Author: John Brace

New media journalist from Birkenhead, England who writes about Wirral Council. Published and promoted by John Brace, 134 Boundary Road, Bidston, CH43 7PH. Printed by UK Webhosting Ltd t/a Tsohost, 113-114 Buckingham Avenue, Slough, Berkshire, England, SL1 4PF.

Inspector McGregor swoops again – 5 drug related arrests above the North Star pub after a cannabis farm discovered

The Wirral Globe has good news for the local police (and local community) they’ve found a cannabis farm above the North Star pub on Laird Street. Perhaps this is why Inspector McGregor didn’t make it to the Oxton/Prenton Area Forum if he was involved with this raid? Although someone else present did say he was … Continue reading “Inspector McGregor swoops again – 5 drug related arrests above the North Star pub after a cannabis farm discovered”

The Wirral Globe has good news for the local police (and local community) they’ve found a cannabis farm above the North Star pub on Laird Street.

Perhaps this is why Inspector McGregor didn’t make it to the Oxton/Prenton Area Forum if he was involved with this raid? Although someone else present did say he was on leave. Certainly those present at the Bidston & St. James/Claughton Area Forum last month were puzzled by the absence of any police (especially as it was held at the St. James Centre just across the road from the police station!)

The North Star pub is about 600m from the Laird Street Police Station and 200m from the Custody Suite, which makes you wonder how dozy (or brazen) the local cannabis dealers must be to try and deal in drugs this so close to the police (in fact so close to the custody suite the police could’ve walked them there and saved the petrol!)

Certainly residents in the area have been complaining to me about crime since November of last year, so I’m pleased that the police are taking action on alleged local drug dealers. The article mentions it was in response to community intelligence. Drug dealing is associated with an increase in burglaries, car crime and other forms of antisocial behaviour.

What was commented on at the last Area Forum was how pleased the residents in sheltered accommodation near the Community Mobile Police Station downtown were as they felt safer now to walk the streets after previous problems with antisocial behaviour.

Arriva and the tale of the new bus stop at which Arriva buses won’t stop (for 5 months!) – Hoylake Road/Compton Road, Bidston

As regular readers of the Bidston & St. James Focus know, Merseytravel recently responded to a campaign we ran (on behalf of local residents of Beechwood) for extra bus stops on Hoylake Road near the Wirral Tennis & Sports Centre.

The one on the North side of Hoylake Road (opposite Compton Road) is fine and buses are stopping at it. Both stops now have timetables in too.

At the end of June I met with a representative of Merseytravel and Wirral Council on site. There was some concern about the effect of parking and traffic from Compton Road. However since a road of houses off Compton Road was demolished to make a park for Bidston Rise there’s been much less traffic coming into and out of Compton Road (which is short and only has houses one side). Both Merseytravel and Wirral Council agreed there would be no road safety issues as long as the bus stop didn’t obscure a drive on Hoylake or affect sight lines. At this point (a few yards from a set of traffic lights the traffic would be moving slowly anyway).

The bus would be fine stopping on the double yellow lines here and the no loading sign wouldn’t apply to a bus.

However a local resident recently stopped me in the street and told me that Arriva buses were not stopping at the Hoylake Road/Compton Road stop on the South side of Hoylake Road.

Originally Merseytravel had planned to put this stop further along Hoylake Road, but the resident outside whose house it’d be objected on grounds of parking and privacy. So instead it was sited nearer to the double yellow lines/no loading at Compton Road/Hoylake Road.

The resident said she had tried to get off Arriva buses at this stop, but they wouldn’t let her on/off, with the driver insisting it wasn’t a stop. However other operators such as Avon that use this route were stopping here. This sounded odd to me, so I wrote to Arriva.

Back in July all operators on the route (including Arriva) were written to about the proposed pair of new bus stops. This is what the Managing Director of Arriva wrote on the 16th July 2010 (before the bus stop was put in):-

“Should existing bus stops be moved, Mr. Finnie would be more than happy to continue using these to aid access to the Tesco store for our customers. However, this would have to be fully risk assessed to ensure that these stops could be used safely”

Bear in mind the existing bus stops weren’t moved, but new ones were added! A risk assessment was done by Wirral Council.

Arriva wrote to me again in a letter dated 23rd February 2011. In this they quote “The manager of Birkenhead depot has investigated and advised the following. Our drivers have been instructed not to serve this stop until we have carried out a full safety assessment on it. We apologise for any inconvenience this may be causing, but it is essential for the safety of our passengers, our drivers and other road users that this is completed before it is used. The stop will then be served once we have registered this additional stop with the Local Authority as we are required to do so.”

So, to summarise Arriva won’t stop their buses at a new bus stop which has been in place for 5 months. It’s already been risk assessed by Wirral Council and Merseytravel and been found to be a suitable site for a bus stop. The timetable insert (provided by Merseytravel) gives people the impression the Arriva services stop here. Today I took some photos of the stop and recorded a video to try and explain to Arriva (and the public) why they aren’t stopping here!

Hopefully Arriva will have some common sense in the near future and/or carry out their “full safety assessment”. I’ll be writing to Simon Finnie, the General Manager at Birkenhead (and back to Steven Hill) and taking him up on the offer of a site visit and Merseytravel if they wish to come.

Compton Road/Hoylake Road bus stop timetable

Compton Road/Hoylake Road bus stop timetable

Compton Road/Hoylake Road bus stop timetable

I did make a one minute video of myself at the bus stop explaining the above, but the traffic seems to have drowned me out! When out this morning, I did bump into the resident who seemed pleased that someone was taking an interest in the problem. However she was walking someone to school and couldn’t chat long.

When I clear up the audio (or dub over it) I’ll post it on this blog. On a point of local history, when I was a teenager the secondary school used to play hockey on the astroturf pitches at Wirral Tennis & Sports Centre in the Winter and Spring term. As the school day finished at the Wirral Tennis & Sports Centre we were expected to make our own way back home as the school minibus only took a few back to the school gates (the school minibus took twelve, but about a hundred boys in my year did sports here each week arriving in a coach). In 1994-1996 I could have done with these extra bus stops (especially in the cold Winter!) as it would’ve saved me a few minutes walk after the slog up the steep hill with sports gear from the sports centre.

However, the main reason behind these stops is to help Beechwood residents who visit Tesco by bus to shop. These extra stops save about 3 minutes walk along Hoylake Road (which with heavy bags of shopping can be tiring for the elderly or disabled).

Cabinet meeting (Wirral Council) 22/02/2011 Part 1 – the Conservative/Lib Dem budget cometh and Labour is not happy

Well yesterday the Conservative & Lib Dem Cabinet “unveiled” their Wirral Council budget for 2011/2012. Labour’s (opposition) budget will arrive by noon on Friday the 25th February.

Next Monday (1st March) the full Council will vote on the budget, although with 41 (yes I know it’s 42 including the Lib Dem Mayor but generally he doesn’t vote as he’s supposed to be politically neutral as part of his office) “progressive partnership” councillors to Labour’s 25 24 (edit – I sometimes forget Cllr. Knowles had switched from Labour to Tory and the independent Cllr Kirwan isn’t still with Wirral Council) councillors, I’m sure even Labour can do the maths and realise Labour’s budget will be defeated next Monday (with no need for Budget Part 2 on the evening of the 9th March) by around seventeen votes.

Can you see which bits of the Budget are from the Lib Dem side and which from the Conservative side? Yes you can see “the seams” between the two halves as we continue to be two independent political parties with minds and policy making processes of our own. If you look really hard you can see the bits influenced by yours truly and others (for example the 4-year rolling programme for 20 mph residential zones discussed last year by the party when Cllr Quinn was Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Transport) now carried forward by Cllr Rennie.

One Lib Dem policy coming into play is the pupil premium which means about £5 million extra for Wirral Schools to spend on children on free school meals, looked after children and service children. You should’ve heard the “wails of anguish” at the Wirral Schools Forum from headmasters/headmistresses from the more prosperous parts of the Borough when they realised £5 million would be spent on improving the educational chances of the most needy! Clearly Wirral is a place of large social divides and the extra money will be a welcome boost to the schools in Bidston & St. James.

So what may you ask is “in the budget”? Well, first to deal with the elements of the council tax that are made up by Merseyside Police’s budget and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service’s budget. Both Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service froze their contributions from Council Tax compared to last year (2010/2011).

Due to increased costs and inflation (as well as a high proportion of its costs being on staff), Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service will be cutting some jobs. Their Chief Exec/treasurer explains the situation in a self-styled “podcast” (I don’t think he quite knows what a podcast is but I have to give them a few marks for trying), which unfortunately with my browser Firefox either opens a blank black window or six video windows of him at once creating an echo effect so I’ve uploaded it to Youtube (which has slightly better audio quality than five echoes).

For the purposes of any copyright lawyers out there, as the work has been made previously available to the public (and still is on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service’s website at this location), this is classed as “fair dealing” under s.30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is being done for the purpose of news reporting (and making sure you can hear what the speaker says).

Quite why councillors on Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service left it to an officer to record a video to explain the cuts is a mystery I’m sure my humble readers can enlighten me on in the comments section (or maybe I’ll just ask Cllr Ellis, Cllr Niblock, Cllr Rennie or Cllr Roberts next time I see them).

Merseyside Police Authority – Budget Meeting for 2010/2011

The Merseyside Police Authority’s Budget meeting was today when the Merseyside Police Authority set their budget for 2011/2012.

Due to reductions in their budget, Merseyside Police will see a drop in police officers from the current 4,348.8 full-time equivalent officers at the end of this financial year to 4,178.8 full-time equivalent at the end of 2011/2012. There is also going to be a reduction in police staff anticipated to be 163. A councillor at the meeting did ask what the reduction in actual police officers would be for Wirral. The Chief Constable replied that the criteria used would be population, levels of crime, deprivation, the effect of the night-time economy and the professional judgement of Chief Officers within each local authority area.

As a result of the changes to the budget, the planned Wirral Area Command Centre on a derelict piece of land near Birkenhead North railway station will now not go ahead.

Planning Committee – 15/2/2011 – Part 9 – Change of use from business premises to residential, Tranmere

Cllr Kenny said it would not set a precedent as each application would be decided on its merits. Cllr Kelly said he was not overly convinced that a loss of a small unit would be harmful to employment prospects. He asked for advice regarding reasons for approval and said it had been better in Claughton as there had been evidence of marketing. He said he had sympathy with the ward councillor.

An officer referred to the second paragraph of the Policy Context part of the report. He said they should be careful about releasing land designated by the UDP without proper justification.

Cllr Gilchrist said it wouldn’t be that attractive as a commercial property. Cllr Johnson said that it would enhance the street scene and that they were halfway there as there was living accommodation upstairs.

Cllr Salter said that when had been a lad it was a shop and that the upstairs had always been residential. An officer said that approval of item ten had been after evidence had been supplied that it had been marketed for commercial uses. The applicant for item ten had followed the correct process. He said approving would cause officer’s difficulties. Cllr Harney asked if the residential use predates the planning laws. The answer given was that a well established use becomes established.

Cllr Mitchell said it should be deferred for further information, so proof could be obtained regarding the ward councillor’s comments. Officers had asked twice but the information was not forthcoming.

Cllr Kenny was convinced it should be approved. Cllr Realey seconded approval. Cllr Gilchrist seconded Cllr Mitchell’s motion to defer the matter.

Eight councillors voted for approval with four against. There was a condition added that it had to be implemented within three years which was agreed by all. The Chair thanked people for coming.