Wirral Council has approved millions in funding for new cycle lanes across the borough as the council seeks to promote active forms of travel.
Councillors also approved further development plans on routes that would go from Birkenhead to New Brighton which will now be carried out in two phases.
The cycle lane scheme will cost between £10 and £14m with funding coming from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. It’s part of a wider scheme to implement over 600km of cycle routes across the city region.
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The vote to move the plans forward was supported by Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems but opposed by all four Conservatives during a Economy, Regeneration, and Housing committee meeting.
The Birkenhead to New Brighton cycle route was delayed due to changing guidance for new cycle lanes with designs having to be changed in order to make sure funding was still available.
The six-mile long route aims to join up cycle routes across Wirral. The only part of the route still to be worked out is a small section that runs through Liscard town centre.
The first phase of the scheme will move forward with the council given permission by councillors to start engaging with the public and interested parties on the scheme.
Phase One runs from Birkenhead to Liscard’s town centre. This will inform the next phase, Phase Two, which runs from Liscard town centre down to New Brighton. The council will both ask people for their opinions face to face as well as through its online Have Your Say portal.
Officers sought to assure Conservative councillor concerns over future consultations after Cllrs Leslie Rennie and David Burgess-Joyce criticised previous consultations done by the Liverpool Combined Authority.
Cllr Rennie said: “The attitude there at the time was woeful to say the least,” adding “I came away with the idea that this was going to be done to people whether they wanted it or not.
She said that representatives from the city region were dismissive of concerns she raised about parking issues and disability access.
Cllr Rennie said: “I had no hope in the original consultation and I was hoping this would be far better,” adding, “the way residents were treated in the early days on this was nothing short of appalling.”
Sally Shah, interim Director of Regeneration said they had learned the lessons from the previous consultation, that Cllr Rennie’s concerns were “important,” and that the council had built on the feedback given.
Ms Shah said: “Wirral Council will be doing the consultation, not the city region. That is absolutely critical that we build on the feedback we’ve had.
“We’ve been able to look at what’s good practice around consultation and will look at implementing that as part of the work we’re doing now.”
“We want this to reflect, we want this to be seen as a very positive thing and to do that we need to take people’s views seriously.”
Cllr Judith Grier asked if Phase 1 could be speeded up on parts of the route that have no people living on them due to delays to the scheme but council officers said that the current proposals would benefit people sooner.
More than £2.6m will also go towards regeneration projects in Birkenhead including refurbishing the Woodside ferry terminal, the new Dock Branch park, and other developments in the area as part of the Birkenhead 2040 scheme.
Some of this money is tied to current projects but was carried over from the last financial year.
In addition, £2.25m was also approved unanimously to create walkways and cycle routes in central Birkenhead as part of a third round of funding from the Department for Transport.
Councillors also voted to withdraw discussing the sale of Dominick House for £230,000 as one of the five recommendations in a report put to councillors could not be considered anymore. A revised version will be brought before the committee at a later date.
A member of the public was told to leave the meeting after calling the decision “absolutely a disgrace."
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