Friday 31 January 2014

Gilmour infants and juniors expansion?

The City Council's Cabinet is next week (7 Feb) to decide on plans to expand Gilmour Infants school and Gilmour Junior school in L19.

The paperwork for the meeting is at this link.

Parklands school in Speke to close?

Liverpool City Council has started a consultation on whether or not to close Parklands High School in Speke.

If the school does close this year, pupils will be directed to the Enterprise South Liverpool Academy.

It would mean no secondary school provision in the Speke area.

The consultation runs until late Feb.  You can see the details at this link.

It's certainly true that the number of secondary school pupils is down at the moment nationally.  However the need to expand primary provision implies that there will be demand for secondary places in future.

Sunday 26 January 2014

How to comment on the bus lane experiment

Back in October Liverpool's Mayor decided that we shouldn't have bus lanes in Liverpool.

Or rather he announced a nine month experiment during which the bus lanes would be suspended and the Council would see if that made things better or worse.

At the time there was quite a bit of controversy - not least because it became clear that the Council had no real data on traffic movement and passenger  numbers in bus lane areas. 

The Council however said that it was a real experiment and there was a consultation to get feedback on whether the suspension of bus lanes was a good or bad idea. 

So you'd expect it to be very obvious how to comment on this.

Err no!

The Council has a section on its website for on going consultations.  It also has a news section at the very front. Neither of these highlight this opportunity, and in fact the "consultation page" doesn't mention it at all.

If you do have points to make about bus lanes however, you can do so by either writing in or sending an e mail by the deadline in April.  You might want to talk about the effects in a particular area or about the lanes overall.  Here are the contact details

The deadline is 28 April.
 

By Post to:- Jeanette McLoughlin, City Solicitor, Legal Services, Municipal Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool L2 2DH

By email to:- Legal.Planning@liverpool.gov.uk


Please quote reference LS/P&EU/NRB/ETRO 8087B/TM 3149/2052.1268 in all correspondence.











 

Friday 24 January 2014

Gilmour school(s) expansion update

I blogged a while ago about  a proposal to expand Gilmour Infants and Gilmour Junior Schools both in L19.

There was a consultation, involving parents, teachers, community members and so on.  As a governor of the infants I sent in comments myself.

The decision is due to be taken by the Council's cabinet on 7th February.  A bit nearer the time there'll be a report and paperwork for the meeting which will be on line.  The latest outline details however have just been published and you can see them at this link.

I'll post the link to the Cabinet materials when I have them. 

Thursday 23 January 2014

Garston Old Road - off licence up date

The licensing committee is due to make a decision next month (5th Feb) on the application to increase the hours alcohol is sold from the convenience store at 81 Garston Old Road.  This is the one on the corner by the part at which Garston Old Road joins Darby Road.

My colleague Richard Oglethorpe wrote to local people recently to let them know about the application.

Information about what's planned and about the meeting is at this link.

Monday 20 January 2014

New housing development in Speke planned.



The Council's planning committee will next week (28th Jan) decide on a plan to build houses, and a couple of shop units, at the Crescent in Speke (this is by Speke Town Lane)

The agenda and report are at this link (you need to scroll down a bit)

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Residents' association meeting reminder

The  next meeting of the Beechwood Road/Grassendale Road area residents association is next week (Tuesday 21st).

If you live in the area you are very welcome to come along. If you've had a letter or a note through your door about the association (either about this meeting or the last one), your street is definitely included. 

We've set up an e mail group to send out notifications etc for our meetings so do let me know if you want your name added to this.

You can e mail me at paulakeaveney@yahoo.co.uk.  Feel free to e mail with any queries too.

Monday 13 January 2014

Extra cash for schools if children have been adopted

The Government's putting more cash into the Pupil Premium scheme which means some Liverpool schools could be due some more cash.

But the money is dependent on parents taking action.

Up to now the Pupil Premium has given extra money to schools for each pupil who has had free school meals at any point during the last six years, is a son or daughter of a service family or is a looked after child.

Now the eligibility is extended to cover another group of children, which includes some who have been adopted. 

For the school to qualify though, the parents have to confirm that this is the case.

The exact extra eligibility is:

Schools are eligible if they educate a child who:
• Was adopted from care on or after 30th December 2005 (under the Adoption and Children Act 2002)
• Left care under a Special Guardianship Order on or after 30th December 2005 (under the Children Act 1989)
• Left care under a Residential Order on or after 14th October 1991 (under the Children Act 1989)

Schools or the Council should have been in touch to prompt parents to confirm that this is the case, but if this affects your child it's important you proactively contact the school.

The extra money that schools get under the Pupil Premium goes directly to the school for use on initiatives to deal with the effects of deprivation and differences in attainment.  It can include things like one to one teaching or special sessions.  Schools have to publish on line how each year's money is spent.

Saturday 11 January 2014

Convenience store in Speke Post Office

Speke Post Office, which is in the centre of Speke, could partly become a convenience store.

A planning application's come in to make the change.

You can see the details at this link.  The actual detailed info is in a section called Related Documents which is at the bottom of the page.  If you click there you can get access to plans and application forms and so on

It's not clear from this material when the Council's comments deadline is.  Sometimes it takes a while for the date to be adjusted and the comments link to appear. However there's nothing to stop anyone interested having a look at the info now.

What's happening on Wellington Street?

Ages ago (well in 2012 actually) a planning application came in to turn the former community centre on Wellington Street in Garston into flats.  This is the building that was the Garston Embassy for a while and before that was used for education.  Garstonians call it the Tochy Tech (hope that's spelled right!!!)

Anyway, it looked as if a decision was imminent... and then a delay.

I've checked up on this and it turns out that there's some info missing from the application and without the full load of info there can't be a decision either way.

Anyone who sent in comments will still have their comments considered.

Once the info is all in, the whole thing is likely to go to a planning committee.  We don't have a date for this yet but once we know I'll post the details on this blog (and also include it in my e mail bulletins).

If you don't get my e mail bulletins,but want to, there's a link at the side of this blog and you can sign up. If that doesn't work, drop me an e mail.

Thursday 9 January 2014

Garston old road off license sales

There's an application in for a change in the hours that alcohol can be sold from the convenience shop at 81 Garston Old Road.

My colleague Richard Oglethorpe has written to addresses very near the shop to see if they want to comment but even if you didn't get a letter you are still entitled to send a view in.

The deadline is the middle of next week though.

You can see the proposed hours at this link (scroll down).  There is also a handy word document form here for people who do want to comment and would rather use a form.

Get local news

I publish an e mail bulletin roughly once a fortnight.  This includes news about L19 and L18 (as well as some info from a bit furthe afield).  While the blog covers some local news, the e bulletin can be a lot more detailed.

If you want to start getting these, do fill in your e mail on the form at this link.

And if you have news for us to pass on (perhaps you are involved in a charity running an event for example) do let me know at paulakeaveney@yahoo.co.uk.

Garston Library - have your say on what we should do

The Friends of Garston Library are having a General Meeting later this month (January) to give people a chance to have their say about this years, and next years, plans and activities.

So far the Friends have organised a series of literary evenings and a writing competion.

But we are very keen to hear from local people who have thoughts and ideas.

The meeting is on 23 Jan at 7pm at the Enterprise South Liverpool Academy.

Coming along doesn't commit you to a role, although you might find you want to take something on!

If you can't be there, but have ideas or comments, do please drop me a line at paulakeaveney@yahoo.co.uk.  I am the Chair of the organisation.

I do hope we'll see you.