to deal with telephone enquiries and answer calls that need police to attend an incident as quickly as we can. • Improve the levels of police patrols. • Work closely with our partners to deliver services together to make a difference in our communities, for example, working with the Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour Unit. • To listen to your views to change the ways we work with you to improve our communities. • To use the evidence that we have to target police officers at the areas most affected by crime. 9

To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Contacting the Police 0151 709 6010 - non emergency number

This is the number to use if you need the Police for most issues, ranging from wanting to know if there are any vacancies in the Force or advice on how to deal with noisy neighbours.

We aim to answer 85% of calls made on this number within 15 seconds.

999 - emergency

You should always call this number if you have an emergency that you need Police help with. An emergency is:

• An incident with potential to be a threat to life or the community. This would be an incident such as a murder or rape, or an incident involving a gun.

• A crime in progress.

• A crime is about to be committed by suspects at the scene.

• Personal violence is either being used, threatened or likely to occur.

• There is a vulnerable person at risk.

• To recover offensive weapons such as firearms or knives.

• We aim to answer 88% of 999 calls within 10 seconds.

0800 555 111 - Crimestoppers

You can call Crimestoppers anonymously if you want to give information about crime. Crimestoppers is an independent UK wide charity working to stop crime. Calls are free and will not show on your telephone bill.

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To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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Neighbourhood Community Charter for Sefton East Parishes (Molyneux, Park and Sudell Wards)

Hate Crime

Hate Crime is any offence committed against a person or property which is motivated by the offender’s hatred of people because they are seen as being different. There are a number of reporting centres that you can contact. If you click on http://www.sefton.gov.uk/Default. aspx?page=4879 this will give you the locations. Data on hate crimes is monitored by the Sefton Equalities Partnership.

Sefton Equalities Partnership 5th Floor, Merseyside 3TC Building 16, Crosby Road North Waterloo Merseyside L22 0NY

Tel: 0151 928 2233 x307 [email protected]

You need to help us to keep your neighbourhoods cleaner, safer and greener by:

• Putting your refuse out at the • Encouraging others like your kerbside or gatepost of your neighbours, friends and family property in good time for collection to take pride and care in their on the day of collection (or if you neighbourhood by: have an early morning collection, late the previous night). • Not dropping litter and disposing of rubbish in a responsible way • Reporting any fly tipping, graffiti, and recycling where possible or vandalism, damage or hazards. using the council’s free bulky waste collection service. • Giving us your ideas on how we can improve the standards in parks • Being a responsible dog owner - and open spaces. bag it and bin it.

• Reporting any anti-social • Not putting rubbish, fat, grease behaviour you see only using 999 and old engine oil down gullies. in a genuine emergency. Currently only one in four calls made are • Treating others and the 11 genuine emergencies. environment with care and respect.

To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

sefton east.indd 11 8/5/08 13:01:16 If you want to contact us here are some useful numbers for you to ring or access our service through www.sefton.gov.uk. If you would like to talk to someone face to face please visit us at our One Stop Shops

Bootle One Stop Shop, 324-342 Stanley Road, Bootle, L20 6ET, 0845 140 0845, [email protected]

Housing Repairs - One Vision Housing, 0845 140 1234

For other information on Council Services please refer to our website: www.sefton.gov.uk

To contact us, log on to www.sefton.gov.uk, email us at [email protected], ring us on 0845 140 0845 or call into one of our One Stop Shops

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