Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee update
Wirral Council’s Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport committee met in Committee Room 1 at Wallasey Town Hall on Tuesday 11th March 2025.
The full agenda, reports pack and webcast of the meeting can be found on the Wirral Council website.
Items of the agenda included:-
Wirral Council has been working alongside counterparts from the other five Liverpool City Region authorities as preparations for the introduction of household food waste collections get into gear. From April 1st 2026, it will be mandatory for all councils in the country to collect food waste from households separately to other bin collections.
At last night’s meeting, members of the Committee authorised the council’s Director of Neighbourhood Services to go ahead with the joint procurement of the necessary equipment and vehicles to deliver the service from next year across the whole city region. They also agreed a variation to the council’s contract with Biffa to enable them to carry out the collections in Wirral with an indicative start date of 1 April 2026, pending the readiness of Merseyside Recycling Waste Authority (MRWA) for transfer and treatment solutions.
The committee approved the recommended City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) Combined Authority Transport Plan (CATP) programme for 2025-26 and the spending of the associated grant funding, once this has been accepted. It also approved the indicative programme for the following year, 2026-27.
The effective delivery of the CRSTS CATP programme contributes to a number of objectives of the Liverpool City Region Road Safety Strategy including a reduction in the number and severity of road traffic collisions working to a target of no avoidable collisions by 2040. It also helps create the conditions for more people to make safer journeys on foot or by bicycle and enabling more children to walk and cycle to school; and contributes to improved air quality and reducing climate changing CO2 emissions.
The committee also resolved to authorise the Director of Neighbourhood Services to amend the programme for 2025-26 having regard to available resources and prioritisation of schemes, in consultation with the committee chair and spokespeople.
Committee also authorised the Director of Law and Corporate Services to execute grant funding agreements associated with the recommendations.
A report presented at the meeting highlighted details of the indicative allocations of funding Wirral could receive under the Liverpool City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement Authority in the coming financial year to be spent on improvements to Wirral’s highways infrastructure.
The anticipated grant funding for Highway Maintenance in 2025-26 is £3.9m, which would be supplemented by a further £160,000 for bridge maintenance works.
A further £1.25m is expected to be allocated, ringfenced for investment in the Key Route Network, while the area will also benefit this year from an allocation of more than £1.75m from the Department of Transport to fix potholes. This takes the total amount of investment potentially to £7,084,835.
Committee approved the implementation and investment in the proposed programme of works for 2025-26 using the grant funding, once the funding has been accepted by the Council’s Section 151 officer.
The committee also resolved to approve the use of a condition matrix by the Director of Neighbourhood Services as one of the decision making tools in developing the programme of works. The Director of Neighbourhood Services was also authorised to amend the programme having regard to available resources and prioritisation of schemes, in consultation with the committee chair and spokespeople.
The final resolution authorised the Director of Law and Corporate Services to negotiate and finalise any grant funding agreements on behalf of the council amongst the relevant subject areas over the next three years.
Committee resolved to authorise the Director of Neighbourhood Services to continue with the procurement and appointment process to enable contractors to deliver specific elements of essential highway maintenance works on a three-year contract.
Those areas are:-
- Surface dressing and micro carriageway surfacing contract (A1.1)
- Footway slurry and carriageway micro hand patching contract (A1.2)
- Carriageway and footway retreat contract (A1.3)
- Carriageway structural resurfacing contract (A2)
Members considered a quarterly performance report for the ‘protect our environment’ theme, updating them on developments since December 2024. The committee considered the content and highlighted areas where they needed further clarification or action before referring the update to the Policy & Resources Committee.
