The Audit Commission are visiting Wirral to have a look at how the HMRI programme is being managed. They are an independent public body responsible for ensuring that public money is spent economically, efficiently, and effectively in the areas of local government, housing, health, criminal justice and fire and rescue services.
Here is what they describe as their Mission
Our mission is to be a driving force in the improvement of public services. We promote good practice and help those responsible for public services to achieve better outcomes for citizens, with a focus on those people who need public services most.
This is from their web page - to see more go to:
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/
A series of meetings have been held - at one of which TRACE was represented. Wirral Council prepared some papers for the those meetings one of which was on community consultation. It has been copied in below. It described from Wirral Council's perspective, the community consultation that has taken place. There are two papers to read. The first answers the question:
How are the key stakeholders including local communities being engaged?
Neighbourhood Renewal assessment (NRA)
· A Neighbourhood Renewal Assessment of 119 properties was carried out by the Council which ran concurrently with the Masterplan.
· The NRA indicated that on average, the cost per dwelling of renovation work to bring the properties up to Decent Homes Standard was £29,140.
· In the current market the repairs were unlikely to significantly increase the rental/capital value of the properties.
· Also it was uncertain whether landlords and/or owner occupiers who did not qualify for grant assistance would carry out any repairs to their properties above the minimum required.
Church Road Masterplan
· As part of the Church Road Masterplan the Council has conducted extensive community consultation:
· 1st Resident Consultation Event, 4th November 2004, Tranmere Methodist Hall. The purpose of this event was to find out people's opinions about their area in order to formulate a range of options for restructuring the housing, retail and commercial markets in the area.
· At this first event, 77 questionnaires were completed by local residents. Of these, 70% stated that the quality of the existing housing was not sufficient to attract new households into the area.
· Owner-occupiers completed 81% of the questionnaires.
· 2nd Resident Consultation Event, 2nd December 2004, Tranmere Methodist Hall presented a range of options to people showing different levels of intervention through clearance and rebuilding of housing, retail and commercial businesses.
· Option 1 presented the option of building only on vacant sites
· Option 2 presented the option of some selective clearance and rebuilding on these and the existing vacant sites.
· Option 3 presented the largest scale of clearance and rebuilding.
· At this second event, 55 questionnaires were completed by local residents, of these 73% were in favour of Option 3.
· Owner-occupiers completed 63% of the questionnaires.
· Further dialogue with residents through TRACE (Tranmere Residents Association - Church Road East) and home visits were carried out with people living within the Neighbourhood Renewal Assessment area.
· Of the people affected by the proposals who were visited, 21 residents were fully supportive of the plans while 9 residents were supportive with some reservation. A further 9 residents opposed the plans.
· As a result of further consultation, a ‘Preferred Option’ was developed which was a refined version of the Option3 involving a scaling back of proposals to reflect community views.
· 3rd Consultation Event, 14th July 2005, Tranmere Methodist Hall.
· 318 people attended the event and 291 voted on whether they agreed with or opposed the revised proposals. The results of this vote were:
190 Yes, in favour of the proposals
74 - Yes, with some reservations
26 - no, opposed proposals
1 unable to say at this time
· 35 votes were received from residents whose homes were in the proposed clearance area of which 16 were in favour, 14 were in favour with some reservations and 5 opposed proposals.
Of the, 19 traders who voted, 11 voted in favour, 4 voted in favour with some reservations and 4 voted against.
· Following on from this event, the Masterplan was approved by the Council's Cabinet on 8th September 2005.
· Letters also were also sent to all households in and around the Church Road area following the approval of the Masterplan and a public meeting was held on 30th September 2005 at Tranmere Methodist Hall. This meeting was attended by 59 people:
- 26 from within the proposed clearance area comprising 22 owner-occupiers, 2 tenants and business owners
- 21 from the wider Church Road area
- 2 from outside of Tranmere
- 5 from the Council or other organisation
- 5 who did not give their address
· Community consultation continued through requested meetings with TRACE. It was established that the meetings needed to be opened to the rest of the Church Road community, as a result general monthly meetings with residents commenced in early 2006.
Public Meeting
· In March 2006 a Public Meeting was held at the request of residents. The meeting was attended by Frank Field MP and Senior Council Staff and sought to address issues and concerns of local residents and traders. Some issues were predominantly of an individual nature and have subsequently been addressed through one to one discussion. Other more general issues are being addressed through the monthly residents meetings.
Community Planning Event
· On the 12th April 2006 A Community Planning Event was held at Tranmere Methodist Church Hall. This was an opportunity for residents to comment on the developing plans and comment on the proposed shopping area, mix of housing types, public open spaces and parking. The event was attended by approximately 100 people, with around 71 completing questionnaires. Feedback was subsequently given via the newsletter and residents were given further opportunities to contribute via surgeries, the Tranmere Show and questionnaires distributed at a number of community buildings.
· Overall the response was good with only two people rating the proposals as very poor/poor and the majority rating them as good.
· Further one to one consultation has been undertaken with residents in Caerwys Grove and Hampden Grove where plans for the site backing onto their properties have subsequently been amended. Residents are now happy with revised proposals.
Monthly drop in surgeries
· Surgeries offer an opportunity for residents to express any concerns or ask questions regarding the developments in the area. While they have not seen huge attendance they are another form of consultation which suit some people and the Council is keen to continue providing them on a regular basis.
Newsletters
· Transform is a quarterly publication distributed to over 1000 households, local agencies and community organisations.
· The newsletter provides updates on progress, feedback on consultation and surveys and aims to address issues raised by residents. It also provides details of future consultation and the contact details for relevant officers.
Exhibitions at Tranmere and Wirral Shows, Summer 2006
· Both shows were used as a means of consulting on plans with a wider audience.
Show Case visits
· Residents from the area were given the opportunity to visit previous Lovell developments in the NorthWest. Residents were taken on a study tour to view these developments to give an idea of what Church Road could look like.
Home Ownership Advisory Officers
· These officers provide home visits, one to one point of contact for residents. Each resident was allocated an officer to help them through the relocation process.
· This includes property valuation, accessing independent financial advice, finding alternative accommodation.
Community Regeneration Training
· The Council set out to comprise a structured training course to deliver a three session “Introduction to Regeneration” course.
· The aim of the course was to provide information and insight to a group of young people residing in the regeneration area.
· The aim was to help them understand the problems faced when dealing with regeneration issues whilst also helping to develop personal skills such as group work, presentation skills and basic problem solving.
· The group we worked with were a group of ten teenagers of working age who were currently attending an access to employment course at Church Road Methodist Church in Tranmere.
· The group was fairly evenly split between boys and girls and the Introduction to Regeneration Course was to be included as part of the access to employment programme.
Art Regeneration Project
· TiC Consultants, in partnership with Wirral Borough Council; Newheartlands and Maritime Housing Association have appointed a team of two artists to work on the second phase of the Solid Futures project with local residents in the Church Road area in Tranmere. Solid Futures uses creative approaches to explore complex and sometimes controversial issues.
· Artists will work in a participatory setting to support people living through change due to Housing Market Renewal (HMR) and ideas, designs or artwork developed will reflect the neighbourhood identity, cultural diversity and local history of Tranmere.
· Phase one of the project took place in Summer/Autumn 2005 and used local groups from the Tranmere area to produce artwork. Three themes, Tranmere, past, present and future, were used by various groups to develop artwork which was displayed on banners along Old Chester Road.
· Phase two of Solid Futures will strongly focus on the process of involving local residents in reminiscence of their lives and their neighbourhoods, and will then encourage them to focus on the future of their neighbourhood.
· The project will start in September 2006 and finish at the end of December 2006.
School Art Competition
· In conjunction with the Solid Futures art project we invited local schools to the exhibition of artwork produced in the first phase. As part of this exhibition children were then asked to produce artwork with the theme “A Christmas wish for Tranmere” Children’s wishes included Zoo’s, Leisure Centres and Youth Clubs and the winning entries were shown in the Newsletter.
Front Line Staff Briefings
· Regular briefings are held for front line staff including One-Stop Shops and Wardens.
· This service is soon to be extended to the PCT to widen the understanding of front-line staff from the PCT in the area about the delivery of HMRI.
Looking Ahead – Plans for future engagement
Wirral will continue to engage residents through the various mechanisms already mentioned and will continue to strive to ensure that consultation is as inclusive as possible.
As delivery steps up a pace over the next six months, there will be a need for more of a regular presence in Church Road of Council and Developer representatives, and the use of the Together Office as a base for weekly drop in sessions is being planned with Together.
As plans are developed later in the autumn / winter, residents will have a key role in determining the detail design of the scheme through further Community Planning Events
In addition, the following areas have been identified for development:
Improvement of Website and links to other Websites
Wirral are conscious of the need to improve the accessibility of a wide range of information via the website. This will be one of the priorities over the next few months.
Radio City and Wirral Globe
Wirral have recruited a dedicated Marketing and Communication Manager who will work closely with Radio City and the Wirral Globe to ensure information is up to date and relevant. Additional projects with these partners include:
Front page wrap in Wirral Globe and negotiation of circulation of the Wirral Globe in Tranmere
Street / Shopping Centre Naming Competition
Press release schedule
‘Live Merseyside’ Roadshow – Summer 2007
Tranmere Show – June 2007
Ongoing quartery newsletters
Church Road fact sheet
Feasibility of a Regeneration Notice Board on Church Road
Signage on development sites
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The second paper is based on an Audit Commission series of questions with somne suggestions from the council officers.
Briefing Note for Audit Commission Visit, 18th September 2006
The Audit Commission has given Wirral Council an outline of the areas which they would like to explore. The following questions represent an idea of what may come up during the discussion and the responses are meant as an aide memoir.
- What challenges have been faced & how have these been overcome?
Community unease/ opposition to Masterplan has been overcome with further debate and consultation using an options based approach. The Church Road Masterplan has seen further refinement/scaling down of proposals in response to resident concerns to ensure there was a large mandate for the agreed ‘Preferred Option’ of the Masterplan.
Further issues have arisen as the Council has started to deliver the Masterplan, particularly regarding the following issues which are addressed through ongoing discussion and consultation:
§ Security of areas
§ Environmental impact of clearance and empty properties
§ Perception of low valuations
§ Aspendale Rd CPO
§ CABE
§ Relocating businesses and financial assistance
§ Bridging gaps
§ Social housing shortage
§ Improvement Grants
Some of the issues relate to individual circumstances and are being addressed through negotiation and discussion with nominated officers introduced to improve day to day liaison with the residents and businesses.
A number of concerns are ongoing, particularly concerns relating to the relocation of the businesses. Although as individuals they have all been contacted, delays with the legal agreements have prevented the Commercial Developer Atmore from entering into negotiations with retailers
- How are key stakeholders including local communities being engaged?
§ NRA’s
§ Masterplans
§ Newsletters
§ Public Meetings
§ Monthly Residents Meetings
§ Surgeries
§ Community Planning Days
§ Briefing Sessions
§ HOAOs
§ Study Trips
- Is there clear accountability to partners & local communities?
Monthly residents meetings attended by Chairs of local residents groups including Chair of United Communities Group, Vice Chair of Together Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder, Chair of TRACE, representatives from the Tranmere Community Project, Neighbourhood Wardens and Methodist Church.
Future meetings will also be attended by local Members
The HMRI Manager, Church Road Project Manager, Principal Implementation Manager also regularly attends these meetings with the Developer to provide updates and respond to issues raised by the local community.
- To what extent are local authorities providing effective leadership within their own local areas?
Members support? Senior Management Support?
The Church Road intervention area has a dedicated Project Manager, Implementation Officer responsible for liaising with the business interests, Urban Renewal Officer responsible for the day to day management of the housing acquisitions.
- How are the Pathfinder/ local authority encouraging innovation?
§ Empty Homes
§ Licensing
§ Home Swap
§ Hillside Court
§ HOAO’s
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