Upton Matters

Today your Conservative Action Team was clearing up the woodland area of Weybourne Close. Thank you to the residents who joined us. I had arranged for Biffa to come along to and collect the rubbish after we had finished - an hour later they still hadn’t arrived! After eventually getting through the person I spoke to said they never received my request and it will be Monday morning at the earliest. Suffice to say I was not in the least happy.

If you are interested in joining Team Esther and helping secure a Conservative government then please call 0151 632 1052

This Saturday the Conservative Action Team and I will be litterpicking in the wooded areas near Weybourne Close, off Norwich Drive. If you feel like coming along to help us for an hour please feel free, we are meeting at 10am.

Tonight I attended my second board meeting of Woodchurch Neighbourhood Management Team. Lots of issues were discussed, including the commissioning of new projects such as a boxing club for youths and the proposals for the new building of Woodchurch High School. Another issue that cropped up is that the Playscheme is no longer in operation due to long term staff sick leave. Over 7000 children accessed the Playscheme from January to December 2007. With the summer holidays approaching I will be pushing the council to find the staff to run this much needed play scheme.

Credit where it’s due - the council have been and repaired the pavement in Green Mount that was left in an awful state by the contractor.

A while ago I posted about residents in Green Mount having two lampposts in same place and a big hole in the pavement. Well the council came along and remove the old lamppost but left it up to the original contractor to fill the hole in and replace the paving slabs. The contractor was good enough to fill the hole in ( with a bit of sand) but left the paving slabs and the barrier! This is not good enough, residents have had to put up with this for far too long and I will make sure the pavement is brought up to standard.

Yesterday I attended an open meeting with residents from the Overchurch estate. The primary concern is still anti-social behaviour. While a lot has been done to tackle this in the last 6 months the fear is with the light nights and summer holidays rapidly approaching incidents of ASB are starting escalate. The police are aware of the situation and so is Wirral Council’s Anti Social Behaviour Team, who have designated the area a ‘respect watch’ area.

This morning, along with my colleagues Cllrs James Keeley and Paul Hayes, we visited our old school St Anselms College. It was the school’s enterprise day and we were asked to be judges for each project. The students had to give presentations to ask the “council” for funding for different projects such as a new school, proposed roundabout and sports centre etc.  What struck me was the level of work and research that had gone into these projects. It’s good to know the school is maintaining such a high calibre of students! I look forward to going back soon and catching up with my old teachers.

I have been appointed to the Governing Body of Woodchurch High School. Woodchurch High was rated as “Outstanding” by the last Ofsted inspection. I look forward to working with the staff and other governors to maintaining the high standard Woodchurch offers to it’s pupils.

William Hague visited Wirral and was delighted to see that the Conservatives have 3 councillors under the age of 25on Wirral Council. Pictured are myself, Cllr Paul Hayes and Cllr James Keeley chatting to William Hague. William also welcomed senior Lib Dem Rob Earl to the Conservatives who was a former candidate in Upton. Rob is not the first Lib Dem to join the Conservatives, previous we have had former councillor Oliver Adam, Jeff Clarke (Parliamentary Candidate Wirral South) and Sajj Karim MEP. This goes to show that only the Conservatives can beat Labour.