West Wirral Area Forum 6/10/2011, Neighbourhood Plans, United Utilities roadworks (Hoylake) Part 3

Cllr Jeff Green started talking, but someone from the audience said they couldn’t hear him, so the wireless microphone was passed to him. He continued by thanking Tracey Smith and her team for the opportunities that local residents had been given to feed into Neighbourhood Plans. He wanted to make a point about the number … Continue reading “West Wirral Area Forum 6/10/2011, Neighbourhood Plans, United Utilities roadworks (Hoylake) Part 3”

Cllr Jeff Green started talking, but someone from the audience said they couldn’t hear him, so the wireless microphone was passed to him. He continued by thanking Tracey Smith and her team for the opportunities that local residents had been given to feed into Neighbourhood Plans. He wanted to make a point about the number of responses and the quality of responses. He said if you went to West Kirby Primary School, it would not be surprising if road safety especially speeding around schools was brought up. If they chatted to youngsters it was not suprising, however he was interested in the broader picture and not taking things for granted.

Resources were following the Neighbourhood Plans, which Cllr Green said were “only as good as the people who contributed” to them. He didn’t want a small number of people to set the agenda, as most people [present at the Area Forum] came to every one of the meetings. He asked Tracey if she agreed?

Tracey Smith, Senior Community Engagement Co-ordinator replied in the affirmative.

Deputy Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis said that they should “take the opportunity” and that “the council would take some notice”. He said the “main attraction of the evening is Dave Green”. He also mentioned the display and that from Monday United Utilities would be digging up the road in Market Street and Birkenhead Road. There would be disruption to traffic.

Peter Cummings from United Utilities said the display illustrated the areas affected, but they would be working with Wirral Council’s Head of Traffic.

Deputy Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis mentioned the work on the railway. Peter Cummings said the United Utilities work had been delayed. Deputy Mayor Gerry Ellis opened it up to the floor for questions.

West Wirral Area Forum 6/10/2011, Neighbourhood Plans Part 2

Cllr Ellis asked Tracey Smith for an update on Neighbourhood Plans. Tracey Smith gave a brief Powerpoint presentation detailing the timetable, responses so far and community engagement that had been done. Based on the responses so far, she detailed the aspects people liked about the area and the things people though needed improving. The latter covered a range of issues which included parking, tolerance of young people, street lights, transport, the provision of dropped kerbs, refuse collections, activities for teenagers, the signage of the one-way system in Hoylake and road safety at a local primary school.

She said the online questionnaire ended on the 7th October and the findings would be produced in October or November. A report would go to the Area Forums who would each produce an action plan by November, which would be agreed at an Area Forum meeting. There was a special Area Forum planned for the 26th October at 6pm at Westbourne Hall, which would discuss the action plan and allocate Area Forum funding to organisations who had bid for it.

Cllr Ellis asked if there were any questions. A member of the public called John asked how are the focus groups selected. Tracey Smith said they had asked people to get in touch, for those groups that had got in touch they had gone out to speak to them.

A member of the public asked with only fifty-one questionnaires returned for the whole of West Kirby and Hoylake, wouldn’t it just be a snapshot?

Tracey Smith said she didn’t know about how many had been completed online, but the online version was closing on Friday.