Sefton Council's Consultation Hub

We asked

Sefton Economic Strategy Consultation feedback summary.

In total there were 80 comments.

You said

• To grow is the starting point for success and more support for smaller businesses.
• Helping businesses to maintain and grow their businesses over a longer period.
• Lack of affordable office space and land.
• Businesses at our Economic Forum told us they would like more support on digital inclusion to help them grow and increase their productivity.
• More opportunities for training and reskilling people.
• For town centres to be more attractive, green, and accessible for people to live, visit and work.
• Transport needs to be more flexible and better to meet the needs of the changing population; but we also need to understand more about how people with mobility issues access public transport or amenities as they are unable to walk or cycle due to limited health.
• Feedback from focus groups included disability access be given more consideration when developing new premises as the needs of disabled people are often overlooked.
•  
•  

We did

• We are working with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to use UK Shared Prosperity Funding to support Sefton businesses to start and grow. We aim to do this over the next 2-3 years with new funding coming into Sefton in mid – 2023.
• We are setting up  a new digital network for businesses called the ‘Sefton Huddle’. Further information will be made available on www.investsefton.com
• InvestSefton provides a range of support to help businesses of all sizes to grow. This includes one to one support; demand led business workshops and events such as the highly regarded Sefton Economic Forum and referral to many other providers for help with accessing finance, developing new markets, increasing sales and digital skills.
• The team also works with businesses over the longer term through developing strong relationships to help them grow. Further information is available on www.investsefton.com.
• Office accommodation is highly competitive in terms of price in south of the borough compared to Liverpool City Centre. Vacant office space exists across Bootle and is available to rent.
• Sefton Council own Southport Business Park and are in discussions with potential developer, investors and occupiers for this site.
• Southport Town Deal is helping to fund the Southport Enterprise Arcade - a 880 sqm of refurbished office accommodation for digital and creative business use within Southport Town Centre.  
• We have launched the Sefton Huddle-A new networking group for the borough’s digital, creative and tech businesses which will meet on a regular basis to help drive ideas to support growth in Sefton’s digital sector.
• We have worked with a range of local employers to provide Open Days and Jobs Fairs to promote opportunities for a wide range of groups to return to learning and build their skills towards employment. This has included partnerships with organisations such as JobCentre Plus and numerous training providers to offer events for over 50s and also for younger adults, based at the Cambridge Road centre.
• We have offered a number of accessible drop-in sessions for people looking for flexible employment including a Job Shop at the strand centre promoting work opportunities supporting the forthcoming Eurovision event.
• We identified a number of employers keen to attract older workers and held the first Over 50s jobs fair, which was attended by more than 70 residents and 10 employers. We intend to make this a regular event.
• We worked in partnership with a specialist agency who help younger people overcome deal with mental health issues. This resulted in a menu of options for clients from Sefton@work to experience a range of sessions and activities designed to build confidence and link them to the careers guidance. 
• We are working tirelessly to promote our Caring Business Charter. This enables employers to offer various opportunities such as work experience placements, work trials and visits for people who have experience of care or who are looked after.
• We are working on a more joined -up offer between Sefton@work and the Sefton Community Learning Service, so residents can track how locally available jobs can be accessible to them through high quality advice and how they can improve their longer-term prospects through building their skills.
• Bootle town centre has secured capital levelling up funding to improve Bootle Strand as part of the first stage of its repurposing.  This will bring forward improvements to town centre including new open space and enhanced public realm, development of the Salt n Tar events space for a range of public events, community uses and night-time economy as well as enhanced soft landscaping/planting to areas fronting the Bootle canal. This will benefit to the local community and visitors to the area.
• Investment in Ainsdale on Sea beachfront are proposed subject to environmental considerations to improve the beach toilets and parking facilities.
• Southport Town Deal programme delivery will include improvements to the Southport visitor economy through the proposed new £73m Marine Lake Events Centre going to Planning Committee in April; enhanced public realm programme Les Transformation de Southport a £2.5m public realm enhancement programme around Southport Market and the refurbishment and improvement of Crown Buildings which will be refurbished into a digital creative business hub - Southport Enterprise Arcade (£1.5M).

The Liverpool City Region combined Authority is developing a new Local Transport Plan.  This local transport plan will look broadly at all transport modes to deliver a high-class transport system fit for the region. 

• The Councils approved Equalities, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy (2023-2027) A Borough for Everyone, sets out an ambitious action-oriented strategy which includes a focus on our role as leader of place. Including working with partners, stakeholders, and communities to increase awareness, improve dialogue, and support improved outcomes for all communities in our borough for everyone.
• The Council have established emerging networking groups to explore issues around how we provide information through the Improving Information Group and around access relating to travel and transport. 
• The Council have an established staff training programme around Equality Diversity and Inclusion which includes opportunities for awareness training around visual impairment awareness, and around developing Equality Impact Assessments, for schemes, projects, and policies. 
• The Council undertake Equality Impact Assessments as a key part of project development and are presented as part of formal council reporting. 
• The Liverpool City Region are participants in the Cycling and Walking Index which explores a range of issues around barriers to walking and cycling.  This research includes a range of protected characteristics including, age, sex and disability amongst others.  The report can be found here; https://www.sustrans.org.uk/the-walking-and-cycling-index/liverpool-city-region-walking-and-cycling-index/.
• All new build development projects will take disability access into consideration as part of the Council’s policy on equality and diversity and its requirements under its public sector equality duty.  

We asked

A public consultation was held on the Maritime Corridor Improvements scheme, between Monday 1^st March and Sunday 11^th April 2021. The Maritime Corridor area reaches from Switch Island to Netherton Way (A5038), including the A59 Ormskirk Road and the A5036 Dunnings Bridge Road,  linking Atlantic Park to the wider region and the Port of Liverpool. The proposed improvements involve the upgrade of  5 key junctions throughout the area;  as well as providing better facilities for walking and cycling. The key aim of the scheme is to improve the traffic conditions and make the area more accessible for all transport users.

We asked how supportive / what people thought of the proposed junction changes for the 5 key junctions on the scheme.  We also gave people the opportunity to make any other comments (as an open text box question).

Each of the junction improvement had its own page on the consultation to allow people to comment on them all separately or just one.

The junctions we asked about were:

• Netherton Way (A5038) / Bridle Road – improvements to lanes and road markings and widening of Bridle Way approach.
• Netherton Way (A5038) and Bailey Drive – improvements and pedestrian crossing.
• Bridle Road / Vesty Road / Atlantic Park Drive – realignment to allow a new right turn from Atlantic Park Drive
• Dunnings Bridge Road / Atlantic Park Drive – new left turn into Atlantic Park Drive from Dunnings Bridge Road
• Ormskirk Road / Park Lane - improvements to the traffic light signal timings

We also asked about how people felt about the active travel elements including to the potential of:

• Having a separate path for cycling and walking for the whole length of Dunnings Bridge Road from Switch Island to Netherton Way.
• Having separate paths for cycling and walking on Bridle Way, Netherton Way and Park Lane.
• Closing Heysham road / railway bridge underpass to all traffic except for cyclists linking up to the National Cycle Network route 62.
• Different options to link to the NCN 62 via Park Lane.

You said

1. There are concerns that the scheme will just lead to increased traffic; and more lanes of traffic at certain junctions would just mean more traffic.
2. There is a need to build Rimrose Valley and this will then directly relate to what is done in the Maritime Corridor area.  This is just a “meantime”  option before Rimrose.
3. What is happening with the Port of Liverpool Access Scheme? It’s not clear how the scheme relates to Port activities and the Port of Liverpool Access Scheme.
4. HGVs are a problem and this will increase, is there going to be a HGV site / lorry parking on Atlantic Park?
5. Air and Noise pollution are already high and will get worse.The scheme is not supportive of Sefton’s Climate Emergency for GHG emissions.
6. There is a concern that safety will not be improved it will be made worse.

We did

1. The scheme has been designed and developed to mitigate the current congestion and the potential future traffic that may result as part of development at key sites on Atlantic Park and in the wider area.  Sefton Council are improving existing junctions with this scheme and not increasing or adding to the existing road network area. Atlantic Park has been designated for development within Sefton’s Local Plan. The scheme itself will therefore not attract traffic but will be an enabler for better movement of traffic and accessibility by all modes of transport. The scheme is set against an already busy situation that may get busier due to development ; however, the Council want to ease this and encourage alternative modes as far as possible. Active travel elements are therefore being embedded throughout the scheme.
2. A separate scheme is being progressed by Highways England to alleviate congestion on the A5036 by constructing a new bypass through Rimrose Valley to improve access to the Port of Liverpool.  This is known as the Port of Liverpool Access Scheme and this is not under the control of Sefton Council.
3. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic at the time of the consultation, the Highways England scheme  Port of Liverpool Access Scheme has been delayed and Highways England are still working on the development of the scheme. Sefton Council is developing the Maritime Corridor scheme as a standalone scheme that is not dependent on or related to the delivery of the Port of Access scheme.  Sefton Council and Highways England are in regular contact and will work together wherever possible on improving transport throughout the wider area. The Maritime Corridor scheme is intended to support potential development within the area, such as at Atlantic Park and it is not related to the Port of Liverpool or  the Port of Liverpool Access Scheme.
4. The Council has very little influence over the numbers of HGVs in the area and any increases would depend on the type of development that occurs in the area,  but there are no plans to create an HGV parking facility within the area.
5. Air quality and noise have been considered as part of the development of the early stages of the scheme, in accordance with the Department for Transport guidance in these areas and will be assessed further as the scheme develops. Because the road network area is not being increased and traffic levels are expected to remain similar to the current levels, the noise impacts were found to be slight. Air quality and pollution are key environmental factors which are being fully considered. Sefton Council has declared a Climate Emergency (2019) and  is committed to comply with worldwide agreements in relation to climate change and be net zero by 2030. Sefton Council aims to improved air quality throughout the whole Borough.  This will be achieved via technological improvements, reduced travel, better congestion management and promoting sustainable travel modes.  This scheme has been considered under these objectives and further scoping of air quality assessments is being undertaken as part of the next steps of the development of the scheme.  The scheme includes a range of measures intended to support walking and cycling in the area, which will make it easier and safer for people to choose to walk or cycle, rather than use cars and help to reduce carbon emissions.
6. One of the main objectives of the scheme is to improve safety for  all road users at junctions on all routes within the corridor. The inclusion of the segregated cycling and walking improvements will enable enhanced safety and wellbeing.

For further information, please visit:

https://yourseftonyoursay.sefton.gov.uk/investment-programmes-and-infrastructure/your-sefton-your-streets-feedback/

We asked

During 2021/22 we asked service users and other stakeholders about the substance use treatment service. Our aim is to deliver a modern, integrated, recovery orientated, substance use treatment service for individuals in Sefton who need support to recover from substance use and get their lives back on track.

We wanted to engage with key stakeholders i.e. service staff, pharmacists, partner organisations within the local pathway and service users to get your feedback.

The main themes of all the engagement were around awareness of service, feedback of referral process, quality of service, any gaps in service, any barriers, and stigma.

You said

On the whole respondents were positive about the local service provision and particularly the key workers. Some suggestions you said were:

• There needs to be more awareness of support on offer from the service and better promotion.
• There were some barriers and stigma to accessing the service for some people that need support e.g. alcohol users,
• Community co- location in other venues may help create wider access.
• Service is very focused on medical/clinical support needs to be wider. Also, there is a need to improve access to mental health support.
• Lack of group sessions and peer led support in service and wider holistic support model was identified as being needed this links to the demand for a more support for Mental Health after care/ recovery support.
• Improved service site hubs particularly in Bootle,
• The need for more outreach work in the community for those who find it difficult to engage,
• Better communication between service and pharmacies delivering shared care. E.g., contact available out of hours and more formal communication around medications.

We did

This is what we have done/are planning to do:

• We have planned a stakeholder engagement event and service user day. There will promotion of the service via social media and in local neighbourhoods andl places e.g. pharmacies, GPs, and community venues.
• The highly valued key worker model will be retained within the new service
• Improvements on service sites
• To offer an alternative to the main service sites, there will be satellites in the community in more generic venues to widen access and address stigma.
• There will be an enhanced outreach service to facilitate engagement with more vulnerable cohorts and those reluctant to engage with the service.
• A strengthening and a much larger peer led support model and more holistic engagement. A volunteer model to engage residents in service delivery.
• An extension of psychology and counselling support in house services.
• Strengthening of links with pharmacies to improve communications including electronic systems and contact out of hours e.g. Saturdays.