Tipping Point

It’s not an unusual occurrence when a concerned citizen writes to us out of sheer frustration after hitting a brick wall of politician’s indifference. Makes us wonder what Cllr Brian Kenny and Birkenhead MP Frank Field are being so coy about ? Yet another failure of planning and scrutiny by the ruling administration at Wirral Council? 

Sirs

I refer to the rubbish dump that has appeared at the end of Cleveland Street adjacent to the police station.

Apparently this rubbish dump has a license as a recycling centre, although seeing as it has no power source it is difficult to see what it can be recycling.

The whole area is full of old settees and caravans and black bags full of God knows what. It recently went up in flames on bonfire night as you probably know.

I have contacted Councillor Kenny who informs me that he is lost for words and the Council is investigating as well as The Environment Agency.

Rats are regularly seen exiting the huge brick shed used as a rubbish store although I cannot remember any works being carried out on this derelict eyesore.

The council tip is one mile down the road, this official fly tip is being used to dump foul smelling bags and mattresses. It is 50 yards from a primary school, a church and residential housing.

It shows utter contempt for the people of Birkenhead to allow this now stinking sealed site to exist. I have had replies from Councillor Kenny informing me of his outrage but nothing yet as to who gave permission for this so called recycling centre to begin operations.

Also attached is letter from Environment Agency, I am yet to hear from Councillor Kenny re: who approved this strange business.

It’s the strangest recycling plant I have ever seen, unless they’ve come across a three piece suite recycling machine. The brick building has been derelict for as long as I can remember and I am 60 years old! People are now dumping mattresses outside.

Best Regards

Flood-gate

 

Readers may remember last year’s flooding incidents across Wirral and Moreton in particular and the subsequent devastation wreaked on people’s homes.

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/13641298.UPDATED__Families_left_desperate_for_help_after_floods_in_Moreton_leave_homes_ruined/

Well we’ve been leaked (!)  a subsequent report into Flood-gate . As the Lead Local Flood Authority  this  investigation was required to be undertaken by Wirral Council in accordance with  the Flood and Water Management Act (2010) so they could review how they and other statutory authorities such as United Utilities and the Environment Agency had responded to the emergency.

So how did they do ?.

You (and no doubt the sodden homeowners) won’t be surprised to hear  – not very well.

The report tells us :

‘Information about the scale and severity of the flooding was slow to surface and reach key decision makers’ and ‘misconceptions about roles and responsibilities of the different agencies impacted on the effectiveness of the flood incident response’

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxrkIjRDgrB-cjd4dDdGakdQQ1pOczRoc2FxNmhYVFZnOGJJ/view?usp=sharing

Yes folks – this translates as all these highly paid executives in various agencies were , er, out of their depth and nobody knew what they were supposed to be doing!.

But fear not there’s the usual heading in the report entitled “Lessons Learnt” so in the time honoured tradition everything will be fine until the next time …….and the time after that ……and the time after that.

In the mean time the various agencies have drawn up an Action Plan as ‘many residents consider themselves unprepared/unaware of the risks of flooding’ and therefore they will be  ‘promoting the growth of community based resilience’ .

Somewhat like a flood victim we’ve waded our way through this verbiage and it translates to us as :

” Nothing to do with us guv . If you live on a flood plain it’s your own fault – get used to it…….”