Tag: Merseyside Police

Wirral Council councillors agree to consult on extra police powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown

Wirral Council councillors agree to consult on extra police powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown

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Wirral Council councillors agree to consult on extra police powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown

                        

Continues from Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee Wednesday 2nd October 2013.

A Wirral Council officer introduced the report referring to the existing alcohol free zones in Birkenhead, Prenton and Upton as well as the proposed boundaries for the new one. She said that before making an order there would have to be a period of consultation. Wirral Council would need to consult with Merseyside Police, each Premises Licence Holder or Club Premises Certificate holder in Birkenhead and owners or occupiers of land in Birkenhead. A notice would also have to be published in a local newspaper and twenty-eight days allowed for representations. She said that Merseyside Police were present to give details about their evidence on specific problems associated with alcohol.

The Chair invited Merseyside Police to comment. Merseyside Police explained why they were requesting the order, gave statistics about various alcohol related incidents reported to them and explained how only part of Birkenhead was covered by the existing order. They felt that an order covering all of Birkenhead would deal with any displacement problems. Merseyside Police referred to comments from Birkenhead businesses stating that they had lost customers as they don’t feel safe and referred to a particular problem outside St. Werburgh’s Primary School where adults were buying alcohol and cigarettes for teenagers. A street drinker had told a police officer that he drank in Birkenhead Park because it was not covered by the existing Designated Public Places Order. A petition of four hundred and sixty-two people was also in favour of the new Designated Public Places Order covering all of Birkenhead.

One of the police officers showed the Committee maps from a report they had commissioned that showed maps where the worst alcohol related antisocial behaviour and violence was. In their view the existing alcohol free zone in central Birkenhead wasn’t fit for purpose. The Chair thanked the police officers and opened it up to the councillors to ask questions.

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BIG/ISUS Reports: Wirral Council and Merseyside Police in “Alice in Wonderland”

BIG/ISUS Reports: Wirral Council and Merseyside Police in “Alice in Wonderland”

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

BIG/ISUS Reports: Wirral Council and Merseyside Police in “Alice in Wonderland”

                                

Last month I got a response from Wirral Council over my Freedom of Information Act request for Grant Thornton’s report into Wirral Council’s ISUS (Intensive Start Up Support) program. You can view Wirral Council’s rather wordy response saying no on the whatdotheyknow website. Here is a brief quote from their refusal:

“Wirral Council can confirm it is not possible, at this moment in time, to make available copies of the report into ISUS that was produced by Grant Thornton following their investigations, either in full or in a redacted format, as the report, which has been reported previously, has been handed over to the Police for their consideration, in accordance with the recommendations contained within the report.

As such any disclosures either in full or in part are not appropriate at this time, until the Police have concluded their enquiries or determined that no further action should be taken, for fear of compromising further actions that may result as a consequence of that report.”

So I emailed the Chief Constable on the day I got that refusal (23rd September) asking the following questions about their investigation, a copy of my questions are below. I even pointed out that I’d publish the responses.

1) Have Merseyside Police concluded their inquiries into the issues raised in the BIG & ISUS reports referred to them by Wirral Council?
2) Has anyone been charged in relation to this?
3) Who is conducting (or if it has concluded conducted) the investigation and what are their contact details?
4) If the investigation is ongoing when is it likely to reach a conclusion?

This is the response I got today (4th October 2013) by email:

Dear Mr Brace,

I have looked into the matters that you have raised but I’m afraid that there is not a lot I am able to tell you.

This matter is currently in the hands of Wirral Borough Council and any requests for information you have should be directed to them, perhaps by way of a Fredom[sic] of Information enquiry.

Yours sincerely,

Gareth Thompson
Detective Chief Inspector
Staff Officer to the Chief Constable
Merseyside Police

So, just to summarise Wirral Council won’t say anything because it’s in the hands of Merseyside Police, but Merseyside Police say it’s “currently in the hands of Wirral Borough Council”… you couldn’t make it up if you tried could you? So any constructive suggestions as to where to go with this next?

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Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee Wednesday 2nd October 2013

Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee Wednesday 2nd October 2013

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Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee Wednesday 2nd October 2013

                            

The Chair, Cllr Bill Davies welcomed people to the Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee meeting. He asked for any declarations of interests (no declarations of interest were made). Cllr Davies asked if anybody objected to filming, there weren’t any objections.

He paid tribute to Sylvia Hodrien, who had been a deputy on the Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee and had recently died. Cllr John Salter, Cllr Pat Williams and Cllr Geoffrey Watt also made comments about Sylvia Hodrien.

The Chair said that Cllr Pat Glasman might be late, Cllr Adam Sykes was deputising for Cllr Ian Lewis and Cllr Paul Hayes for Cllr Ian Lewis. He asked the police officers to introduce themselves, they introduced themselves as Sergeant Simon Barrigan (Licensing Sergeant for Wirral) and Sergeant Mark Robinson.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 22nd May were agreed. Cllr Niblock asked when the signs for the Designated Public Places Order in New Ferry would be up? Margaret O’Donnell answered that the signs would be up in about a month’s time.

There was a brief discussion about the membership of the Licensing Panel and then the meeting moved to a decision to be made on a consultation on making Birkenhead an alcohol free zone, which starts at this point in the video.

Continues at Wirral Council councillors agree to consult on extra police powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown.

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Merseyside Police ask Wirral Council for extra powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown

Merseyside Police ask Wirral Council for extra powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown

Hogarth's Gin Lane

Hogarth’s “Gin Lane”

Merseyside Police ask Wirral Council for extra powers for Birkenhead booze crackdown

                        

Merseyside Police will next week be asking Wirral Council’s Licensing, Health and Safety and General Purposes Committee to start a four-week consultation on designating all of Birkenhead as an area where the police can confiscate alcohol from people in public places. The police state that their request is due to 128 incidents of alcohol related antisocial behaviour between January and July of this year, twelve of which also involved violence.

There are already two areas of Birkenhead which are already alcohol free zones. The first includes the Pyramids, Birkenhead bus station, Woodside bus station and Hamilton Square. The second area is the electoral ward of Prenton.

If Wirral Council designates all of Birkenhead as a “Designated Public Places Order” then the police will have extra powers in public places to stop people drinking and confiscate their alcohol. If the person refused by either failing to stop drinking or handing over their alcohol they could be fined up to £500. Licensed premises or clubs and the land are not classed as public places for these purposes.

Merseyside Police say they have the support of police officers, police community support officers, local businesses and local residents in calling for this. If you consume Ambien frequently, its effect is reduced and it becomes less efficient. I take it rarely, only when I can’t fall asleep for an hour or two. In the morning, you feel a little bit sleepy after the use of the drug. It is sold by prescription at https://mi-aimh.org/generic-ambien-zolpidem/. There is a petition signed by four hundred and twenty-six people asking for this larger alcohol free zone. The report to the meeting and maps of the proposed and existing alcohol free zones has been published on Wirral Council’s website.

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Merseyside Police and the leaked custody record

Merseyside Police and the leaked custody record

It’s nice to know that even during this Police and Crime Commissioner election the police staff are managing to leak a custody record to a member of the media (please note I’ve black boxed out most of it as proceedings are “active”) in relation to a charge of arson and breach of a restraining order on 31st October 2012. Wasn’t that the whole sort of thing the whole Leveson inquiry was supposed to address?

However the recently resigned Norman Bettison (infamous down to his role in Hillsborough) is a former Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, do you expect them to be following procedure or indulging in coverups?

I don’t see the point in making a complaint about this as invariably complaints about the police result in a whitewash. They usually don’t want to know about their own mistakes do they?

One day, maybe the police will stop leaking like a sieve, but I won’t hold my breath until it happens….