Plans for Leighton Road - footpath to be closed or not?

There has been much talk locally of the plans currently being considered to close the footpath through from Leighton Road and down the hill towards the railway station at Green Lane. If this path is closed it will cut off from Higher Tranmere and its shops all those on the other side of Leighton Road. It will also remove the most direct route to the station from Higher Tranmere. Many of the residents that I have spoken to are cross about this and think that the pathway should be kept open. I am one of those who uses this pathway whenever I go into Liverpool city centre - indeed I will be using it later today.

I have also received complaints from other local residents who have told me that when they moved into their properties adjacent to Leighton Road they were told "... by Riverside Housing that the plan for Leighton Road was to build bungalows for older people." They tell me that they would not have moved into their existing bungalows if they had thought that Leighton Road was to be used for family housing.

Seen the plans?
The new plans - of which I have a full sized copy - call me on 07976 839054 if you want to have a look - show that 16 properties in all are proposed. Four of these are to be two bedroomed bungalows, seven are to be three-bedroomed houses over two floors and five are to be four-bedroomed, over three floors. The plans have been drawn up the Family and Venture Housing Association and were dated on December 14th 2006

I have been sent a copy of these plans by Sue Hooper of the Wirral Council - for which thanks - and she tells me that revised plans are currently being drawn up to include keeping the footpath open.

I am told by one of the local residents - that this change of plan follows complaints to Frank Field MP and to Phil Davies - one of our our local Councillors.

This proposed change will be greeted by many as good news providing that the revised plan is the one eventually adopted.

More Seymour St mess

Readers of this blog and others living in Seymour Street will know that we have been having repeated problems with both vandals and 'do-it-yourself recyclers' - (or thieves depending on your point if view).

These people have been making free with the front walls, guttering, coping stones, railings and any other parts of the now empty homes that can be knocked down, pushed out, pulled over or broken down. The end result for us has been continuous mess with bricks and debris littering the pavement. See this link for a previous story on this matter.

http://tranmereresidents.blogspot.com/2007/02/seymour-street-gets-worse-and-worse.html

(to come back to this story after viewing this link - just hit the back key on your browser)

Last evening - Thursday the 29th of March - at above 7.45 my partner was driving off down the road when she saw a man busy at the back of his van loading coping stones into it . On the pavement was a mess of broken wall, bricks and mortar. Above is a picture of the van and the mess on the pavement, which had not been there 3 hours before.

She came back home - we got out the camera - and I had 'a few words' with the gentleman concerned - who was at the back of his van - as you can also see in the attached photograph. He was most incensed when I suggested that he was causing a nuisance and creating a mess for the rest of us.

He claimed that he was outraged to be accused of this when in fact he was a responsible citizen who had stopped to tidy up the mess, which had been created by others. He had noticed this mess when going past and had gone to get his van and was now busy tidying the street. Now that he had been accused of a crime - that he vehemently denied - he thought he might as well leave - because obviously his best efforts were not being appreciated! He did have several of the cleanest coping stones in the back of his van at the time.

I told him that as I now had a photograph of him at his work he had better tidy up before he left. This he did but when I went past again the following day more rubble had been created and more coping stones had been taken.

I wondered what readers of the blog might think about this.

Responsible citizen, DIY recycler, or ??? what? Leave comments if you like

Local Anti-Bullying Campaign

Schoolchildren from Woodchurch in Wirral have designed their own anti-bullying slogans as part of a campaign to help keep them safe at school and on the streets.

The winning designs have been turned into large A3 posters and these will be put up in GP surgeries, schools, youth clubs, supermarkets. Prizes were presented to seven pupils who designed the winning posters, which have now been professionally printed ready to go on display in the area.

Trish Barnes, Wirral Healthy Schools Co-ordinator, said the children themselves had decided upon the key messages, working with their school councils. “It’s very important that children have their say on something that can affect their lives both in and out of school. “The children made it clear that they wanted to feel safe in school but also out of school when they’re moving around their estate. The posters reflect what the children feel about their need and their right to feel and be safe wherever they happen to be.”

The Mayor Cllr Peter Johnson is pictured with competition winners.

TRACE COMMENT: This looks like a great initiative which should be extended to schools in Tranmere and Rock Ferry. We know from recent surveys that local children have complained of feeling unsafe in the local area because of bullying by local gangs. (look down the blog for this news item or just click on the following link http://tranmereresidents.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-young-people-think-about-tranmere.html

Now you can contact TRACE through this blog

Following a request from a reader I have now included a 'How to contact TRACE' section at the top of the blog - in short just email me at jameslkay@ntlworld.com This panel (on the right here) will stay at the top of the blog. I have also included some local links.

If you can think of any more links we should include - such as your own local organisation - just let me know and I will include it.

James Kay

HMRI briefing leaflet

I don't know if this has been around for a while but my Google alert system has just thrown up this link to a leaflet to give information on the HMRI to local residents. I have not seen this leaflet before.

http://www.wirral.gov.uk/atoz/documents/HMRI.pdf

Role of Registered Social Landlords in HMRI

If you are interested in the role that RSLs are to play in the HMRI in our`area you might find this paper presented by Alan Stennard to the February Wirral Cabinet meeting.


The purpose of this report was to ask Members to approve an approach to engaging Registered Social Landlords (RSL’s) via the establishment of a new Partnership for the delivery of the Regeneration Strategy for Inner Wirral in line with housing market restructuring through the Housing Market Renewal Initiative.


http://www.wirral.gov.uk/minute/public/cabhep040204rep2_11824.pdf

M.O.T. FOR WIRRAL MEN AT TRANMERE ROVERS

Men’s health will be under the spotlight in Wirral in April – and organisers are using football as the carrot to tempt them into taking part.

A free football-themed health event – for men who don’t want to be left on the subs bench – will kick off at Tranmere Rovers at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday, 26th April. The programme includes:

An opportunity to meet Eric Nixon
Football skills competitions
Display of superbikes and cruisers (courtesy of Marriott Motorcycles)
A close-up of the Vauxhall VXR range (courtesy of Lookers, Wirral)
Live broadcast from the radio Merseyside BBC bus
A win-a-new-bike competition
A roller cycling challenge
A display of army vehicles
Giant Genga
Plus a team of health professionals offering free health assessments and general advice on men’s health issues

The event – aimed at all ages - is being organised by Wirral Primary Care Trust’s Health and Wellbeing Team to encourage local men and youths to be more pro-active about their health.

Said Joint Director of Public Health, Jane Harvey, “We wanted to offer something a little bit different to get them through the door so that we can help them see what they could be doing to improve their self-care”.

According to the Men’s Health Forum, which exists to improve men’s health in England and Wales, 1 in 3 people in the UK live with a long-term medical condition and a significant proportion of this number will be men.

However, health promotion campaigns often fail to take account of the need for 'gender-sensitivity' in reaching male audiences. Men may be unaware that they are living with a chronic condition. For example, an estimated 3% of men aged 35 and over have undiagnosed diabetes and many men also live with long-term mental health problems such as anxiety or depression

And more than 30,000 men in the UK are diagnosed each year with prostate cancer, many of whom live with it for many years with or without treatment.

For more information please contact Carol Howard, Health Improvement Projects Manager, Health and Wellbeing Team, Wirral Primary Care NHS Trust on 0151 630 8383.

Wirral Weight Wise - new classes

More exercise sessions coming soon for people who are seriously overweight

A dedicated exercise programme for people who are seriously overweight is introducing two additional weekly classes in Wirral to meet the growing demand.

Wirral Weight Wise will offer the new low impact exercise sessions in Wirral Tennis and Sports Centre, Valley Road, Bidston every week starting:
Tuesday, 20th March: 9.30 -10.30 a.m.
Wednesday, 21st March: 5.45 - 6.45 p.m.

Weight Wise has proved very popular in *Guinea Gap Recreation Centre (Riverview Road, Wallasey) since being launched last September. The programme offers structured, low impact exercise with qualified instructors who have had special training to deliver the most appropriate type of exercise.

The latest additions to the Weight Wise programme coincide with National Obesity Awareness Week (from 12th March). Recent data from GP practices shows that just over a quarter of Wirral adults are clinically obese.

Said Marie Armitage, Joint Director of Public Health with Wirral PCT: “Weight Wise exercise sessions are designed to get overweight people, who may not have exercised for some time, back into being active without embarrassment.

“Ideally people with serious weight problems should aim to exercise for at least forty-five minutes on five days a week, but lack of motivation and limited ‘gentle’ exercise provision can make it a difficult goal to achieve, which is why these dedicated sessions are proving so popular and why we are extending them.”

Participants can just turnn up and GPs, practice nurses and other will point suitable candidates in the direction of the centres. There is a charge for each session and new participants are advised to turn up ten minutes beforehand to complete a health questionnaire. To find out more about Weight Wise please call 0151 606 2244.

People who are really concerned about their weight should ask their GP or practice nurse if they can also access the free NHS weight management programme, the Lifestyle and Weight Management Service.

*Existing Guinea Gap sessions are held every Tuesday from 2 – 3 p.m. and every Sunday from 10.30 – 11.30a.m.


Thanks to Lin Danher at Wirral PCT

Demolition on Thompson Street

The process of demolition on parts of Frodsham Street has started with the rooftops. This must be very unpleasant for those still living there as is the process as it unfolds on Seymour Street and no doubt elsewhere in the HMRI area.

These are a couple of shots taken at rooftop level - from my attic in Seymour Street looking across towards Frodsham St and Liverpool beyond. It looks a bit dangerous to me but we must hope that the demolition people know what they are doing.

Minutes of United Communities Group Jan 07

MINUTES 25TH JANUARY 2007

PRESENT: Hazel Roberts Chair, T A G, Ann Adams T R A C, Marilyn McDougall MRA, Terry Neill WAMA, Andrew Wilson WAMA, James Kay TRACE, Les Neish CPRA, John Steele UCG

APOLOGIES: Malcolm Birchall, Rev. John Chesworth, Steph Reid.

MINUTES : The minutes of the previous meeting held 16th November 2006 were
approved as a correct record of the meeting.

MATTERS ARISING :

The meeting would like to thank Colin Clayton for all he has done and would like to invite him to the next meeting to follow up the issues that he had passed on to other departments.

James reported that most people in the H M R I assessment area have accepted the 50/50 grant.(up to £30,000 00 is available), the work must be started after April 2007 and the money spent before March 2008.
It is understood that 20 Seymour Street, if they accept the grant, will be fast tracked through the system.

RESIDENT GROUP REPORTS :

Terry Neill (W A M A) said that they have had a better response from T C P. the children are behaving better. Meetings are being arranged for every two months between the W A M A and T C P. Terry thanked all that had been helping with their problems.

T R A C E James would like the U C G to write to the Post Office and complain about deliveries. H e said that the postman is frequently putting letters in the wrong houses. He has recently had a letter returned to the sender saying that he had left the property. John said he is often taking letters that have been put through his door by mistake and posting them in the right address.

M R A Marilyn was welcomed back after a period of illness. She reported that all was going well with the play area in St, Paul’s Road, they now have two investors and it should be ready in April.
The young people from Yellow House are making a film about themselves. They have 24 8-12 year olds on a Monday night but have not been successful in getting the next age group off the ground.
James invited Marilyn to get in touch with him if any of the young people would be interested in acting in a live show he said that there are many opportunities for young people in the Drama Groups.

C P R A Les reported on a meeting that had been held with three Birkenhead Councillors and the residents about the Mosque at Beechcroft.
The main issues were Parking and Security. It was a very good meeting with an agreement made between the residents and the Moslem Council to have monthly meetings and an invitation to look over the building when it has been refurbished.

T R A C Ann said that they will be looking for more funding from the Discretionary Fund next year for chiropody service, as they will need to put on another session to cope with the amount of people that want to use the service. At present it is booked up for 3 months in advance.

T A G The Trampoline club continues to be popular with up to 40, 8 to 12 year olds from 5:15pm to 7:15pm and an average of 18, 12 to 16 year olds from 7:30pm to 9:30pm, we now have nearly 40, 12 to 16 year olds registered.

Bag a Bargain is running well, we do have a problem with the quality of the veg it is not always as fresh as it should be. We have another supplier coming to see if he can provide better quality fresh fruit and veg for the same price.

HMRI James gave an update on the Church Road Developments. More delays in the start of the redevelopments they are now looking at September or October before anything will start to be built.
Hazel said that T A G is looking to contact Frank Field and will be having an open meeting in the near future.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS :

Tranmere Alliance Charity Night Friday 23rd February at Gladstone Liberal Club tickets £4:00 each.

Courses at Trafford Hall. Marilyn said that there is another 2day course. Make Yourself Heard on the 12th to 14th of February that she is going on.
John and Hazel would like to go on the Neighbourhood Regeneration on the 26th to 28th March.

NEXT MEETING :

Thursday 5th April 10:30am at Prospect House .

ACTIONS
Ring Colin Clayton to attend next meeting

Contact Royal Mail residents problems

Violent youth gang in Tranmere

I have had a series of reports from local residents about a violent youth gang in the area. There have been reports of intimidation, violence and vandalism. If you have seen or experienced any of this at the hands of these youths please contact TRACE as soon as you can with as much detail as you have. We have already passed on names and reports of events to the local police and will be doing our best to make sure this horrible experience is nipped in the bud.

If you have any information or have witnessed any intimidation, threatening or anti-social behaviour, vandalism or violence - please contact TRACE by phone or email or phone the police locally on

Lets come together and stop this nonsense before it gets seriously out of hand.

Birkenhead/Tranmere Forum Report

This report was posted onto the web a couple of days ago. It is a detailed report from the last Area Forum meeting. There are 92 pages in all - so it is quite a big report but it has a lot of information about policy and events in the recent past and planned for 2007 - in and around Birkenhead, Tranmere and Rock Ferry.

Some of you will have this information already, indeed some of you were at the meeting - but most were not - so these notes might be interesting to you.

Click below

http://www.wirral.gov.uk/minute/public/area%20co%20report%206%20feb_23086.pdf

Seymour Street tidier now

10 out of 10 for quick action on the Seymour Street mess shown below.

I don't know by whom or exactly when but the gardens wall debris shown below was moved very quickly and this part of the street is now safer than it was.

I assume that the Wardens or Street Scene maybe working together cleared this away - but who ever it was - well done and thank you.

Seymour Street - gets worse and worse

The vandals have moved in to start the process of demolishing the fronts of empty houses on Seymour Street. Within days of the residents in number 1 moving out the garden walls were being demolished and it is only a matter of time before these bricks become missiles.

You cannot leave a place like this as an open invitation to the more intellectually challenged to start wrecking things. I have complained to the HMRI team and the Housing Wardens and it will be interesting to see how long it takes to get the walls removed.

The top picture is number one and the second view is looking down the street away from Church Road.

Tranmere Alliance Bash - sold out!

Steph' Reid has left a comment below on the post "Tranmere Alliance February Bash":

Just in case it is missed by some - I have pasted it in again here at the top of the blog.

She said ...
This event is now sold out but look out for our next night of entertainment. The next community extravaganza will be the Tranmere Show in Victoria Park on Sunday 24th June 11am-6pm free to all.

Our thanks to all who have bought tickets.

Stephanie Reid
Community Development Officer
Tranmere Alliance
Tel:644 1100

So - Well done Tranmere Alliance!

University paper on Merseyside's HMRIs

Here's a paper I saw today published by Liverpool University. It is on the themes of regeneration, community engagement and social exlcusion and here is what it says about itself in the introduction ...

Merseyside Social Inclusion Observatory (MSIO) has produced a research report that offers a detailed insight into the extent to which ‘socially excluded’ communities, including Black and Racial Minority (BRM) communities, are able to engage with the development and regeneration policy initiatives at local area / neighbourhood level.

It is an 8 page report in .pdf format. It is written reasonably clearly although there is a mixture of bureaucrat speak and plain English. The plain English comes in the quotes from residents and the bureaucrat speak comes whenever the researchers are 'analysing' what the residents have said. Here's an example of both, which as far as I can see means exactly the same; it's just that the bureaucrat needed twice as many words to 'explain' what the resident had said.

Resident said ...

‘If they’d start from the point of view of saying ‘We want to… what do YOU think?’ and take it from there, we’d have better outcomes. They’d be upfront about their intentions and we’d know from the start what we were dealing with.’

Bureaucrat's analysis of the above ...

(v) Defining the parameters of community engagement
A further joint message to emerge was a need for local delivery agents to be clear as to the parameters of community engagement in respect of policy development and implementation and for this to be communicated at the earliest opportunity to individuals and communities being targeted in order to help define realistic expectations of the outcomes of consultation and participation.


Oh dear!

Anyhow if you want to see the whole report it is the following URL
http://www.liv.ac.uk/civdes/msio/Briefing_Papers/Briefing_Paper_7_-_HMRI.pdf

Health issues - breast screening

This is the first of a series of posts to the blog about health issues which affect people in Tranmere - thanks to Lin Danher at the NHS Primary Care Trust. (PCT)

Breast screening provides an opportunity for women to be assured that they do not have any of the early signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Every year some women find that they have small lumps that they would not have noticed if they had not attended for their breast screening appointment. This then allows them to get prompt treatment and have excellent chances of a full recovery.

The PCT recently carried out a project to try to increase breast screening uptake in areas of Wirral where it was low. Women who had not taken up the offer of attending for breast screening were sent a questionnaire. The womens feedback was used to design new posters and promotional materials, new invitation letters and various small changes were made to the way the service was provided. Interviews on radio were also given and PCT staff visited womens groups to try to explain the process for breast screening, answer any questions and motivate as many women as possible to attend when they received their appointment.

Evaluation of the project found that so much was already being done to encourage women to attend (such as provision of public transport information, ability to claim back travel expenses, ability to change appointments to any time to suit) that the most likely reason for women to have not attended was a fatalistic attitude to developing cancer.

A lot of women felt that getting cancer was down to chance and therefore, they would rather not know. Of course this is not true as some people are more likely to develop cancer than others and screening aims to pick up very early signs and symptoms which could not be detected just through self examination. Once detected early, the chances of treatment leading to a full recovery are very high whereas the longer breast cancer is left untreated, the poorer the outcome is likely to be.

The survey found out that women were embarrassed about taking off their clothes in front of others. Now invitation letters sent to women explain that they will be dealt with by female staff and their dignity and confidentiality is respected.

If you would like more information about breast screening, how it works in your area and how to examine yourself - go to talk to your GP.

A Great Night Out - Gladstone Theatre

Lees Residents Newsletter Feb 07

Volume 5 No 7 February 2007

Thanks to Malcolm for sending this out.

No 37 and 39 Howson Street

At long last, after 5 years of letter writing and a lot of help from your M.P. Frank Field and your local councillors, work has finally begun on renovating the two eyesores in Howson Street. When the work has been completed, the properties will be sold, hopefully to owner occupiers who will maintain them in the condition they will be brought to by the contractors carrying out the work.

Funding Success

We have successfully applied to The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund for funding to carry on the Kangoo exercise classes on a Monday and Wednesday evenings for a further twelve months. The total sum awarded was £4,320.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the staff of Tranmere Alliance for their assistance in completing the application forms. Without their help the application may not have succeeded. Thank you all at Tranmere Alliance, in particular Stephanie Reid.

The kangoo classes are proving to be a great success, they are good fun, an excellent form of low impact exercise and ideal for weight loss. So why not come along and have a go? You never know you may like it. The classes are held on Monday nights from 7pm until 8pm and Wednesday nights from 6.30pm until 7.30pm.

If you are interested in having a go, please call 07977 111 697 to pre book your boots and avoid disappointment.

BBQ - last chance to book

Every property in the area received a flyer advertising the planned Association barbecue for the May Bank Holiday Sunday. You were asked to fill in the tear off strip at the bottom of the flyer and push it through No19 Lees Avenue if you wanted to attend. Regrettably, the response has been somewhat disappointing. So I have been asked to re-advertise the event in this newsletter. If you want to go to the barbecue, please write down your name, address, the ages and the numbers wishing to attend and push it through the door of 19 Lees Avenue. If there are insufficient numbers wishing to attend then unfortunately we will have to cancel the event. You have until Monday to do this, the event will not be re advertised.

Next Meeting.
The next meeting will be held in the school sports barn on Thursday 8th February at 7.30pm. Please come along and tell us what you want for your area. We need your input to improve things, so come along and have your say.

As usual there will be free tea, coffee and biscuits available to anyone who wants to have them.contractors carrying out the work.

New Housing signs to go up in Tranmere

This is an example of signs that are to go up in Tranmere over the next few weeks.

There are two very similar designs. This one will be used near Holt Hill and on the Abakan site.

A similar one which just says "New Housing Development" will go up at Hillside Court and Whitford Road. The artwork has now been approved by the various partners - see the HMRI notes below for a note of our grumbling about these delays a few weeks ago.

I am told that the signs are 4ft x 3ft and along Church Road these will be placed as chevrons (2 signs together at an angle so that pedestrians and traffic in both directions can see them clearly.

What do you think?