Irby, Thurstaston and Pensby Amenity SocietyEstablished over 30 years

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Volume 13, Issue 2 - September 2011

Page 1BeachWatchThurstaston

Tidy-up

Page 2Barn Owls

Need Your Help

Page 3CommunicationsITPAS Boundary

Roundabout NewsMembership

Page 4New Faces

Page 5Planning

Page 6Committee

Diary

Beach litter... at the highest levelsince records began

Litter is swamping our oceansand is washing up onbeaches. It kills wildlife, looksdisgusting, is a hazard to ourhealth and costs millions toclear up.There are nearly2,000 items of rubbish forevery kilometre on a beach.Marine wildlife gets entangledin litter and accidentallyingests it. Turtles mistakeplastic bags for jellyfish andthe bags block their stomachs,often leading to death fromstarvation. Seabirds mistakefloating plastic litter for food,and over 90% of fulmarsfound dead around the NorthSea have plastic in theirstomachs. Plastic litter onbeaches has increased 135%since 1994. Plastic neverbiodegrades. It just breaks down intosmall pieces but does not disappear.Microplastic particles are now foundinside filter feeding animals andamongst sand grains on our beaches.

Litter comes from many sources - thepublic, fishing activities, sewage pipesand shipping, but it is all preventable.

The Marine Conservation Society(www.mcsuk.org) has a national

series of BeachWatch clean-up events on

September 17th & 18th.

ITPAS is actively involved inthe BeachWatch and Adopt ABeach Schemes and our ownJim McCormac is the newBeachWatch Officer. You arepositively encouraged tocome along to the DeeSailing Club on eithermorning at 10.0 am to helpclear and tidy our beach. Allequipment - gloves, sacksetc - will be provided.

This is a great opportunity forreally helpful day out and onewhich ITPAS is pleased to beorganising.

Do your bit for theenvironment - our very own

beach right on our doorstep. Everylittle helps and as an Adopted Beachwe hope we will manage to upgradeThurstaston Beach to the requiredstandard.

Contact Valerie McCormac on0151-604-0376 for more details

Tideline Tidy-up

Refused

Irby, Thurstaston and Pensby Amenity SocietyEstablished over 30 years

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Barn Owls need Your HelpWe are all familiar with the Barn Owl, with its heartshaped-face and haunting gaze. These beautiful

birds feature on television wildlife programmes, arepictured amid snowy scenes on Christmas cards andstar in Harry Potter films. But I wonder how manyresidents in Irby, Thurstaston and Pensby have beenprivileged to see these rare and elusive birds huntingand flying across the Wirral.

Barn Owls are now so rare that they are afforded thehighest protection as they are listed on Schedule 1 ofthe Wildlife and Countryside Act. Barn Owls suffereda post-war decline of 85% locally and by 1999 therewas only one known breeding site left on the Wirralpeninsula.

A number of factors have contributed to the plight ofthe Barn Owl including loss of habitat and of thebarns and outbuildings, which provided valuableroosting and nesting sites. The situation hasimproved gradually in the past ten years with 28breeding pairs this year but it is still precarious.

Volunteers from The Wirral Barn Owl Trust have beenworking tirelessly over the past 12 years to reversethat decline, and have, amongst other things,installed over 200 nest boxes on the Wirral.Volunteers construct and install each nest box, whichis then monitored, and at successful sites the youngare fitted with individually numbered leg rings beforethey fledge. The data collected at each site enablesthe Barn Owl Trust to monitor the population leveland the movement and survival rates of those birds,and helps to protect breeding sites and to maintain,increase and protect foraging habitat. The materials,tool and equipment, including ladders, brackets,marine plywood and protective paint used toconstruct and install nest boxes are a costly andongoing expense. Wirral Barn Owl Trust is aregistered charity and relies heavily on donations andthe goodwill and hard work of a few dedicatedvolunteers to keep going – it needs your help!

Barn Owl Trust Honorary Chairman Steve Harris hasexplained to me that parts of Irby, Thurstaston andPensby area are a really significant breeding site forBarn Owls - probably the most important in the wholepeninsula. Barn Owls are generally regarded as anindicator species for the health of biodiversity in wildflowers and insects, making the work of the Trusteven more valuable.

ITPAS has its roots in conservation of wildlife and ourgreen, open spaces. It is what we believe in. Youcan help the plight of the Barn Owl and support thisworthy organisation by either becoming a member ofWirral Barn Owl Trust at a cost of £8.00 per year(£12.00 for a couple at thesame address) or you canhelp the continuing work ofthe Trust by making adonation. Members receive aquarterly newsletter, keepingyou up to date on the status ofBarn Owls on Wirral and arewelcome to attend members’meetings at Bebington CivicCentre where they have guestsspeakers and you have achance to meet volunteers andlearn more. You may have acouple of hours free and wish to become a volunteer.To find out more about the Wirral Barn Owl Trust andwhat you can do to help, you can visit the website at

www.wirralbarnowltrust.org

email wirralbarnowltrust@sky.comor contact Membership Secretary Yvonne Morgan

on 0151 677 1505.

The Barn Owl Trust is in desperate need of funds andvolunteers so please do what you can to enable thevaluable work of the Trust to continue.

Thank you,

Melanie WalkerITPAS Chairman

Irby, Thurstaston and Pensby Amenity SocietyEstablished over 30 years

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ITPAS recognises that not everyone hasa computer or internet access. Howeverwe do need to be keeping up withprogress and any developments will be ofbenefit to the membershipand make life easier for theCommittee. We would liketo be able to communicatewith our members by emailas this is much quicker andcheaper for us. We need tobuild up an address book of the emailaddresses of our members to do this andeventually it may be that we send you ournewsletter via email if you wish. Thiswould save on printing and postage costs.Please let us know your email address ifyou would like the advantages outlined.

As you may have noticedour website hasn’t beenoperational for a while now.Our new website will be

active as soon aspossible at this address- www.itpas.orgKeep watching as the

website will be more up-to-the-minutethan our newsletters.

ITPAS has 220 member households, which representsonly a tiny proportion of the people in our area, andour income from subscriptions only just covers basicexpenses, such as printing and postage. We areworking hard to help maintain the quality of ourenvironment but we need the support of new members.The Committee have decided to run a recruitmentdrive and we will be contacting as many non-membersas possible this autumn. Subscriptions are currently£5 per household per year and we will be calling onmembers who still pay subs at £3.50 to ask them tocomplete a new bank mandate for 2012.

We have been working hard at definingthe exact boundaries of the area coveredby ITPAS. We have recently agreed thearea described below and will publish amap on the website as soon as we can.The communities of Irby, Thurstaston,Pensby, Thingwall and Frankby are themain areas and includes FrankbyCemetery, Montgomery Hill, Irby Mill Hilland the beach from Dee Sailing Club asfar as Target Road. Not included areHeswall south of Kylemore Drive,Barnston, Landican, Arrowe Park,Greasby and Caldy.

We have sung the praises of the new roundaboutat Thurstaston and the planting out of theroundabout and the surrounding roadsides hasbeen excellent. The natural meadow adjacent tothe Cottage Loaf has been widely admired too.However we have been concerned at theincreasing signage on the approaches to theroundabout which not only spoils thisConservation Area but must be distracting forroad traffic. Admittedly promises have been keptnot to put signs on the roundabout itself but wehave asked for a review to be made with a viewto its reduction. Advertising at the Cottage Loafonly adds to the problem.Conversely the roundabout at the Irby Milljunction is nothing short of a disgrace. Themeagre planting which was in evidence has noweither died or been overgrown by weeds. As anapproach to Irby it just screams ‘neglect’ which isnot what we’d like to see. ITPAS committeemembers offered to tend and weedit themselves but were told that‘red-tape’ meant this wasn’t possible.Budgets are to be lookedat but don’t hold yourbreath.We won’t give up onthis one.

Roundabout News

Irby, Thurstaston and Pensby Amenity SocietyEstablished over 30 years

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For those who weren’t able to attend the AGMin June, we’re using the newsletter as a furtheropportunity to introduce recent changes to theITPAS committee.

We are delighted that the appeal for newcommittee members which was sent out withthe spring and summer newsletters resulted inour numbers being brought back up almost tofull complement.

Our new, vibrant and enthusiastic committeeconsists of long standing ITPAS members whoseem prepared to tackle any issue. Althoughreferred to under their ITPAS officer titles, thestructured committee meetings allow forcontributions from all members to give a richmix of opinions.

We are:

Chairman

As recently reported, Tim Mobbs reluctantly“retired” in May due to relocation. MelanieWalker, previously ITPAS secretary, hasstepped up to become our new Chairman.

Secretary

Ian Chalmers, previously ITPAS planningofficer, has taken over the role of ITPASsecretary.

Treasurer

We are very pleased that following our appealfor new committee members, Latimah Sinclairvolunteered to take on this responsibility.Latimah has already made excellent progressin understanding the ITPAS finances.

Webmaster

Tim Mobbs instigated the ITPAS website andfor several years has been its expert editor.With his departure, our communications officer,

Roy Fisher, has undertaken to develop arevised ITPAS web site. More details to follow.Roy continues with his responsibility for theNewsletter, advertising and soon electronicmessaging to members.

Membership Officer

The committee have expressed a little concernthat whilst ITPAS membership is still a healthy220 households, it has diminished graduallyover the past 20 years. We are thereforeextremely pleased that Jim McCormac hasjoined the committee and has undertaken toinstigate refreshing initiatives to increase themembership.

Planning Officer

Following Ian Chalmers’ sideways move tosecretary, Paul Bell has kindly offered hisservices as planning officer. In just a shortspace of time, Paul is able to navigate theplanning and appeals processes and advisethe committee of planning applications withinthe ITPAS patch. The library of resources builtup by previous planning officers is always auseful tool.

Committee Member

Unfair to describe him as simply “a committeemember”, Lukman Sinclair has joined thecommittee with much enthusiasm havingtackled a number of long outstanding issuesincluding a Charity Status application,investigating one of our local footpaths andorganising the ITPAS membership details intoan easily decipherable spreadsheet.

You may contact any Committee member (seeback page) regarding any matter of concernor interest which you think ITPAS may be ableto help with.

Please use ITPAS, that’s what it’s there for.

New Faces

Irby, Thurstaston and Pensby Amenity SocietyEstablished over 30 years

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Member Records

When you received this Newsletter, did you check themailing label to ensure we have your correct details. Weneed every bit of information to be accurate to complywith the law in respect of holding personal details aboutpeople, so please tell us if its incorrect, even if its justyour initial or title, please check and let us know.

Phone 648 2444

Planning MattersThe ITPAS Planning Officer’s case book

This page is a quick update on just a few of theapplications we have considered in theIrby/Thingwall, Thurstaston and Pensby areasduring the past few months:

The Lilacs, Pensby Road was an application toconvert a residential property into a Chiropractice.We objected on the grounds that it wasinappropriate to locate a business within a row ofresidential properties. As there was to be parkingfor ten cars we felt there were safety risksassociated with vehicular access to the site.The council approved the application with thecertain conditions one of which was that theproposed development does not prejudice thefree flow of traffic or conditions of general safetyalong the neighbouring highway.

There was an application by aresident in Thingwall Grangeto change the use of open land(green belt) to domestic use,the intention being to increasethe size of the garden. Thecommittee support theretention of green beltwherever possible so we raised

an objection. The application was refused butthere is currently an appeal to the PlanningInspectorate against the decision.

An application to build a detached bungalow inThurstaston Road was refused by the council asthe site was on green beltland and the proposal didnot meet an identifiedlocal housing need. Alsothe council refused anapplication for thebuilding of a storm porchat Lee Farm, Thurstaston.

There has recently been an application for thebuilding of two houses on land off Mill Road,Thingwall. A number of local residents raisedobjections and we also objected as we felt therewere implications for neighbours’ living

conditions in terms of overshadowing anddaylight, also a small number of trees would belost from the site.The case has not yet been decided.

The ATS outlet at 419 Pensby Road hasapplied to erect three illuminated advertisingsigns. We have raised an objection as the signswill be clearly visible from a number of residentialproperties. We also asked, that shouldpermission be granted, a condition be includedthat would restrict permitted hours of illuminationto minimise visual impact on nearby properties.This application has recently been accepted butone of the conditions is that the signs shall beilluminated only when the premises are open tothe public.

Irby Mill Pub - You may recall that in the lastnewsletter we reported the application andsubsequent refusal of planning permission for alarge covered structure for smoking and outdoordining on the car park adjoining Mill Hill Road.Scottish and Newcastle appealed against thedecision but the Planning Inspectorate upheldWirral Council’s refusal.

Irby, Thurstaston and Pensby Amenity SocietyEstablished over 30 years

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ChairmanMelanie Walker – 648 6780

chairman@itpas.org

Vice ChairpersonRoy Fisher - 648-7671

SecretaryIan Chalmers – 648 5619

secretary@itpas.org

TreasurerLatimah Sinclair - 648-2444

treasurer@itpas.org

PlanningPaul Bell - 648-2243planning@itpas.org

MembershipJim McCormac - 604-0376

membership@itpas.org

GreenbeltPosition Vacant

Rights of WayPosition Vacant

NewsletterRoy Fisher – 648 7671

webmaster@itpas.org.uk

Researcher (Funding)

Irby Traders RepresentativeTBC

Web ManagerRoy Fisher - 648-7671webmaster@itpas.org

Researcher (Local History)Position Vacant

General CommitteeLukman Sinclair - 648-2444

enquiries@itpas.org

© ITPAS – Contact the Newsletter editor, details on this page, if you wish to extractinformation from this Newsletter. For externally drafted articles, contact the copyright holderor author direct (details will be shown). We are more than happy to receive articles, comments,letters or suggestions though they may or may not be included in our forthcoming Newslettersor on the ITPAS website. Any such articles may also be edited at the discretion of theCommittee. ITPAS committee members can be contacted by phone or email as detailed above.

DIARYAll talks are 7.00 for 7.30 pm in unless stated otherwise.

Members free - or else £2.00

Neighbourhood PlansA Vision for your Community

ITPAS members are being asked for their opinions and prioritieswhen it comes to the 2012/2013 Council budget - this is your

chance to influence spending in our area, so please come alongand use that opportunity.

Andrew Brannan - Community Engagement Co-ordinator

Saucy Postcards

includingNew Brighton

Gavin Hunter

‘Old Ports of the Dee’

‘Lady Hamilton’By Michael Corfe