Activity Report for August

Welcome to my latest monthly report. Below you will find the latest details on the Church Road development, our most recent attempts to improve road safety, an update on Parks’ privatisation and the usual streets news.

But first, a quick reminder that Wirral Council is currently updating its voter registration records. You should have had a post card about this recently. If your details have changed or you are not registered to vote don’t forget to notify the Council. If you need any help with this please get in touch.

Church Road: yet more delays

Residents in the Church Road area are hugely frustrated by the slow progress on planned retail and housing developments. Failure to agree terms with existing property owners is one problem. On the retail side, it seems that, at best, only four tenants have been found for the eight proposed units. The latest Council documents show that Wirral Council is being asked for additional funding to secure stage one of the retail development.

In the current climate trying to secure any additional funding is extremely difficult. This simply shows how damaging the years of delay have been. If you would like to study the full Council documents on this matter you can do so here.

Road Safety in and around Derby Road

Recently the Green Party has been out and about in the Derby Road area conducting our residents’ survey. Road safety is high on the list of concerns and in particular:

• poor visibility for vehicles entering Derby Road from the Church Road side streets
• lack of any pedestrian crossing facilities on Derby Road
• speed and volume of traffic along Elm Grove

All of these concerns have been detailed in a recent letter sent to Traffic Management. You can read that letter on my website. We’ll also be posting any reply there.

Parks privatisation confirmed

Last month we reported in detail on the Council’s misguided and hasty plans to privatise countryside services. Despite all the complaints this was confirmed earlier this week. The Wirral Globe has the story in full.

Streets update

On the back of our Survey work we have alerted Wirral Council to a raft of items that need to be addressed. These include:

• Our alert about the shocking state of the pavements around the new apartment block on Holt Hill/Warrington Street received a fairly feeble response which you can read here. We’ll continue to monitor this.
• We have reported broken street lights in Hinderton Close (column 6) and Victoria Road (also column 6).
• Graffiti on the entrance to Helmingham Grove has been reported.
• Unfortunately, the alleyway between Victoria Road and Chesnut Grove is frequently disfigured. We have reported the latest graffiti and have also requested that the extensive overgrowth be trimmed.

As usual, if there are any issues you would like to raise please don’t hesitate to get in touch.