Furious residents attack council leader over sale of Conway Street land

I have written previously about Wirral Council's cack-handed sale of prime land on Conway Street near Birkenhead town centre and the deliberate vandalism of the site by its new owners SIP car parks.Since then the council has failed to take any effective measures to force a clean up of the site. Unsurprisingly, local residents are disgusted at the council's behaviour. I am pleased to see that 25 local residents have signed the letter below to the leader of the council and copied in the other two ward councillors.It will be interesting to see what response, if any, they receive.

Dear Cllr Phil Davies,

We are concerned residents writing to you about the state of the land on Conway Street that borders Simpson Street and Parkfield Avenue. This land is in a completely unacceptable condition especially for such a prominent location. It has become a magnet for litter, fly-tipping and vermin. We should not have to put up with this.

As you are no doubt aware, this land was sold by Wirral Council in early 2014. It was sold to SIP Car Parks, a company that specialises in building and operating car parking facilities. It must therefore have been obvious to the council what the purchaser would want to do with this land. As subsequent planning applications and appeals have shown, this site is totally unsuitable for car parking. Why, therefore, did the council sell to such a company?

Subsequently the land has been dug up, all the surrounding trees cut down and the entire site has been left in an appallling condition. This happened over 15 months ago. Yet nothing has been done to force the owner to make good their damage to this land and maintain it in an appropriate conditiion.

We are appalled at how Wirral Council has behaved. Such a prominent site should never have been sold in the first place, should never have been sold to such an unsuitable company and should never have been allowed to deteriorate into such an appalling state.

As our ward councillor and leader of the council we hold you directly responsible.

We demand prompt and comprehensive answers to the following questions:

• What action is being taken now to improve the condition of this site?
• What action is being taken to secure its long term future and ensure the site is properly maintained or used for the wider benefit of the community?

We look forward to hearing from you.

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Arrangements for the Liverpool City Region Authority are being finalised this month and debated tonight by Wirral Council. Well, they were due to be debated but the dysfunctional outfit that Wirral Labour is they abused their majority to deliberately shut me out and refused to let me speak. How that makes them look anything other than completely ridiculous only they will know. 

Unsurprisingly, Wirral Leaks has its own unique take on this sorry affair.

Anyway, here's my take on what's wrong with the devolution arrangements and what needs to be done to put things right.


This time last year I said "It would be a huge mistake for these important decisions about local democracy to be made behind closed doors. It's vital the public in the region get a say - otherwise, these devolution plans risk floundering and becoming an unpopular mess."

That remains just as true today. Most people tell me that they don’t know the Authority exists. If they do know about it they feel they have no say in it at all.

And they’d be right – they have no directly elected representatives to talk to about it.

And its not just me saying that. The House of Commons Local Government Committee said, “There has been a significant lack of public consultation, engagement and communication at all stages of the decision-making process.”

But it doesn't have to be like that.

By refusing an elected assembly to hold the Mayor to account we have, at least, the opportunity for a more direct engagement with residents as to how they would like the city region to develop and how their funds should be spent. We could use the potential offered by modern technology to engage with people in ways that other cities around the world are already pioneering.

In Madrid, for example, the mayor has ring-fenced a “participatory budget”, to be decided through online polling, with proposals submitted via local assemblies. In the latest round, €24m has been allocated on projects as varied as a centre for people with Alzheimer’s, child care, tree planting and the restoration of fountains and public toilets.

Its interesting that, when offered the choice, people tend to prioritise public spending that improves their quality of life.  What we have here is a narrow focus on economic growth that never has and never will, on its own, address the multiple challenges we face such as inequality and environmental decay.

Keeping the Mayor and Authority honest

We all know what this document represents – our city region will be run by a grand committee of the Labour party chosen by the Labour Party. It will hobble around on one economic leg when we really need four strong legs – social, environmental, economic and democratic.

So I would urge everyone to look beyond these top-down scrutiny arrangements and embrace a more inclusive model. The Green Party proposes a public forum with direct responsibility for scrutiny and spending decisions and including representation from voluntary, community, small business and trade unions to hold the mayor and Authority to account. 

That way we might actually get the kind of devolution we deserve.

Letter to the press: Benefit Cap

From today the next phase in the government's attack on welfare kicks
in. A £6,000 cut in maximum annual benefits means that, for thousands of
families, their housing benefit will no longer cover their rent. As
housing benefit is paid after all other benefits, larger families with
more children will be hardest hit. This is effectively a sibling tax.
Children from our poorest families will be forced deeper into poverty.
Many will be made homeless.

Given Wirral Council's public failure to protect our most vulnerable
children this is deeply worrying. An already inadequate service will
come under more pressure. Furthermore, all councils have a statutory
duty to accommodate the homeless. Tory welfare cuts will cost Wirral
Council millions in temporary accommodation costs over the coming years.
This will mean further cuts to services across the board as increasing
funds are diverted to deal with rising homelessness. Of course, the cost
in human misery for many of our poorest families will be far greater.

End in sight for derelict buildings by Birkenhead library?

For quite some time I have been pressing for action on the  long-standing eye sore buildings by Birkenhead Library on Borough Road. I met again with council officers recently for an update. As a result I can report:

• Compulsory purchase orders to secure ownership of the last few buildings are now complete.
• Legal measures to facilitate demolition of the buildings should be in place by February/March.
• Demolition will take around 10 weeks and will commence as soon as the disconnection of utilities is complete.
• Planning permission to landscape the area has been granted and this will take around four weeks post demolition.

This is very positive news and I am hopeful that this area will finally have been transformed by mid-2017. I will continue to press officers to ensure this remains a top priority.

Plans for Europa Pools scrapped

News that plans to redevelop the site around Europa Pools have been scrapped raise many serious questions about the future for the pools themselves and wider Birkenhead.

I discussed these issues with Tony Snell on Radio Merseyside yesterday. You can listen in via this link or click on the BBC logo.  My piece is 41 minutes in.

Council report confirms sharp decline in Birkenhead's retail sector

A council commissioned report into the state of the retail sector in Wirral has confirmed what many of us already know; our shops in Birkenhead are struggling badly. And, the report clearly highlights the main reason why. Out of town developments have sucked business out of Birkenhead and badly damaged the town centre.

You can read the report here. The report to cabinet is here.

Key findings from the report include:

• Compared with 2012, the market share of Birkenhead town centre has slumped from 28% to less than 17%.
• The Croft Retail Park in Bromborough has overtaken Birkenhead as the main shopping destination in Wirral.
• More and more retail expenditure is “leaking out” of Wirral as larger numbers of shoppers travel to Liverpool, Cheshire Oaks and Chester.
• Retail rents in Birkenhead have fallen since 2008 and this decline is forecast to continue.

This report makes grim reading for Birkenhead. Moreover, the inevitable result of promoting out of town shopping is that our existing town centres suffer. Nowhere has suffered more than Birkenhead.

Astonishingly, we continue to make the same mistakes. Just a few months ago I wrote about the dire implications for New Ferry town centre when Labour and Tory councillors combined to vote through a new Aldi at Port Causeway.

We hear a lot about Labour's ambitious plans for Wirral Waters. For those plans to succeed we need a vibrant, thriving Birkenhead town centre. That was the clear message from Peel Holdings in a briefing to councillors earlier this week. It's high time Labour stopped talking about investing in Birkenhead and started acting. Otherwise we can look forward to more reports like this one in years to come.

Wirral councils monthly newspaper

Following last night's special council meeting Labour will be going ahead with a monthly council newspaper. This is despite strong arguments against. Below are the points I raised in opposition or you can watch John Brace's video from 28:35.



It's a very big step from a survey indicating residents would like to feel well informed to a monthly newspaper paid for by those same residents.

In the supporting information for this proposal it says this newspaper “is a direct response to survey findings.”

In fact it's an indirect response. The council has not directly asked residents if they would favour a monthly council newspaper.

Perhaps this is because they know what the answer would be.

But, for the record, I have already asked that question.

Out of almost 200 responses, 66% says its a bad idea. Only 15% think it's a good idea.

Moreover, where is the evidence this newspaper will actually be read be the people we want to reach?

The proliferation of “no junk mail” stickers on letter boxes is a strong indication that people already receive far more unsolicited mail than they would like.

On page 31 of today's council agenda we are told about “the great Wirral door knock” and what a huge success this was in in referring residents to appropriate services.

Surely the lesson here is that better intelligence about our residents combined with direct outreach is far better than mountains of newsprint that few will read.

Finally, it is self evident that this publication will harm local newspapers. The first business pledge in the 2020 vision is to create and safeguard jobs. This publication clearly threatens existing jobs in the print media.

In conclusion, this publication will:

• antagonise those residents who don't want it
• divert resources from more important and effective outreach work
• not be read by many of the people we are trying to reach
• impact negatively on existing local newspapers