Community News & Announcements

With the recent spike in antisocial behaviour in New Ferry taking place in February and March 2023, Merseyside Police called an emergency public meeting to explain what has been happening and what they and other key agencies are trying to do in order to tackle the problem.

The following key points were raised by residents and discussed:

• The majority of young people in New Ferry are well behaved, good kids. They too are being terrorised by the spike in yob behaviour, and are afraid to be out after dark just like many other residents are. We owe it to them to collectively do more to stamp out this vile behaviour.

• The issues in New Ferry, Port Sunlight, Bebington and Bromborough are getting worse. The age of the children getting involved has fallen and youngsters of 10 years of age and above are becoming involved and following gangs of older children. Local parents should be more aware of this. Many of these older children are not necessarily from our own town, and are coming from further afield including Birkenhead, Wallasey, West Kirby and even Liverpool because New Ferry has become a mecca for antisocial behaviour. 

• The kids hang around here for a number of reasons, but also because of the easy availability of drugs. Some of these young people are using cannabis and are sharing it with younger children, helping them to get hooked. The drug problem here is exacerbated by the number of adults also on drugs, particularly cannabis. And a reminder that high levels of cannabis use within a community attracts drug gangs and the associated problems that go with them. 

• Residents also reported an issue with children vaping in our area, and the easy access to vaping paraphernalia being sold in certain establishments which are supposed to be selling something else.

• Merseyside Police ARE doing their best to tackle the current spike in antisocial behaviour, but please bear in mind the limited staff and resources they have available to them. They might not necessarily have enough personnel on duty to respond immediately as they have to prioritise their responses. However, the MORE calls they get to report incidents in New Ferry/Port Sunlight/etc, the more likely it is that police bosses in the Liverpool Command Centre WILL allocate them more staff and resources to tackle the issues here. In other words, if residents don’t bother reporting things, they cannot be allocated more time and staff to help them tackle the issues which our community faces.

• There is a difference between “crime” and “antisocial behaviour”. Antisocial behaviour is when the gangs gather in one place and are vocal, loud shouting and intimidating, throwing litter around, etc. But if they are smashing bricks into property, damaging vehicles, trying to start fires to property or on public land, verbally attacking people particularly with racist comments or threatening behaviour, these things are CRIMES and to report them you should ring 999 as “emergencies”, not 101. 

• Every time a “crime” is committed, contact the police and get a crime reference number. Every crime reference number issued puts a mark on an electronic map and helps police to identify trends (and sometimes perpetrators, even things such as routes where young people pass by and smash off wing mirrors or windscreens!) and will get more resources allocated to tackling the problems which emerge.

• The best and quickest way to contact the police is via Facebook Messenger. Look for “Merseyside Police Contact Centre” and message them. This is manned 24/7 and you will usually get a response and an officer talking to you sometimes quicker than you ringing them on a phone and waiting in a queue to speak to someone.

• You don’t have to give your name/address if you don’t want to. You can make reports anonymously. Also, if you have information but don’t want to give it to the police, you can do so completely anonymously through CRIMESTOPPERSwho you can ring on 0800555111 or via their website https://crimestoppers-uk.org. 

• For antisocial behaviour issues, you can also contact the council Antisocial Behaviour Team on 0151 606 2020 or email neighbour.nuisance@wirral.gov.uk Lines are open 8.45am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.  An answerphone service is provided out of hours and your call will be returned the following working day. Antisocial issues can include persistent fly-tipping if you can identify who they are.

• Please report crimes as swiftly as possible and note, in particular, dates and times. This will help police get hold of cctv footage and footage from nearby private cameras to help them identify perpetrators.

• Young people over the age of 10 (the age of criminal responsibility) CAN be dealt with via a number of methods including sanctions and even court action. It is NOT a case that they are “too young” to be punished by the law. If they can be identified, the police AND COURTS can deal with them, and if under the age of 10, Social Services can be brought in to deal with their parents and lack of parenting skills. 

• If young people persist in causing issues within the community, if they live in social rented housing, their landlords have powers to evict the family if the parents fail to control their children. If the children of families in private rented accommodation continue to misbehave, their landlords can also be ordered to evict their tenants if the parents fail to control their children. And, through collaboration with the Council’s Antisocial Behaviour Team, there are even sanctions which can be taken against parents of persistently misbehaving youths who own their own homes. Don’t think that anyone is “untouchable”; because they’re not.

• Dealing with antisocial behaviour is an issue being tackled not only by the police, but also the Council and other agencies. Wirral Council Youth Outreach workers working in association with the Antisocial Behaviour Team will shortly begin a series of events in New Ferry (and elsewhere when needed), bringing the Contactabus to our community and offering a safe environment for young people with issues who are involved in such behaviour to discuss why they behave the way they do. Reasons can often include such things as parental indifference and neglect, potential abuse, peer pressure, etc. The young people can be offered advice and support to help them tackle some of the issues they may be facing and help to reduce their involvement in antisocial activity.

• New Ferry/Bebington Youth Club is currently undergoing a £1 million refurbishment. It has been asset transferred from the Council to New Ferry Rangers Football Club who will be using it as a base, but also making it available for other clubs and activities. The Youth Club will be operating from the venue when it reopens this summer, providing activities for young people on three days per week. When it opens (watch out for future press releases), please give it your support and help to make it a brilliant, safe place for young people and the whole community to use.

• The most important weapon is dealing with antisocial behaviour is YOU. You are the eyes and ears of the community. YOU need to keep reporting incidents and do not be afraid of reprisals or being “a grass”. Despite the threat of reprisals, the risk of reprisal action is a lot smaller than you perceive it to be. You can also report what you know completely anonymously at any time you wish. 

New Ferry Community Land Trust has been working hard to make a difference in New Ferry. We’ve refurbished an empty building as two commercial units and 4 flats. We’ve organised, events, festivals, markets, monthly litter picks, fixed and put up the Christmas lights, funded planters with bedding plants, and funded alleyway improvements.

We’re now becoming a social landlord as we let the flats to local people, and we have plans to do more for New Ferry with the rent that these will bring in.

We need more volunteers within the community to step forward and help make New Ferry a better place for all. Have  YOU got what it takes? Have you got skills and experience which
can help us? Do you have ideas/suggestions, or just some time on  your hands to help us do what we do?

If the answer is yes, we’re looking for local people to join the New Ferry Community Land Trust as Members to work with our Board, to help us make decisions about future schemes and funding opportunities, or to volunteer to help with our events and markets. We are also seeking future Board members if you are especially dedicated to making a difference in New Ferry.

To request a CLT Membership Application Form, please either email us at newferryclt@gmail.com or write to us at New Ferry Community Land Trust, 78 New Chester Road, New Ferry, Wirral CH62 5AD.  You can also find us on Facebook: NewFerryCLT.

Membership of the New Ferry Community Land Trust costs just £1 for your lifetime.
 

*All applications are subject to approval by the New Ferry CLT Board.

The Mid-Wirral Crime Prevention Panel is pleased to announce that football for young people has resumed on Friday evenings at the Oval Leisure Centre with funding it managed to win from the High Sherriff Fund and Tesco Bags for Life in 2020.  

The programme has been successfully run for several years at the Oval, but the sessions in 2020 were postponed because of the pandemic and then delayed by vandalism to the pitches which the Council has now repaired.

The football sessions are FREE and for people aged 11 to 17, at the Oval Leisure Centre on Friday evenings from 5.30pm till 7.30pm.  Led by specialist sports coaches organised by Wirral Council Sports Development.  

Open to ALL genders.  No booking required - just turn up to have some energetic fun.  

For years, residents have noticed that New Ferry's environment is not maintained to the same standards as those in more affluent areas of Wirral.  In particular, some of our little pieces of open space which - at one time had trees, bushes and plants on them, now have very few.  Some are now just bits of grass or weeds which seem to attract fly-tipped rubbish.  New Ferry Residents Association has approached the Council to ask if they will reinstate the trees and flowers which used to be here, but their answer is that with the financial cut-backs they have had to endure, they "have no funding available for such improvements".

The Association is therefore going to apply to the Combined Regional Authority's Environmental Fund for money for trees and plants for three sites: 2 along New Ferry Road and a third at the Shorefields roundabout.

• Site 1 next to Winstons Place once had two trees at either end of it, and bushes planted inbetween. They have all been gone for several years and never replaced.

• Site 2 on the opposite side of the road at the junction of Salisbury Drive and New Ferry Road was landscaped in the 1970's with hard paving and raised areas for plants and trees.  Most of the smaller plants have long since gone.

• Site 3 is the Shorefields roundabout, a landmark feature in the area.  In 1988 it had 4 trees on it. The last one was cut down by the council earlier this year and not replaced with anything.  The roundabout is now just a vacant circle of grass and mud.

If we win the funding, we will use it to buy replacement planting material for these three sites and plant them up by ourselves, and bark mulch them so that future weed growth will be suppressed.  We want plants that are of significant value to the local environment, attracting bees and other insects, and providing a food source for birds and other wildlife.

We are asking for volunteers from the community to (a) help us do the planting; and (b) volunteers to keep an eye on the beds in future, pulling out any weeds, picking up and disposing of small items of litter, or reporting to the council any serious rubbish dumping.  If you would like to step forward to volunteer to do either of these, please drop us an email at newferryonline@gmail.com  

New Ferry Residents Association has been awarded £5,000 in funding from Wirral Borough Council towards a £7,500 community-based project called "New Ferry - Dancing With Colours". This is the first phase of the project that will feature painted murals on several shops in the district centre.

The funding was part of the pot of money left over from the Council's "Hardship Fund" of £200,000 allocated last year to make payouts of £1,600 to each of the victims of the 2017 explosion. There was £19,000 of the money left over, so in January this year the Council offered it to local community groups as a "New Ferry and Port Sunlight Community Fund". The fund was advertised in the Wirral Globe, on the Council's website, in Wirral View, and on NewFerryOnline.

A group of traders in New Ferry stepped forward with an idea inspired by the successful scheme of colourful decorative murals painted onto the buildings in New Brighton. The artworks there have created a lot of interest, and have gone some way to brighten up the town. They asked if a similar scheme could happen in New Ferry to make our buildings look more interesting and colourful.

As a result, the community has come together to work on the first phase of a project we have called "New Ferry - Dancing With Colours". The New Ferry Residents Association submitted an application for and was awarded £5,000 for the first phase of murals which will go on the block of buildings close to the crossroads.

The work will be commissioned by the New Ferry Residents Association using the £5000 grant and also £2,500 funded by the participating businesses themselves. The art work will be painted by well known street artist Paul Curtis (https://www.paulcurtisartwork.com/).  Work on the New Ferry murals is scheduled to commence next week (weather permitting). The artist reserves the right to make alterations to the actual designs used in the event of any copyright issues.

The mural project is the first of what we hope will be several phases. The Residents Association hopes to work with more traders who may be interested in taking the project further by applying for more funding from additional sources later this year. If you have a business in New Ferry and are interested in getting involved in the next phase, please email us at newferryonline@gmail.com.

[Published 11 February 2020]

In 2018, New Ferry Residents Association and New FerryCommunity Land Trust produced and distributed a printed version of the New Ferry Business Directory to over 4,000 homes in New Ferry and some surrounding areas.  Unfortunately we cannot afford to keep reprinting and redistributing the directory every year.  It is, however, more cost effective to maintain the business listings online on this website.  Inclusion on this website FREE to any business that is based either in New Ferry or Port Sunlight Village.  

We are sorry, but we cannot include businesses whose address is not within these two areas - we cannot maintain and provide a directory for the whole of Wirral. (For businesses from outside New Ferry/Port Sunlight who wish to advertise to residents here, please read about the New Ferry Messenger Magazine).

To get your business included on this Directory, please either email us at newferryonline@gmail.com with your business name, details of what you sell or offer, your address and contact details; plus links to social media pages if you have them.  Also include a photo for your listing.