Manor Farm Frankby -A Wirral "Grot-Spot"

[tidyman tidyman]

Wirral footpath number three runs north from Frankby
Wirral and is in fact the only footpath which this conservation
village has. It starts at Manor Farm right in the centre of the
village passing just west of the farm between pleasant sandstone walls
at first but within a few metres you see the awful mess shown in the
photographs in this post. For those who are familiar with Ordnance
Survey Maps, the grid reference is : SJ244867. After this it follows a
track which is often made very muddy by the many horses which are
stabled at Manor Farm.

After crossing a stile at the end of the track, the
footpath enters a field with a lovely pond and then into a wood
eventually reaching Saughall Massie Road. If you cross over here and
walk down Oldfield Lane, within 100 m or so you will find a footpath
on your left. This then crosses open arable land and eventually
reaches the houses in Meols from where you can then walk about 1Km
through the houses to the shore. The footpath from Frankby is
therefore an important route for the people of the Frankby area to
walk some 4 or 5 km to the coast. Many people also use this path who
have walked from further afield eg Heswall who will have walked
through Thurstaston and Royden Park and then wish to walk on to the
coast. When the coast is reached, a left turn takes you to West Kirby
via Red Rocks and a right turn takes you to New Brighton via Moreton.

We don`t have that many attractive walking routes
in highly urbanised Wirral and what we have are very precious to many
people and we must protect them. Unfortunately the proprietor of
Manor Farm Frankby does not seem to think such paths are important as
otherwise why does he choose to use it to dump vast quantities of very
unsightly and dangerous rubbish alongside footpath number 3 with no
barrier between people using the path and the sharp metal waste.
Children and elderly dog walkers use this path and there is an obvious
risk here. The proprietor also uses this area to store machinery and
equipment. He has many barns where this equipment could be stored but
he chooses to put it here out of sight of his customers using the
stables and shop but highly visible to users of the public footpath. A
couple of years ago wirraltidyman was using the path passing Manor
Farm and found it completely blocked by an enormous pile of horse
manure. This has now been removed but it illustrates a lack of
understanding of the importance of this path and a lack of respect for
those wishing to use it.

You can respond to anything on this post
to : wirral...@googlegroups.com



You can contact the following about the situation at Manor Farm:

Robin Tutchings, Wirral Rights of Way Officer, Highways
Department,Technical Services Department, Cheshire Lines Building,
Canning Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH61 OHE. Phone : 01516062480.
email : robintu...@wirral.gov.uk

David Green, Director, Technical Services Department, Cheshire Lines
Building, Canning Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 1ND. Phone :
01516062000. email : david...@wirral.gov.uk

P. Black, Streetscene, Technical Services Department, Cheshire Lines
Building, Canning Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 1ND. email :
stree...@wirral.gov.uk

Esther McVey, MP for Wirral West, Constituency Office, The Parade,
Hoylake Community Centre, Hoyle Road,Hoylake,Wirral, CH47 3AG.
Phone : 01516324348. email : officeofe...@parliament.uk


Peter Reisdorf, Libdem councillor for Greasby,Frankby and Irby, 15
Madely Close, West Kirby, Wirral, CH48 3LD. Phone : 01516259274.
email : peterr...@wirral.gov.uk

Gill Gardiner, Libdem councillor for Greasby, Frankby and Irby, 173
South Parade, West Kirby, Wirral, CH48 3HX. Phone : 01516252738.
email : gilga...@wirral.gov.uk


Wendy Clements, Conservative councillor for Greasby, Frankby and Irby,
10 Neal Drive, Greasby, Wirral, CH 49 1SL. Phone : 01516774045.
email : wendyc...@wirral.gov.uk

Harvey Cox,General Secretary, Wirral Ramblers, RAFA Club, Alton House,
17 Shrewsbury Road, Oxton, Wirral, CH43 1UU. email :
in...@wirralramblers.org.uk

Manor Farm, Frankby Road, Frankby, Wirral, Merseyside, CH48 1PE.
Phone : 01516779464.

wirral...@googlegroups.com

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[tidyman tidyman]

As an ordinary citizen who occasionally uses
this path, wirraltidyman has been trying for many months to get
something done about the unpleasant mess at the start of footpath
number 3 alongside Manor Farm in Frankby, Wirral. The propietor of
this farm has used the side of the path to dump a large quantity of
rubbish here ( see photos and list ) rather than dispose of it
properly. He clearly thinks the people who use the path should not be
bothered by this, or maybe he thinks they don`t matter, and he can go
ahead and create this awful mess which doesn`t affect him in any way
because from his point of view, it`s out of sight. Walkers on the
path have to pass this mess and their enjoyment of what should be a
pleasant path is spoilt. In places the path has been narrowed to less
than 1 metre and there is no barrier between the sharp metal and the
public The rest of us take our old junk to a waste disposal site, they
don`t dump it in full public view like this. This is a situation
which is both unsightly and potentially dangerous to users of this
public footpath which includes children and elderly dog walkers. This
is not a new situation. This junk has been here for many, many years
now and it is long overdue that it is cleaned up. After years of
walking past this offensive mess, wirraltidyman has tried to get
something done.
Three local councillors have been contacted as has
the MP for Wirral West - Esther Mcvey , Wirral Ramblers, also Sue
Bannister and Rob Tutchings who are the Wirral Borough Council (WBC)
officials responsible. The path is in a conservation area and would be
one of the few attractive paths that we have left in highly urbanised
Wirral if it were not for this mess. The proprietor appears not to
engage in arable activity but makes his income from renting stables
and running a shop currently selling Christmas trees and vegetables
e.t.c.



So far wirraltidyman has got Wirral Council to
write to the proprietor and as a result a few items such as the
washing machine and old car batteries have been removed but the bulk
of the stuff is still there. Rob Tutchings of Wirral Council (the
officer responsible for Wirral footpaths) has said that the nettles
and brambles on the other side of the path will be cleared meaning
that the public will be slightly distanced from the metal waste - not
the solution which is really needed. The waste site in West Kirby is
only 1 mile distant which is where the rest of us dispose of unwanted
items and this is where the great majority of this mess belongs.



Sue Bannister of WBC claims that the rubbish is
materials which are stored here by the proprietor which he needs
occasionally for his business. A glance at the photographs and list
is sufficient to see that this is clearly not the case for some 80% of
the material here. There are items which the proprietor will need in
the future for his business. For example, there are two christmas
tree wrapping machines which are used each December. Is this a good
place to store them though? However, how can 40 worn out tyres,
wrecked wheelbarrows, broken tables and stools and rotting timber etc
be re-usable? Sue Bannister refuses to take firm action and enforce a
clean-up order on the proprietor. This " re-usable items " argument is
clearly an excuse on the part of Wirral Council officers to do very
little about the situation at Frankby. This is the easy option for
the WBC officers as it avoids confronting the proprietor of Manor Farm
and possible legal action on his part. The old washing machine had to
be removed for this reason, even the officers of WBC could not pretend
that this was a re-usable item!



Wirraltidyman took an interest in this matter
simply because the rubbish is very unsightly and potentially dangerous
and because he values our footpaths and respects the environment
unlike the proprietor of Manor Farm. Wirraltidyman has absolutely no
vested interest at all in this situation in contrast to the proprietor
who just wants an easy solution to his disposal problem and in
contrast to Wirral Council who have a vested interest in inertia
because it is less effort for them and they don`t have to issue clean-
up orders and risk a possible confrontation with the proprietor.
This inertia is based on an incorrect cop-out judgement that this
rubbish consists of "re-usable farm materials".



This is not a major issue, but the attitude of
Wirral Council Officials is indefensible. I ask you to do whatever
you can to help such as writing or emailing WBC. ( list of WBC
officers and their addresses is elsewhere on this post ) Please look
at the list of dumped items and the photographs on this post or even
visit the site yourself. I am sure you will then see that the
arguments of WBC that these materials are re-usable are nonsense and
that a real eyesore has been created here.



Please write to Wirral Borough Council to protest about the dumping at
Manor Farm and if you use the shop or the stables at the farm, you
might consider whether to continue to do so.


wirral...@googlegroups.com
will welcome your views







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