Greenhill Road takeaway update (26 Feb)

There's bad news for people opposed to the scheme for a takeaway at the junction of Greenhill Road and Melbreck Road.

Council planners seem to want the idea to have the go ahead.

Despite a large number of resident objections, the Council is recommending that the application be approved.

It has still to go to planning committee and Richard Oglethorpe and I will be arguing on residents behalf against the idea.

Amazing really though that the Council can want to say yes when so many residents say no.

I will blog again when I have more details but its only fair that people know the way the Council is thinking.

Community Skips in L19

The City Council has a community skip programme which makes skips available for community clean ups or for areas where people are complaining about dumping etc.

My colleague Richard Oglethorpe has arranged for the skips to be available for people in the streets near the library this coming Friday (1st March)

The skip will be at the junction of Basing Street and Duncombe Street south.  Do use it if it helps keep your area cleaner.

The skip will be back on two following Fridays - also on Dumcombe Street South at the Calthorpe and Stormont Road junctions.

Cressington Community First - what we fund

I've been working on some articles to illustrate the sort of things the Cressington Community First Fund actually funds.

It's involved visiting projects and interviewing staff and volunteers.

The first three articles - about the Clothes Exchange, the South Liverpool Foodbank and the Garston Adventure Playground are now published on the fund's website.

You can see these articles at this link.

Office space available for hire in Garston

The Garston Community House (that's the building on the corner by the bridge) has space available for hire.  It might suit local organisations looking for a work base.


There are two rooms going and the organisation says that it's prepared to hire them out on a daily, weekly, monthy or annual basis.
The benefits include a staffed reception (this is the same building as the CAB), a fully accessible building and access from 8 30 in the morning Monday to Friday. (closes at 5)

The person to contact if you are interested is Angela Taylor on 0151 427 5437

Or angela.taylor@southliverpoolcab.org.uk

The CAB website has images of what the space is on its website.
www.southliverpoolcab.org.uk/index.php/en/office-space-available

Friends of Garston Library (update 16th February)

We've just finished a first meeting to set up a Friends of Garston Library group.  Plenty of ideas and it's clear there is scope to organise events and to get more people using the library.

We've got a follow up meeting, to make more organisational progress, on 2nd March at the Library.

Because there aren't an infinite number of chairs there, it would really help to know if you are coming (if you are one of the people who wasn't here today).  You can e mail me at paulakeaveney@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks to Denise from the library service also for updating us on some great plans for celebrations of reading in Liverpool.

Survey on the bin service

Liverpool City Council is talking about changing the bin service so that the purple bins are collected every fortnight rather than every week.

The proposal at the moment is that this would only apply to parts of the City although its not clear from the definitions exactly which those parts would be.

We believe that these sorts of changes shouldn't come in without a serious attempt to collect people's views and act on them.

My Lib Dem colleagues and I are now doing just that.

If you want to fill in our on line survey on this topic, please use this link

Taggart Avenue closure U turn

Thanks to everyone who filled in the survey about the plans to block off part of Taggart Avenue.

The news today is that the Council has done a U turn on this one and it now won't happen.

My colleague Cllr Pat Moloney, who represents Childwall, collected hundreds of responses about the idea.  They were all against and people were angry that the first they heard about the proposal was in the media.

Island Road building update (7 Feb)

Last year I reported that the owners of the big empty building on Island Road (South Liverpool Housing) had got planning permission to change it into a number of homes.  Good news for local people as the building  had been empty for some time and let's face it is a bit of an eyesore.

We'd hoped to see work start towards the end of last year, but the news is that the housing association has now appointed a contractor and that company should be writing to or visiting people living nearby to let them know what's going on.  The whole process looks likely to take around six months.  Good to see some progress.

Garston Old Road off licence update (Feb 6th)

The licensing committee met today to decide whether or not to allow alcohol sales from the shop premises at 180/184 Garston Old Road.  This is the building on the corner of Stormont Road (Butterworth Spengler).

I was there, with Councillor Richard Oglethorpe, and a local resident to represent people who opposed the idea. No other politicians or campaigners turned up to speak.

We argued the points that residents had made, including the location being right by the park, the risk of increased litter and nuisance, the closeness of local schools and so on.

Thanks to everyone who sent in letters and forms as this did help the arguments.

Sadly we were not entirely successful.  The committee did give permission for alchol sales (as part of a general convenience store).  However the hours were cut down from what was being asked for.  Alcohol can only be sold between 9 30 am and 10pm Monday to Sunday (that doesn't affect when the shop itself can be open).

The shop will also have to take the "Challenge 25 " approach, which basically means asking anyone who looks under 25 to prove their age.

People who were at the committee today should get a copy of a formal decision letter and the details of the meeting will be available on the Council website at this link.

Traffic around Hope University

There's a proposal to close off part of Taggart Avenue to create more of a campus feel for Hope University.

My colleagues who represent that area are carrying out a short survey to get views on the scheme.

But it occurs to me that people who regularly drive in the area, or take a bus in the area, may also have views even if not living there.

If you want to fill in the very short survey please just click on this link.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F8T86LX

Friends of Garston Library

We're having our first meeting of the Friends of Garston Library group later this month.

It's on 16th February ( a Saturday) at 11 am.

As it's a first meeting, it'll be up to us to decide what we want to do in future as a Friends Group and how we want to be set up. 

Obviously there is not an infinite number of chairs in the Library and we are meeting when people are in there trying to use it - so if you want to come along and haven't already let me know, please drop me an e mail at paulakeaveney@yahoo.co.uk.

There's been a bit of stuff in the media today about possible library closures.  This meeting has been in the pipeline for a long time and so is not a reaction to that.  However if Garston does come under threat in the months to come, it could be extremely helpful to have this group.

Petition on military reservists in Liverpool

A member of the Royal Naval Reserve in Liverpool pointed out to me recently that Liverpool residents are potentially being treated less fairly than those on the Wirral.

Reservists have to take a fitness test every year (as they should really).  So this involves putting some effort into staying fit.

On the Wirral they can currently use leisure centres for free.  This is not the case in Liverpool.

I got this raised with the Council and the reply came back that this would be too costly to do.

The reply was data free and frankly there is no way the cost could be known without quite a lot of other information.  It only costs the Council money if there are lots of them paying now who would then stop paying and the Council can't possibly know whether this is the case.

But putting that aside, isn't this more about supporting those who are prepared to deply and serve?  The City Council has signed up to an armed forces covenant and in fact spends time publicising this.  Perhaps making this change could be another instance of that covenant.

Anyway, working with the gentleman who raised the issues, we have created an on line petition on the Council's website.  You can see the petition, and sign it, at the link below.

http://councillors.liverpool.gov.uk/mgePetitionListDisplay.aspx?bcr=1

You do have to be someone who lives, works or studies in Liverpool.