letter to Frank Field MP

The following letter is self explanatory. It follows a visit by Frank Field MP to James Kay to discuss next steps in the TRACE campaign to persuade Wirral Council not to make demolition the only option in the Chiurch Road Masterplan.


Frank Field MP
The Houses of Parliament
25th August

Dear Mr Field

Thank you for calling by this week and for your support in TRACE's campaign.

In advance of our meeting tonight with Cllr Phil Davies and colleagues to discuss renovation alternatives to demolition in Tranmere, I am writing to tell you about an incident which happened last night which you might like to share with the Minister when she visits you to discuss HMRI in Tranmere.

At 11.35 last night (the 24th of August) my telephone rang. It was my neighbour across the road who told me that he had just witnessed a young man steal one of the hanging baskets from outside my front door. I went outside and was told by the neighbour that the thief had gone onto Church Road with the basket in his hand. I jumped into my car with my partner and we went down onto Church Road. 100 yards away was a young man in his twenties walking along with my hanging basket in his hand. I drove down, jumped out and grabbed the basket from him. We exchanged some heated words and he punched me on the jaw and ran off. I went straight home and called 999. I told them that I had been assaulted and that the assailant was last seen running down out of Tranmere and gave a good description. The person who took the call said that she would do her best to get a squad car to deal with this but that they were very busy.

One hour later at 12.35 I was called back by the police control room and told that it would be several hours before an officer could attend. We arranged that an officer would come to see me this morning and take a statement from me. I was given a log number for the incident - 1529 on 24/08/05 - and she rang off.

My point is not to criticise the police. No doubt they were unable to attend because of more serious criminal activity at the time. My point is that this incident is typical of what happens in Tranmere and it is what leads people to want to leave the area. If Tranmere is to be revived as a happy and healthy community we have to feel confident that when we make even such minor improvements as putting up a hanging basket it will not be ruined by some barbarian deciding late at night that he can steal it and assault anyone who tries to stop him - with impunity.

We need a lot more money spent on policing in this area so that when a citizen calls 999 they get a response, reliably within minutes of the call coming in and not be told that because of lack of resources the police will not be able to come "for hours". Instead of our taxes being spent on this critical service we find that millions of pounds are to be spent in Tranmere (£52 millions according to the Echo recently) - on knocking down perfectly good houses against the wishes of those living in them - and then building newer houses which are no better than the ones they are pulling down. They are doing this in the belief that it will improve the area.

This is very disheartening.


Yours sincerely


James Kay
cc. TRACE Ctte members, local Councillors, Tranmere Together and the TRACE 'blog