True or False?

According to a 2 page spread in Globe

Wirral Is Indisputably One of Britains Great Places To Live, Work and Visit

Also a competition to send in photos

Is that the Globe talking, the council PR department or national data base ?

Wirral is unique in the fact it's a cul-de-sac. People would have to be wanting to visit for a particular reason, it's not a road through.

Historic warships, Wirral Show, Kite Festival, Balloons across the Mersey, Wirral Museum, Pacific Road, Europe Day, Scarecrow Festival, plus a lot more, were all things that brought the public to the area but alas no longer do.

Work ? Don't know

To live... yes, I reckon it's very pleasant in many places and easy access to Chester, Liverpool, Manchester and beyond.

Sorry Fish but to me the word Wirral now only means one thing Animal cruelty. This once lovely place must be the Capital of the North for horrendous injuries or death mainly to dogs. If anyone reading this recognises the lovely little dog who was thrown off a bridge in Moreton please contact the authorities & report his owner.

Looks like another council attempt to spend £000s to attract business into the region. Jobs for the boys..I suppose they have to try...

https://www.wirralwellmade.com
A new Vision for Wirral
Wirral Growth Company
“Driving economic growth is a key priority for my administration. The creation of a joint venture property company – Wirral Growth Company – will bring new expertise, new ideas and new investment to Wirral. It will allow the Council to share in the risks but reap the rewards of the regeneration of key sites across the whole borough.”

– Cllr Phil Davies, Leader of Wirral Council.

Workwise its getting more precarious, now we are in Liverpool City Region we no longer have as much control over our own investment budgets, already one of our major employers is opening a new building in Liverpool.

Wirral has got amazing facilities at its disposal but it needs continual maintenance which hasn't been happening much for a number of years.

Public Loos are woefully missing which can never be good for tourism or local people that want to get out and about.

Parking is very hit and miss but I guess that goes for much of the rest of the country.

There is far worse animal cruelty in other parts of the country.

. Sounds like the usual promise..trying to find someone to regenerate high street, build new waterfront, attract new business.

Heres some bull "show them the glorious parks and beaches we are famous for.."
werent we recently rated one of the most obese places in UK?

Would 'obese' people dis-courage people from coming here or anywhere else for a day-trip?

I have never seen a Trip Advisor review advising 'Watch out!! Fatties in the vicinity'?!

This weeks edition of The Globe? Would like to read the article. Our area does not recieve it.

....and how much is this new business development programme costing ?

£ 1 billion !!!!

They've done all this before. Regeneration etc.etc. Different name, same thing.
It's tedious . Maybe they can tell us where the previous re-generation lacked and failed, who was responsible and why it was not maintained and so much money wasted.

How come it's a 'private limited company ' registered at Wallasey Town Hall ? Does that make sense ?

Come on DD, put us straight.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10669793

Wirral owns 75% or more of the shares

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10669793/filing-history

David Armstrong registered as Director (Assistant Chief Executive of WMBC )

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10669793/officers

Christopher Harper the previous Director who was a Solicitor ? Appointed on the 17th March 2017 ,resigned on the 21st March 2017.

Your area should be thankful, it's shite.

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/

Jeremy....nice turn of phrase....your talking of a former employer of mine.i wouldnt quite go that far but after working for them part time for nearly 15 years and having to stop due to back problems i never even got a thank you from them. cest la vie.

Peel Holdings still on the scene? Wirral Waters and all that. Cant help thinking its another gravy train for cronies. Ok lets hope ...

Wirral has the potential to be one of the greatest places to live, from the point of view of access to coastline, views and greenspace; Livepool, Manchester and North wales all within an hour etc. Cuts to services, reduced maintenance of infrastructure, decreased vitality of small shopping areas, increased charges (most recently parking in country parks!) could certainly take the shine off the place's appeal. To mention just one problem, I'm getting a bit sick of hearing about Peel Holdings and not seeing any proof of their interest in regeneration in the docks area...

Nah, Peel have moved onto new projects in Leeds and Sheffield now. The latter is getting a lot of investment from big companies such as McLaren and Boeing in the new manufacturing parks close to the old airport.

I said years ago that Wirral wasn't a suitable site for big business because its too far from anywhere. They need central locations close to good road and rail networks.

If like us you don't get the Wirral globe delivered it is available here :-

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/eedition/

for what it's worth

Dave

The peninsula area and location is really unique, I'm surprised WBC have completely blown the tourist thing, even offering it as a retirement location, which is kind of understandable for WBC, considering.

I had two people from New York stay here on separate occasions, and they love the Wirral. They had never seen a sheep in a field before, and liked how North Wales was right next door (which is another matter), how everything was so compact and being so close to water on all sides.

D.D there probably is animal cruelty in other parts of the country but Fish wanted to know our opinion of Wirral & that's my opinion. Maybe I should also mention the lack of bus services since September plenty of areas my own included have been left without buses. We no longer have a bus route to Liscard or New Brighton so have to pay more to go to the corner shop (at least it's open) .Politics aside personally I wouldn't recommend Wirral if your an elderly,careless animal lover.

Last posting should read " elderly, car less animal lover". Can't blame Wirral for stupid predictive text

I think downtown Birkenhead is a disaster area. As close to a 'failed city' as its possible to get. Despite huge sums of money spent on the 'Hamilton Quarter', it remains more or less deserted much of the time. A great deal of money was spent on an idiotic tram project, but it seems that riding on a tram is a rather unattractive prospect unless you are a tram enthusiast, and few people are.

The Pacific Road theatre DID attract people to it for various events, but that has now been shut down too. I guess it wasn't economically viable.

I am not sure if the council is to blame for this, or that it is just too close to Liverpool which is a lot livelier and just as easy to get to for shopping or entertainment.

As to 'uniqueness', I can't see much that is unique to Wirral in general. It has some nice features too. I quite like it here, but others mightn't. But I think 'league tables' of which are the best towns is a pretty futile exercise. I suspect you'd get very different answers depending on when in the day or the year, you asked the question.

Wirral is a weird place. I can't think of many places that have such abject poverty 10 minutes away from £1/2/3m houses.

Brilliant facilities, coastlines, excellent shopping within 15 minutes of anywhere and nice rural walks the same distance away.

That is actually one of the few things the Council has got absolutely right. Being a limited company reduces the risk to the rate payers should the company go bust.



The downfall of Birkenhead can be contributed to many things however going back to the build up of Birkenhead it is generally thought that its ambitions were set way too high, also the carefully planned layout of Birkenhead was virtually destroyed by the railways. However much can also be attributed to Liverpool purposely limiting the ambitions of West Wirral, something that continues to this day.

I read that one of the projects of the new 'private limited company ' is to build an hotel in Hamilton Square.. Now I ask myself, where could that be and why ?

http://www.movecommercial.com/search-underway-wirral-investment/

Areas earmarked for regeneration under the plans include the waterfront side of the Woodside Ferry Terminal, Birkenhead town centre, Hamilton Square, Moreton, Bebington and Seacombe.

https://www.insidermedia.com/event/north-west-invest-in-wirral-breakfast-2018
The panel will discuss:
•Building a world-class maritime hub.
•Where is Wirral on its 20/20 vision, and where next for 2030?
•What is the inward investment pitch, and how can everyone in the room help articulate it?
•What are the plans for tourism, and specifically the hotel and resort pipeline?
•How does Wirral become an exciting place to live, work, play and visit?

Peel Holdings are like a praying mantis waiting for dinner to come along.Filling docks in and building a World class maritime hub, a World class golfing resort and a World class hotel. Birkenhead town centre is a World class shit hole!which is a truer statement than anybody in the council has made.they should sort out the stuff they broke over the years before inviting our visiting guests to enjoy all inclusive dont go out after dark World class Wirral.

Birkenvegas nightclubs and pubs pure ghetto.

I believe Wirral Council owns 25% of the shares - who owns the rest since it looks like theyll have a big say.

Cant be a good omen for efficiency when the person mentioned at Companies house as 'person of significant importance' at Wirral Growth Ltd , is (according to company house page on him ) also a director of the company 'Edsential Community Interest co' ( the two shares held between Wirral and EP councils), whos filings at company house are already in red ink as overdue.

Damn I cant get a clear photo. Basically the middle section of that paper says

" The other registerable person holds directly , or indirectly 75% or more of the shares in the company . The other registerable person has the right , directly or indirectly to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors of the company. The other registrable person holds, directly or indirectly, 75% or more of the voting rights in the company"

Interesting, they were talking about a 50-50 Limited Liability Partnership last year. The decision of which partner to choose has not been made yet but will happen very soon afaik.

The councils P artist has been at it again. Peel Holdings are going to look very silly with all this around them. The boats will look a bit high and dry twice a day as well.
source
released to the Echo.

I might as well put them all up open the window and listen to the people of Wirral gasp/groan in anticipation.

Ill ask a few questions at the next Masonic Meeting

So to sum up , does this really mean the Council BEFORE knowing who its partner is going to be , has agreed to and recorded at companies house that ---

" The other registerable person holds directly , or indirectly 75% or more of the shares in the company . The other registerable person has the right , directly or indirectly to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors of the company. The other registrable person holds, directly or indirectly, 75% or more of the voting rights in the company"

Is that the normal way its done ?? Seems dodgy to me , the Council accepting that their own directors of the company can be got rid of by partners and replaced with partners own choices? Partners may not even have Wirrals needs and interests at heart, just profits.

https://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/documents/s50041953/Property%20Company%20Business%20Case.pdf
I think what you want to know may-be in this.

Although I don't understand all of that jargon, I still feel there are issues surrounding such a 'profit making' company , because that's basically what it will be. A council 'profit making' company, and I always understood that councils were not legally allowed to make profits as such.
If that has now changed, then it's the thin end of the wedge, as the practice will creep further and further into whatever council services are remaining, and we, the public, will not have anyone accountable .
It's something that has been tried in other parts of the country thus creating new jobs in the private sector, which seems fine, but as I see it, only until jobs at the local authority go and legal eagles move in to take the vast majority of the profits back in fees, will reality dawn.
So far as a quick fix....it aint !

What a minefield.

To be fair,Ive only lightly looked over the report Dusty posted (thanks ), but it certainly looks like all the considerations of which options they should choose to forward the idea of the property company ,the financial pluses and minuses, the running of it etc, were, as DD said, based/tested soley against a 50-50 split. 64 pages of the ins and outs of a 50-50 split .

Financially "The Councils land value is being used as its equity, with the private partner matching the land value with a cash injection.This matching of land value will ensure that the joint venture maintains a 50-50 equity split throughout the development stages , and this reflects the ultimate profit share from viable developments ."


Now those profits are only going to be 25% by the look of it -

As for
"Equal sharing of risks and rewards .Equal control with the same number of board members from each of the Council and a private sector partner. Decision making by consensus. "

Well it looks like thats not happening either ,now its

" The other registerable person holds directly , or indirectly 75% or more of the shares in the company . The other registerable person has the right , directly or indirectly to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors of the company. The other registrable person holds, directly or indirectly, 75% or more of the voting rights in the company"

So when all these developments are made on Council land , the Council only has a quarter say on whether they are sold on, or who to, get only 25% of the profit --- sounds great.

Im just wondering when all this huge change came about? It seems to have happened very quickly and quietly. Maybe Im misunderstanding it ?

Be nice to have a member of the Council come and explain it all incase its not how it looks.

Carillion comes to mind. Got to get used to the idea that there are loads of our leaders who have their hands in our pockets one way or the other, and I'm talking about across the board not just centre, left of centre or right of centre. Politicians are in it for their own benefit, fact, so don't be surprised when they pull these stunts.

I can only think that the council have taken on board "The Peel Model" Take .a piece of worthless land, add planning permission and we are staring to make" money, on paper anyway".The council borrow on the strength of "the money on paper anyway" and tell us they have not borrowed because" the money on paper anyway" balance the books. I have not figured out if the councils share is pre planning or post planning permission. land price but the principle stays the same. We end up with less assets worth more "on paper anyway".

Carillion in trouble.. I used to work for a construction company that i doubt were in their pockets as we mysteriously seemed not to win any job we tendered for even when going in at nil profit.

I wonder how well the council 25% would be protected if the private company carries on with the developments calling all the shots on whats built where etc and runs up debts with contractors etc and then does a Carillion . Wonder if that had any bearing on the decision (whenever it happened) , for the reduction from 50%-25%.

Have you say here:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DKTFFH5

Muse has been chosen as Wirral Council's joint development partner in the Wirral Growth Compnay. The first development is to be completed by 2022 and includes new Council offices.

https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/muse-chosen-for-1bn-wirral-regeneration/#.Wo2454vkEbg.twitter

Hi guys, it has been about 47 years(apart from 5 days back in 2011) since I left the Wirral. No doubt the Wirral is a beautiful place. Unfortunately it never had anything going for it, once you discount the shipyards and slaughter houses(all gone now). If you look way back in history all it was was a forest for the king too hunt in. It had nothing of any value. There are some mentions in the Doomsday Book, but nothing of any note.
Birkenhead has always been what has been described here as a shit hole. I don't know what has to be done. Maybe bulldoze it all and start again. Which they probably should have done after the war..

I dont understand how they can still be stating its a 50/50 split after that paperwork I posted shows 75/25

Its in good company then, I don't know of a UK town or city that isn't called the same, mostly by the very same antisocial people that are causing the description.

Birkenhead is a Shit Hole, people in denial are normally those who live in one and are used it .

Name somewhere better, I notice you haven't moved away?

Interesting reads here: #musemusings https://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/author/wirralleaks/

What defines 'a shithole' and what can realistically be done to remove the shithole status?

I could name thousands of places but not Beirut. The people of Birkenhead witnessed it deteriorate from a thriving living pleasant place to what it is now a Shit Hole. Frank F needs people with a distorted view of what isn't a shit hole to vote for him so that he can look after everybody except his constituents. I am Birkenhead born and bred and in truth you have no idea where I live , so your notice is dismissed.

It is noted that you have failed to name one.

There are a lot of people that think the grass is greener anywhere but where that are but the reality is that everywhere has mixed areas, the larger the place the more extreme the differences

Birkenhead is a city that was never allowed to become a city.

I think you are confused about Birkenhead and Wirral. Birkenhead is a shit hole, and parts of Wirral are very nice.
Birkenhead park gets visitors from all over the World but most return home as soon as their young can fly.
Birkenhead could be the first town to be made a City posthumously. I love Birkenhead but lets face it it died a long time ago. You have the last word DD , I can,t change my opinion sometimes i wish I was as mad as Phil Davies.

Well there we agree, the Council hasn't done its best for us for a number of years. Liverpool have also always done the dirty on us and look like it is about to do it again now we have joined the city region. One of our major employers (The Contact Company) is about to build a new place in Liverpool all orchestrated by the city region, how long before Birkenhead loses them altogether?

Most towns of Wirral (and the rest of the Country) are similar, a mixture of rough areas and good areas. Heswall and Neston have their problem areas.