We asked, you said, we did

We Asked

Wirral Council has received a £2.969 million funding package from the UK Governments Future High Streets Fund (FHSF) to make improvements on Grange Road, within the Charing Cross junction and on Grange Road West. The funding cannot be used for any other purpose. The proposed improvements were designed to provide better access and connection to the services in the area and improve road safety within the town centre.

Phase 1 consultation (found here) sought reasons for supporting and objecting to the proposals, with feedback considered in the design process. Following this feedback, a second phase (found here) of consultation was designed to give notice and detail of the Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO’s) required to make the proposals effective and collected feedback on these TRO's.

You Said

154 people responded to the phase 1 consultation. 81.0% of responses supported proposals on Grange Road, 81.2% supported proposals on Charing Cross and 73.9% supported the proposed changes to Grange Road West.

43 people responded to the phase 2 consultation. 54.8% supported the implementation of a one-way road system on Grange Road West, 54.8% supported on-street parking restrictions on Grange Road West and 58.1% supported prohibition of driving on Grange Road.

We Did

Charing Cross and Grange Road active travel scheme was approved for delivery with completion scheduled for Summer 2025.

Update 09/07/2025

Following the consultation and a review of the results, the scheme was given approval to progress. As a result, the following traffic regulations orders will be made on 9^th July 2025:

• Amendments to the Birkenhead Town Centre Controlled Parking Zone
• One-way traffic arrangements on Grange Road and St John Street
• Pedestrian/Cycle Zone on Grange Road, St John Street, Catherine Street, Vincent Street, Horatio Street and Coburg Street
• One-way arrangements on Adelphi Street
• Bus Lane on Conway Street
• Revocation orders to remove existing orders to facilitate the project on Europa Boulevard and in the Grange Road pedestrian area

The regeneration scheme in Birkenhead Town Centre, that these traffic regulation orders relate to, has been progressing on site. These traffic regulation orders, will be introduced on site in phases, as the works are completed.

These traffic regulation orders do not include changes to Grange Road West, which will be introduced as works are completed in that area. The regulations for Grange Road West will be introduced as Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders, which means that once we introduce them, they can be amended and changed. Wirral Council will invite comments from residents and local businesses during the initial 6 month period of the new traffic proposals and the experimental traffic regulation order process will allow Wirral Council to make any necessary changes to the traffic arrangements and the use of the road in its new layout.

We Asked

Wirral Council and its partners asked people who live, visit or work in Beechwood or Ballantyne, to help re-design the area of ‘Greenacres Park’, to make it a safer community space for all to enjoy.

Respondents were asked to provide feedback including what they would like to see in the park, including:

• What they would like to name the park.
• What they like about the park.
• What they do not like about the park.
• What they would like to see in the park.
• What they do not want to see in the park.

You Said

27 ideas were posted on the ideas board. The top themes that emerged from the ideas were:

• Sports Facilities (40.7%).
• Playground (33.3%).
• Community Garden (29.6%).
• Green Space (18.5%).
• Cleanliness (18.5%)

The report with the full results can be found here: 'Greenacres Park' Ideas Board | Have your say Wirral

We Did

The ideas and suggestions will be used to put together a plan so that we can apply for funding to make improvements to the park.

If the application for funding is successful, a series of workshops will then be held in the local community to continue to coproduce the plans for the area and make sure that the plans still reflect community ideas.

We Asked

Selective Licensing is a scheme to improve private rented homes within specific designated neighbourhoods by requiring landlords to obtain a licence and comply with certain agreed conditions. This scheme aims to improve homes in the Selective Licensing areas by ensuring private landlords meet satisfactory standards of tenancy and property management.

The proposed areas for 2025-2030 are:

• Birkenhead Central
• Lower Tranmere
• Tranmere North
• Hamilton Square B
• Tranmere Lairds
• Egremont South

We asked for your views on:

• Your level of agreement to the implementation of the scheme.
• Your level of agreement to the level of the selective licensing fee.
• Your level of agreement to the proposed reductions to the selective licensing fee.
• For landlords, the level of agreement to some of the selective licensing conditions.

You Said

718 people responded to the Residents and Businesses survey and 89 people responded to the Landlords survey. 86.9% of residents and businesses supported the selective licensing proposal and 4.1% opposed it. 73.9% of landlords opposed the selective licensing proposal and 17.0% supported it.

The feedback was presented to the Economy Regeneration & Housing Committee on 17 June 2025. The report can be viewed in the documents section here.

We Did

During the Economy Regeneration & Housing Committee on 17 June 2025, the proposals to implement Selective Licensing were approved.

We Asked

We asked Wirral Residents to find out their carbon footprint using the WWF Footprint Calculator and tell us their results. We also asked for postcodes so the results could be averaged by ward.

You Said

76 people told us their carbon footprint. The highest average carbon footprint was 11.2 tonnes in the West Kirby and Thurstaston ward, followed by 11.1 tonnes in the Upton ward, and 10.9 tonnes in the Bidston and St. James ward. The lowest average carbon footprint was 7.1 tonnes in the Eastham ward. The full results can be seen on the Carbon Footprint project page.

We Did

The results will be shared with Cool Wirral and will help us to see where the greatest sources of emissions are in each area and how to direct our resources to best support communities to reduce them.

We asked

We asked for your comments on our proposed changes to the Council’s Local Validation Checklist.

You said

We received comments from 3 individuals during the course of the 6 week consultation period. The issues raised can be summarised as follows:

• The importance of Best and Most Versatile agricultural land.
• The Local Validation Checklist has increased significantly in terms of the volume of information required to be submitted with certain planning applications, which could have an adverse impact on the time taken to validate and determine planning applications.
• Queries were raised over whether the checklist should explicitly exclude certain application types where that particular piece of information may not be required.

We did

A direct response was sent to each individual addressing the separate issues raised and seeking to provide further explanation as to the why certain information is required when submitting a planning application.

Each response was considered carefully to assess whether any further changes should be made to the checklist, however the team is satisfied that the requirements of the checklist are proportionate, reasonable, and necessary in the determination of planning applications. Therefore no further amends have been made to the checklist.

The Checklist has been approved by the Director of Regeneration and Place and is published on the website here: https://www.wirral.gov.uk/planning-and-building/planning/planning-application-forms-and-checklists

We Asked

Wirral Council agreed an Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Strategy in 2024 which amongst other things, set a target to provide 1,580 new, either standard or fast EV charge points across the borough by 2030. We want to make sure that we install charging points in the right areas for people to use, such as where residents do not have their own driveway or access to off street car parking. Wirral Council invited residents to suggest on street locations where they think Electric Vehicle Charging is needed the most. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) have been awarded £9.6m of Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) grant funding to deliver charging infrastructure across the city region.

You Said

You provided a list of specific locations where you believe EV on street charging points would be required.

We Did

We have analysed the information and shared with the LCRCA for funding. The sites suggested have been prioritised using a criteria including the location and material of the local street lighting column. The current aim is to start delivery of charge points in Autumn 2025.

We Asked

Throughout 2024, every two months residents could join in with four climate challenges that were focused on the themes of food, waste, nature, travel, energy and shopping. Many of the challenges were about inspiring long-lasting, environmentally positive habits. We asked Wirral residents to pledge to join these climate challenges and then share their experiences with us.

You Said

145 people got involved in the challenges, with a total of 196 pledges, 10 ideas and 42 completed challenges.

We Did

The outcomes of these consultations were used in an expression of interest for a National Lottery Bid which was submitted on the 30th December. The bid been progressed by the National Lottery to the next stage for a final submission in September 2025. If successful, this will consist of £1.5m in funding for community climate action projects which will involve the Cool Communities Partnership.

The results from this engagement will also be analysed to help steer engagement activities by the Climate Champions into the 2025 calendar year.

Link to the Climate Action hub page, where you can find the full results.

More information about the challenges can be found here: Climate Challenge Feedback.

We Asked

We asked for feedback on the St Werburgh's Draft Masterplan which proposed improved pedestrian, cycling and wheeling routes and wholesale changes including the creation of a new market adjacent to the existing bus station.

You Said

29 people responded to the consultation; most were wider Wirral residents. Most respondents felt the project would offer a new mix of housing to the town providing more opportunity for people to choose to live in the town centre (including family and affordable homes). Most repsondents said they would like to see improved public green spaces, squares and footpaths but some were concerned that there is a lack of capacity / resources to deliver the project. A majority of respondents agreed that delivery of the aspirations set out in the masterplan will benefit Birkenhead and the wider area and agreed with the idea of creating several new north / south pedestrian routes to open up the area and create more active frontages. The three most popular words to describe how respondents would want Birkenhead to be in 2024 were safe, clean and green. When asked for any other comments or suggestions to the Draft Masterplan, the most popular theme was the preservation of local amenities and heritage. Organisations in the area also provided feedback and comments.

We Did

All the feedback was evaluated and at the Economy, Regeneration & Housing Committee on 12 March 2025 the St Werburgh's Masterplan was adopted as the Council’s approved planning strategy for the area.

Link to consultation page.

We Asked

We asked for feedback on the Birkenhead Central Draft Masterplan which proposed improved pedestrian, cycling and wheeling routes and wholesale changes including the creation of a new market adjacent to the existing bus station and a new health and wellbeing facility that will sit opposite, housing a modern swimming offer.

You Said

69 people responded to the consultation; most were wider Wirral residents. When asked about the opportunities or benefits to the area this project may bring, the most popular option was “Make the town centre more welcoming and encouraging more visitors”. Most of the responses said they would like to see improved public green spaces, squares and footpaths in the re-visioned town centre. Respondents were concerned that there is a lack of capacity / resources to deliver the masterplan. Most respondents felt the masterplan would benefit Birkenhead and the wider area and supported the ideas of creating of several new north / south pedestrian routes to open up the area and more active frontages (ground floor uses), and building new homes on undeveloped sites and redeveloping underutilised carparks within the Charing Cross area. When asked about the 3 words they would want Birkenhead to be in 2040, the main words were safe, clean and busy. Organisations in the area also provided feedback and comments.

We Did

All the feedback was evaluated and at the Economy, Regeneration & Housing Committee on 12 March 2025 the Birkenhead Central Masterplan was adopted as the Council’s approved planning strategy for the area.

Link to consultation page.

We Asked

Wirral Council has a Places for People Strategy. To deliver on this strategy we need to provide a collection of routes known as an active travel network to make walking, wheeling and cycling more available to people living and working in Wirral. A good active travel network includes a core network of main routes with supporting local area networks A core network is made up of a main set of safe and direct routes that provide high quality walking, cycling and wheeling routes for local day-to-day travel to and from key destinations. Using data, information and Department for Transport guidance a core network including new routes, existing routes and routes we are already working on has been developed. We wanted to know your thoughts on this core network – and if you agree these are the right routes to support active travel in Wirral

Link to consultation page.

You Said

1130 responses to the CATN consultation were received. Respondents were given the option to respond on individual routes or the network as a whole. Feedback received on the overall network generally reflected the sentiment that the network would cause parking issues, congestion, would not provide value for money and expressed the belief that there was a lack of demand for an active travel network. However, there was also support for the network due to with the belief it would be beneficial for health, safety, and the environment. Respondents were also asked if they agreed with the proposed timings for delivery of individual routes. You told us that some routes should be more of a priority, some less of a priority, and the proposed timing for some routes seemed correct. Feedback on individual routes can be found in the full report which is available for download on the consultation page (link).

We Did

Using your feedback a number of changes were made to the proposed network. A list of the changes can be found here (link). Each comment that you provided was considered and responded to, a list of responses can be found here (link). The amended network was agreed at the January meeting of the Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee (link). As this consultation was regarding the development of a network plan, there will be opportunity to provide feedback on the specifics of individual routes and how they are implemented in future.