We’ve had a couple of notes and observations from Wirral Leaks readers that we hope some of our other followers can help, especially when His Lordship and Her Ladyship are still away and we’re been having a lazy Sunday back at Leaky Towers …sssssh- don’t tell anyone!
First of all we received this note about our old friends Change,Grow,Live (still the lamest company name we’ve ever come across) :
I note that the council Scrutiny committee has just extended a three year contract into six for Kingdom, the litter fascists, as reported in The Globe.Has the committee also ‘scrutinised’ the drug treatment contract for CGL, awarded in Feb 2015 for three years, time is up and nothing has been announced about whether it is to be extended…probably…or re-tendered. The contract is huge and comes to £7.5million annually. Surely this should be scrutinised as to exactly what we have bought and what CGL are doing.As you know CGL replaced the excellent NHS service, Wirral Drug Service, presumably on monetary grounds. Drug related deaths are now at a national high and Wirral CGL has been taken to task about this as you also know. 78 deaths in their first 18 months of operation. Crime is up, street begging and drinking is up, street drug crime itself is increasing, all of which is obvious to anyone living in Birkenhead. Street prostitutes are increasing around the Cleveland road area and CGL provide no service to them such as condoms or needles or advice. The old service tackled all of these issues CGL do not. Even the provision of clean needles from pharmacies has deteriorated, again a matter of pride for the old service.What have we gained from CGLs arrival, nothing in my view, treatment and support for Wirrals addicts is appalling. All I can see is the so called Spider Project in Hamilton Street providing addicts a place to write poetry and draw pictures.£7.5 million pounds for a poorly run and poorly delivered service is a bit rich!
Now, we thought a new £7million + Public Health contract was waived through ,no bother,by Wirral Council in April , but we’d be delighted to be proved wrong. In fact , we’d be delighted. As you all know we’ve long held concerns about this particular organisation. Read here : Public Health England brought into investigate concerns first raised by Wirral Leaks
All we could do at this point was to advise that the Chair of the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee was Cllr Moira ‘Matron’ McLaughlin so any chance of any proper scrutiny was out the window!
Meanwhile we have also received this intriguing observation on the issue of Wirral Council’s proposals for the potential use of ‘brownfield’ sites which we covered earlier this week :
Just an observation about Wirral Council’s extensive list of brownfield sites in Birkenhead that may be suitable for housing and commercial development. One of these sites is Duncan Street car park, near Hamilton Square.
But if anyone tries to build here, they’ll be in for a shock when they dig the foundations – because the Mersey Tunnel runs just a few feet under the ground at this spot. That’s why it has never been built on since the tunnel was constructed in the 1930s. Perhaps someone should tell the council.
Great website, by the way.
I’m no engineer or expert, just someone who’s interested in local history.
However, I’m sure what I’ve said about the Duncan Street car park is correct – the tunnel is just too near the surface for any building to be feasible above it. You can see from the attached map the route of the tunnel.
Are there any structural engineers who can advise our reader ? We know we’re good at digging for dirt but we draw the line at digging for information on tunnels ! Oh and please,no comments on the ‘Square Entrance’ illustration at the bottom of the map. After all, this is a family blog…