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Bebington & Clatterbridge Area Forum Papers for the forum meeting Tuesday 16 th June 2009 Victoria Hall, Village Road, Bebington, Wirral CH63 8PT (adjacent to the Acorn Pub) 7.00pm _____________________________________________ Michelle Gray - Community Engagement Co-ordinator Tel: 0151 691 8213 Fax: 0151 691 8159 Textphone: 18001 0151 691 8213 Email: [email protected] Website: www.wirral.gov.uk Community Engagement Team, Corporate Services, Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, Wirral CH44 8ED 1 Contents Section One Minutes from last Meeting 3 - 9 Section Two Local Updates 10 – 21 • Wirral’s Anti-Social Behaviour Team/Community Safety 10 – 12 • Equality & Diversity Update 12 - 13 • Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service 14 - 15 • Personal Travel Planning Report 15 - 16 • Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 17 - 18 • NHS Wirral 18 - 19 • Youth Service 19 - 20 • Older People’s Parliament 20 - 21 ___________________________________________________ Code of Conduct for Area Forums Ø Indicate to the Chairperson when you would like to speak Ø Let invited speakers finish what they have to say Ø Respect others right to be heard Ø Do not use abusive or offensive language Ø Do not make any discriminatory remarks Ø Do not have private conversations while meeting is in progress 2 Section One Minutes from last meeting February 2009 AREA FORUM (BEBINGTON AND CLATTERBRIDGE) Tuesday, 3 February 2009 Present: S Clarke (Chair) Councillors C Teggin, C Povall, W Smith, J Williams In attendance: Community Representatives Ray Johnston Older People’s Parliament Representative Frank McCoy Lead Officer Stephen Rowley, Assistant Director of Finance Area Service Co-ordinator Michelle Gray Street Scene Manager Phil Miner Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Michael Monaghan Brian Cummings (Public Governor) NHS Wirral (formerly Primary Care Trust) Dr Shanilla Roohi Merseyside Police Inspector Andy Wise Merseyside Fire & Rescue Sarah Patterson Council Officers Hazel Edwards, (Corporate Services), Andrew Fraser, (Corporate Services) Mark Smith, (Streetscene and Waste Services), Carol Sharratt (minute taker) Jim Thompson (Community Safety Team) Apologies Councillors A Jennings, Marla Johnson, Glen Coleman 1 WELCOME, INTRODUCTIONS AND APOLOGIES Councillor Sheila Clarke, Chair for this evening’s meeting, welcomed the forum members and 10 members of the public to the meeting of the Area Forum in Bebington Civic Centre and asked the forum members to introduce themselves. Apologies were received from Marla Johnson, who is not well and best wishes were offered to her, Councillor Alan Jennings and Glen Coleman. 2 MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS FORUM Matters arising A member of the public raised issue amount of time allocated to the public question time, at the last meeting only 15minutes was used for this from the two hour meeting. P10: Older People’s Parliament - Frank McCoy Informed the forum that there had been a delay in setting up the constitution due to problems with elections, but it is hoped that this will be resolved soon. The minutes from the last meeting, held on 7 th October 2008, were accepted as a true record. 3 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT UPDATE The Community Engagement Co-ordinator gave a brief overview of her report, highlighting the following: Page 2 - Launch of new Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) website ( http://wirrallsp. org ). This is in its early stages and will be fully operational by March 2009 and comments on this would be valued. The contact for the website is Maxine Joynson (0151 691 8266 / [email protected] ) Page 5 - You Decide Results – the reports on the £20,000 allocation had been forwarded to the relevant departments (Technical Services and Regeneration). Pages 13 to 23 - Partner updates, including full report on the Integrated Transport Block (pages 18 to 20), to be covered in more detail by Mark Smith under item 4. The Chair asked if there were any questions on this and none were raised. Minute decision: Resolved: That the Community Engagement Coordinator be thanked for her report. 4 INTEGRATED TRANSPORT BLOCK FUNDING Mark Smith (Streetscene and Waste Services) gave an update on the Integrated Transport Block (ITB) Funding. In Autumn 2006 the forums were consulted on how this funding would be allocated. Nine of the forums requested that the funding remain in a central pot for funding larger schemes. Two of the forums (Heswall/Pensby/Thingwall and Bromborough/Eastham) requested that the funding be allocated by the forums. The success of this initiative piloted in 2007/08 in these two Area Forums, has led to continued de-centralisation of funds for 2008/09 for the two forums and officers being 3 requested to consult with the remaining nine Forums to determine if they wish to receive de- centralised funding. A report on the forums’ recommendations will be taken to Cabinet on 19 th March 2009. The Chair thanked Mark Smith and the Forum debated this proposal and asked the public for their views on this, the majority of whom felt that it should remain in the central pot. The forum recommended that the fund remain centralised and Mark Smith agreed to report this back to the Cabinet. The following Streetscene issues were also raised: • Member of the public - there are over 32 million cars on Britain’s roads, and further increases in the number of cars will lead to more traffic jams, parking problems and abandoned vehicles. The number of vehicles on the roads needs to be cut. Mark Smith agreed to discuss this issue in more detail after the meeting. • Councillor Smith – the puffin crossing at Heath Road was not required or wanted by the local residents and questioned decision to install this. Councillor Williams agreed with this and added it went ahead as it had received funding from Merseytravel, even though the need for it was not backed by highway statistics and went against public opinion. A member of the public added that there were three public service vehicles parked at the bus stop on the opposite side of the road to the crossing causing chaos and that he had written to the Council about this problem. Mark Smith – puffin crossings that are funded by the Council are assessed using a criteria approved by the Council. Merseytravel are responsible for public transport improvements. The proposal went through the statutory advertisement process allowing objections to be submitted and considered. The decision was made by the Streetscene and Transport Services overview and Scrutiny Committee. • Member of the public – there are problems with dropped kerbs on Old Chester Road / Kings Lane route, with some of the dropped kerbs actually being raised by at least two inches. Also Jackson Close does not have dropped kerbs. Councillor Williams – the council policy is to concentrate resources in shopping centres in the first instance, but there disability access user groups that look at such issues, so areas in need should be highlighted to your local councillor / the disability forum, as kerbs are being added to the list all the time. The Council does not have the resources to put in all dropped kerbs and fix older dropped kerbs. Frank McCoy – main roads should be a priority. Mark Smith – the ITB funding is the pot of money used for such schemes. Dropped kerbs that are not set properly should be reported as the Council would look to remedy these. Minute decision: Resolved: That Mark Smith be thanked for his update and report the Forum’s recommendation for the allocation to remain within the central pot back to Cabinet on the 19 th March 2009. 5 LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK Andrew Fraser (Corporate Services) gave a presentation (copies of which were handed out at the meeting) on the Local Development Framework (LDF). The LDF is a new style development plan that will replace Wirral’s Unitary Development Plan (UDP) and be used alongside the Regional Spatial Strategy, issued by the Secretary of State. The LDF will be a key legal document covering 15- 20 years and will consist of a Core Strategy and a spatial plan, and there are opportunities to consult on this at each stage of a long process until its submission to the Secretary of State. The proposed adoption date for the LDF is 2011. Forum members had already received a copy of the Issues, Vision and Objectives consultation document, covering issues, vision (to 2025 with 15 main elements linked to the Sustainable Community Strategy) and 29 objectives. Anyone wishing to get involved can request a copy of the consultation document by adding their details to the list available at the meeting or by contacting Hazel Edwards (0151 691 8225 / [email protected] ). The deadline for comments is 5pm on 27 March 2009. Anyone wishing to be kept involved in the LDF process can request to be added to our contact database again by contacting Hazel Edwards. The Chair thanked Andrew Fraser for his presentation and the following questions / issues were raised: 4 Member of the public 1. What stage will be reached at the end of March? 2. Is there a firm timetable for this? 3. Are officers currently working on document containing major land use changes? 4. The UDP is presently being used for planning applications. At what stage in the plan will the public be notified of changes to the allocation of land to ensure proper input, will this be post 2011? Andrew Fraser 1. This will be one of the initial stages, the policy option has not yet been reached and different options for reaching the vision will be considered. 2. The timetable is still being negotiated with the Secretary of State. 3. This is being worked on from the bottom up and no land use allocation is being worked on at this stage. 4. The core strategy is not a site specific document, land use plans will be put into place once this is adopted, which will be post 2011.

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