Open email to the regeneration team

This is the text of an email I sent to the regeneration team at Wirral MBC to accompany my apologies for the next community consultation meeting - which I can't make.

Please accept my apologies for the next meeting which I won’t be able to make.
Good news since the last meeting is the exemplary response of the wardens and clean up team who have been on the ball when it comes to cleaning up behind the fly tippers and window smashers. The last resident on Seymour Street (No 17) moved out this morning the 19th April so I expect that the vandals will move in some time later today and strip off the gutters, lead, copper, coping stones and anything else they can lay their hands on. If these houses can now be pulled down ASAP that will be a great help.

Bad news has also been the continued activities of local violent gangs who have been very active locally intimidating people – launching a series of raids on the Co-op, breaking their windows, assaulting staff, security guards and on one occasion a police car that was called to attend a disturbance at the Co-op. We have also had a spate of incidents on Liversidge Road, Church Road and Seymour Street with cars vandalised and people – including me – intimidated and threatened.

Against this background the recent claims by the police in the local press that Birkenhead is now much safer than Heswall - don’t go down very well in Tranmere. The police have been more active and have had an impact that local residents notice and are grateful for - but much, much more remains to be done. The police need to further raise their profile and CCTV is a real must-do for us in the regeneration process. We definitely need to make community safety in the new Tranmere a central component in the regeneration strategy for the area. Failure to do so will condemn the area to continue the decline – albeit with newer houses.

How about this for a specific target – make Higher Tranmere so safe that the shops don’t need security guards? That would be the sort of area that people will want to live in. I think we need specific plans on lighting, on CCTV, on policing, and on youth facilities – alongside our housing plans.

Have a good meeting folks.

Sorry I can’t be with you.

James

The minutes of the last residents meeting now follow this blog.