Notice of Motion on flooding in Moreton to be debated by Wirral’s councillors tonight
Notice of Motion on flooding in Moreton to be debated by Wirral’s councillors tonight
Cllr Chris Blakeley (foreground centre) the proposer of the Notice of Motion on flooding in Moreton at a public meeting last month
Wirral Council has a sub domain (democracy.wirral.gov.uk) on its website which is used to publish information to do with public meetings.
Due to the way its configured, the search engines (at least the search engines that respect such rules) are barred from searching pages on its website.
I have to declare at this point that I earn money from Google. However to illustrate this point a quick search of the site in Google will only show one page even though there are many more pages than that.
So I used a program called Xenu Link Sleuth to create an index of pages on that part of Wirral Council’s website. This has thrown up many interesting (and some quite frankly dull pages).
That report mentions in detail the risks of various types of flooding and refers to the River Birket. As it states in the report:
"The main river draining the Wirral Mersey Heartland, the River Birket, relies on pumping, and the area is reliant on flood defences to minimise flood risk to the existing development both from fluvial and tidal flood risk and surface water drainage channels. Failure of these defences constitutes a residual risk of flooding to the area."
If you’re wondering what fluvial means, it means “of or relating to a river”.
The report also details what how new homes should be more water efficient through the Water Efficiency Targets such as through water efficient showers, rainwater harvesting and other measures to cut down the amount of water used by households.
If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:
Planning Committee refuse Magenta Living application for 11 houses and 2 bungalows in Upton (Kenilworth Gardens)
Planning Committee refuse Magenta Living application for 11 houses and 2 bungalows in Upton (Kenilworth Gardens)
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
The Kenilworth Gardens item starts at 8 minutes 19 seconds in the video clip above and continues to the video clips below of Wirral Council’s Planning Committee meeting of the 20th November 2014.
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Cllr Matthew Patrick explains to Wirral Council’s Planning Committee why they should reject planning application APP 14 00951 in Kenilworth Gardens Upton 20th November 2014
The long running saga of planning application of planning application APP/14/00951: Unused Land, KENILWORTH GARDENS, UPTON, CH49 4ND – proposal to develop the site with residential units for affordable housing use, providing 11 no. two storey 2 bedroom houses, and 2 no. 2 bedroom bungalows (including 1 fully disabled access unit) finally reached a decision at Wirral Council at the Planning Committee meeting of the 20th November 2014.
The applicant was Wirral Partnership Homes Limited (T/A Magenta Living) and the agent Ainsley Gommon Architects.
Wirral Council had received this planning application on the 18th July 2014. At the Planning Committee on the 25th September 2014 a site visit was agreed. After that took place it had been due to be decided at the Planning Committee on the 22nd October 2014. However at the Planning Committee meeting on the 22nd October 2014 it was deferred to the Planning Committee meeting on the 20th November 2014 (making it over 4 months for a decision on this planning application to be reached.
The Planning Committee heard from the lead petitioner Jean Robinson, Chair of the Overchurch Residents Association who spoke against the planning application being approved. She referred to heritage reasons, ecological reasons and highway reasons why she thought the planning application should be refused.
The petitioner in favour of the application did not speak.
Rob Ware of Ainsley Gommon Architects (the agent on behalf of the applicant Wirral Partnership Homes Limited T/A Magenta Living) spoke after and explained the reasons why he thought that councillors should accept the planning application. He referred during this to a 34 year old tenant of the applicant with spinal injuries that was in need of a bungalow and would benefit from such a planning application being granted. He also referred to the highway concerns.
Cllr Matthew Patrick (ward councillor for Upton ward) also addressed the Planning Committee. He referred to the petition against the planning application, the petition in favour, the protection of urban greenspace, the uses that local residents put the land which included Easter egg hunts and litter picking.
He pointed out that trees on the site were protected by tree protection orders and how he felt that the application should be rejected because of policy HS4 as in his opinion it did not meet all the criteria for new housing as it would change the character of the area as well as another criteria in HS4.
Cllr Patrick also referred to the need to reduce crime, allow emergency vehicles access and the issue of bats, in fact three different species of bat! He felt the lighting would disturb the insects that the bats feed on and referred to a letter written from Wirral Wildlife in 2007 about the bats. He referred the Planning Committee to their legal obligation with regards to species protection and went on to refer again to policy HS4.
He wondered how the proposed disabled tenant would be able to safely access the property by foot as the proposed pavement was too narrow and finished by referring to the strength of feeling from the Overchurch Residents Association as residents had contacted him by phone, email and letter about this planning application. He urged the Planning Committee to reject the application.
After much discussion over many issues to do with the planning application ranging from highway issues, disability issues, bats and wildlife, emergency vehicle access, refuse vehicle access and garages, someone asked one of Wirral Council’s solicitors for legal advice about the issue of the application needing to rely on a future decision to unadopt the highway to proceed.
The solicitor referred to the proposed condition 9 which meant approval was conditional on the access road being formally stopped up and unadopted. She referred to the other reasons (other than a development) as to why the highway might be unadopted.
After much further debate, Cllr Stuart Kelly (Lib Dem spokesperson) moved refusal. This was seconded by Cllr Denise Realey (Vice-Chair).
All thirteen councillors present on the Planning Committee voted in favour of refusal.
If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:
The October 2013 form was supplied and is below. It is for 151 miles of travel @ 40p/mile which is a total of £60.40 which covers travel to some public meetings such as Council and Planning Committee, representing Wirral Council on outside bodies such as the West Kirby Charities Board, a visit with the Cabinet Member Cllr Chris Meaden to Rock Ferry library, a tour of West Kirby and Thurstaston ward with Wirral Council’s Chief Executive Graham Burgess and a reception and briefing for the Green Flag award in the Round Room at Wallasey Town Hall.
Cllr David Elderton (unlike other councillors) includes his departure time and return time and mileometer readings on the form itself.
Cllr David Elderton expenses claim October 2013 page 1 of 1
If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.
Expense claim forms for Councillor David Elderton (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014
Expense claim forms for Councillor David Elderton (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014
Our thrilling alphabetical series on councillors’ mileage expense claims to Wirral Council’s Human Resources department continues with Councillor David Elderton. Councillor David Elderton is a Conservative councillor for West Kirby and Thurstaston ward. We were supplied with ten pages relating to him and thankfully he seems to be submitting them on a monthly basis and actually filling them in!
It contains interesting details in it such as details of a briefing about Wirral Council’s Hoylake Golf Resort with that popular person at Wirral Council [officer name redacted]. In fact there are many redactions, which is probably why HR took about a month to do this.
I’ll point out it’s not Councillor David Elderton redacting this, it’s Wirral Council officers. The issue of a briefing for councillors in that area about the Hoylake Golf Resort was discussed at a meeting of Council so it’s nice to see it happened, albeit with Wirral Council’s usual air of secrecy about the whole matter. When are Wirral Council going to be open and transparent with the public about this matter instead of shrouding it in the veil of commercial interests and secrecy?
A lot of the rest of the pages are to do with Councillor David Elderton’s work on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee, its associated site visits and other committees that he is on. As he provides departure and arrival times it shows how long things take when a councillor lives at the other end of the Borough from Wallasey Town Hall. It’s a shame the redactions of it don’t help with understanding more about the work councillors do behind the scenes away from the gaze of the cameras and public.
Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.
As it is a bank holiday today, I will just be writing briefly today about what has been popular on this blog in the last week and taking the rest of the day off. The last week (August is traditionally a quiet month for politics) has seen 551 visitors to this blog viewing 1,247 pages. The top seven stories in order of popularity the last week have been:
