Gagging For Trees

Here we have a rather worrying message to share from the Secretary of the local campaign group ‘For Trees’ who we have supported on this blog. Wirral Council appear to have learned nothing from the past and are resorting to a tried , tested (and failed) tactics of gags, bans and playing the victim of a vexatious complainant :

As some of you may know, WBC issued an order to the’ For Trees’ Secretary on 14th Mar 2019 . Perhaps it was inspired by Sheffield City Council’s (who saw fit to issue an injunction against one of their own Councillors protesting the removal of thousands of the city’s trees).

It tells me that;

 ‘we have received a large number of complaints in your name’

that;

 ‘we note that you have raised certain arguments on numerous occasions which have already been answered in full, such as the use of glyphosate ‘

 that ;

‘it appears that you are acting with or leading a group of people who are coordinating complaints or who use the same arguments and the same points as you do in their complaints’;

and that;

‘you have complained about various staff members engaged by ourselves, including calling for Mary Worrall to resign’

Guilty as charged m’lud.

So the current  corporate director for business management, Paul Satoor, has communicated by letter that  WBC has invoked the policy ( ‘unreasonable and unreasonably persistent complaints procedure), in which I am debarred from communicating by letter or any other means for  a period of two years, with any Council staff unless it is about a ‘new’ subject (ie not about trees).  This new complaint can  only be addressed to Shelby Loudon at the ‘feedback’ team  where it will be filed but not responded to!

Never mind that the Council, who have stepped up their felling and dismantling of Wiral’s trees, are in breach of their statutory obligations to protect trees and to protect biodiversity, or that they’ve contracted Mancoed to do so when it is against the law, during the nesting season, to carry out these operations ( Wildlife & Countryside  Act as amended 1991).

Never mind that they are blithely carrying on the Glyphosate poisoning contract at the expense of every living thing on the Wirral and elsewhere, courtesy of the taxpayer – even though 15 countries have banned it,  and wiser Councils are following suit.

Never mind that they are asking Wirral’s residents to fund this gigantic and irremediable devastation of our environment when  the relevant officers are paid to protect it.

When the going gets tough, the Council get gagging… 

The De-greening of West Kirby

A couple of messages from campaign groups in West Kirby (home of Wirral Council leader Cllr Phil Davies and his personal spin doctor Martin Liptrot)  which we think  warrant your attention :

HAPPY NEW YEAR from the For Trees team!

Over the break, tree cutting has continued at Ashton Park has continued.

We URGENTLY need emails of objection (labelled as ‘official complaint…or it can be ignored’) to go out to;

Andrew Elkington, Programme Director- Leisure, Libraries and Cultural Services.

 andrewelkington@wirral.gov.uk 

( to whom we are now being deferred, by Mary Worrall.)

asking for a moratorium on all tree cutting on the Wirral. in reference specifically in Ashton Park until AT LEAST an independent non-commercial survey can be done on behalf of petitioning constituents.

Please copy in;

-Margaret Greenwood; margaretgreenwood@wirral.gov.uk, or/and call her office 0151 792-3416 asking for her to  support your request and help save Wirrals trees

-Ourselves, at For Trees Wirral, in order for us to share (with or without your details attached) fortreeswirral@gmail.com

The tree fellers are pushing on before the nesting season starts….We need support NOW

Please Help to share this request 

Many Thanks for your support 

Diane Johnson, For Trees

PHONECALL JUST CAME FROM THE PARK….THEY ARE FELLING NOW!

PICTURES TAKEN 11th JANUARY :

              ASHTON COURT – UPDATE.                              11 January 2019.

THE LAST DATE THAT WIRRAL METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL’S PLANNING DEPARTMENT WILL ACCEPT OBJECTIONS TO THE APP/18/01625 PLANNING APPLICATION IS TUESDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2019.

To object…..google: Wirral.planning applications. Select ‘simple search’. Enter ‘Ashton Court. APP/18/01625’…….and present your objections.

The twenty two, unoccupied and neglected, retirement flats at Ashton Court, Banks Road, West Kirby, should be refurbished and modernised. They should be kept as social, rented housing.

Planning application – APP/18/01625 proposes the demolition of the existing 22 retirement flats and the privatisation of Ashton Court, with the building of 14 houses, to be sold, privately.

Ashton Court is not a Brown Field Site, since it does not qualify as such under the National Planning Policy Framework (see the N.P.P.F. Glossary, Annex 2 – ‘Previously Developed Land’).

PLEASE object to the APP/18/01625 Planning application.

Write to: David Ball, Assistant Director ‘Major Growth Projects and Housing Delivery, Economic and Housing Growth Directorate’, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council, P.O. Box 290, Brighton Street, Wallasey, Wirral, CH27 9FQ.

 Email: planningapplications@wirral.gov.uk   

Please invite your friends and neighbours to sign petitions objecting to the APP/18/01625 planning application. Thank you.
‘Magenta Living’ has created three companies to privatise some of the 13,000 social homes that it owns. The companies are: ‘Hilbre Homes’, ‘Starfish Commercial’ and ‘Bamboo Lettings’.
‘Magenta Living’ currently has 192 unoccupied properties. ‘Magenta Living’ is responsible for the neglect of the twenty two unoccupied homes at Ashton Court.
Since 2011 most of the twenty two Ashton Court homes have been wholly unoccupied and totally neglected by ‘Magenta Living’. The private gardens, in front of the Ashton Court homes have, for the last fifty years, provided a much appreciated green space, for local residents, half way along Banks Road.
Policy GRE1 of the Local Development Plan calls for Urban Green Spaces, including private gardens, like those at Ashton Court, to be protected. The Ashton Court gardens should be protected from building schemes since they are areas of visual importance to local residents and to visitors to West Kirby.
Many West Kirby residents object to Planning Application APP/18/01625 which seeks the DEMOLITION of twenty two flats at Ashton Court, Banks Road, West Kirby and the building of 14 houses (13 X 3-storey houses and 1 X 2-storey house). They are opposed to the ‘Magenta Living’ plan for the demolition of the existing homes at Ashton Court.

‘Magenta Living’ should refurbish and modernise the existing homes rather than destroy highly-valued urban green space at Ashton Court by building 14 tightly-packed, private houses. West Kirby’s remaining urban green spaces should be protected for the benefit of present and future generations.
                                                                                            

Published by: West Kirby Campaign Group.