NEW FERRY RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
ORIGINS:
New Ferry Residents Association (NeFRA) was formed by a group of like-minded residents and business people who had ideas on how the town should be improved following decades of neglect. A steering committee was formed in 1999 and the group wrote and published the pioneering document, the “New Ferry Regeneration Action Plan”, in 2000. This document came about after considerable consultation with the residents and businesses of New Ferry at a series of public meetings that were held.
When the Action Plan was published, it was well received by Wirral Borough Council, who took onboard many of the recommendations contained within it. Many of NeFRA’s suggestions and goals have since been incorporated into a variety of Council plans, including the Local Area Plan for our part of the Wirral.
Between 2000 and 2006, senior Wirral Council officers met with NeFRA to progress many of the actions. Together, they set up the Wirral Farmer’s Market, installed CCTV cameras in the shopping centre, and helped to agree the priorities for the A41 Corridor Strategy which resulted in new pavements, railings and lighting columns being installed. The Action Plan was revised and updated in 2008 and will be revised again in 2022 following the many actions now being put into place to regenerate New Ferry since the devastating explosion in the town centre in March 2017.
GET INVOLVED:
New Ferry Residents Association organises public meetings on an occasional basis as and when needed to consult on important local issues. All members of the community are invited to come along, to hear what we are trying to achieve and to tell us what they think needs doing. The next meeting is the Annual General Meeting at 7.00pm on Thursday 6th October 2022 at the Ex Civil Defence Club, School Lane, New Ferry. All are welcome.
The group also organises the annual New Ferry Festival, and works with the New Ferry Community Land Trust and New Ferry Traders Association to organise markets in the precinct and other community events.
The team is also looking for people with new ideas to help us improve our area, and for those with pots of money to help us achieve our goals. It is a non-political group, but will work with and are willing to receive help from anyone who has the interests of New Ferry and its community at heart.
If you would like to offer your time in helping with community issues, please email us at newferryonline@gmail.com
Founder members of New Ferry Residents Association, Mark Anthony Craig & the late Arthur Waller MBE
NEW FERRY COMMUNITY LAND TRUST
New Ferry Community Land Trust was set up in autumn 2018 by a group of local business people and residents who were concerned that the rebuilding of New Ferry following the 2017 explosion would take too long to protect the remaining businesses in the district centre.
With so many shops in New Ferry in poor condition and owners unwilling to invest in them to make them available for people wanting to set up their new businesses, the CLT aims to change things by purchasing empty retail properties, refurbish and return them to active use. This programme is to be supported by a grant from the Office of the Combined Authority for Merseyside.
The group also organise monthly litter picks in the District Shopping Centre [usually every last Sunday of each month, starting at 10am].
Find out more about the CLT, its activities and how you can join as a member to support it.
FRIENDS OF SHOREFIELDS NATURE PARK
Shorefields Nature Park has an informal Friends Group who care about this wonderful stretch of public open space overlooking the River Mersey. Their aim is to work together to protect the piece of parkland, and are seeking to work with Wirral Borough Council on a future programme of tree replacement to replace the existing aging stock which gives the space its unique character. You can join and follow the group on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/groups/537633386972960/
Shorefields Nature Park, Wirral
Consultation on LAST PHASE OF NEW FERRY REDEVELOPMENT
[Announced 17 December 2023. Expires: 03 January 2024]
PLANNING APPLICATION SUBMITTED FOR THE NEXT PHASE OF NEW FERRY DEVELOPMENT - RESIDENTS COMMENTS BEING ASKED FOR BY 3rd JANUARY 2024
Okay everyone, HERE it is! With just weeks to go until the first phases of New Ferry's redevelopment start, the long anticipated plans for the next phase have been submitted to the council for consideration at its planning committee in spring next year.
These proposals cover where the derelict shops on New Chester Road stand (they are being demolished between New Year and Easter) and THE WHOLE OF Woodhead Street Car Park, contrary to the wishes of the community expressed in the public consultation in January 2020 and the plans submitted as part of the outline application later that year. There will be no new shops. The proposals are for a mix of houses and flats, densely packed in to the site. They will all have their own exclusive parking spaces.
Woodhead Street car park is currently used by business owners and their staff, and their customers who visit New Ferry by car. The car park also currently has 10 disabled parking spaces. All these are due to go if these plans presented here are approved. The council says that people who use their cars can "park elsewhere", but the streets off New Chester Road (Legh Road, Egerton Road, Winstanley Road) are already clogged with visitors' parked cars. The car park behind Pattons jewellers will not be large enough to take the displaced vehicles.
We have made it known for some time that we will be opposing these plans - on a personal basis if not on the community's behalf. We are not against the new housing coming here - there is indeed a chronic need for it. But taking ALL of the available space, including ALL of the car parking, is a step too far which will cause a significant problem for the surviving businesses currently in New Ferry as their customers will have nowhere to park. If you want to sign our petition against the loss of the car park, please go to https://www.ipetitions.com/.../save-woodhead-street-car...
In addition, we were promised a space to hold community events and markets, but this amounts to no more than a small piece of land between Kesh's and Money Matters which, not being directly overlooked, will no doubt attract fly tipping and other anti-social issues (as if we don't have enough of those in New Ferry already).
You can see the plans in full, and make your comments on them at https://online.wirral.gov.uk/planning/index.html... but we have copied scans of the plans onto the images shown here, and for those who find it difficult to work out where the proposed cgi images are from, we have put the "now" photos above them and the "after" images below.
It's your choice. Over to you. But you'll have to be quick. The Council are closing the window for comments on 3rd January 2024!!!!!
