Beauty competition was a fantastic experience

Jul 25 2007 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

I HAVE just read with interest your article relating to the Miss England final held in Leicester on June 29.

My daughter also entered the same competition and I have to say she had a completely different experience to that you have published experienced by Miss Southport and I would not want other girls put off entering any beauty competitions by what they have read.

This was only the second competition of this type my daughter has entered and she thoroughly enjoyed the experience from start to finish and had an absolutely fantastic time and will be doing it all again should she get the opportunity.

She made lots of new friends and met lots of nice girls.

I attended the after-show party with her and experienced how close the girls taking part had become over only a few days.

ŠIt was not a “money making scheme” at all. All of the contestants were encouraged to raise money for charity in their own way and gain the title of Miss Charity on the night.

Only one contestant out of 91 believed the text vote system would fund a charity.

Miss England officials intervened and put a stop to misleading representations.

It was clearly printed on all the literature distributed to all of the contestants and on the Miss England website that none of the monies from the text voting would be going to charity.ŠŠŠ

My daughter managed to raise £700 for the cancer charity raised through hard work and a sponsored walk with all monies from family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues and some backing from Lookers, Heswall, who supplied a car and fuel free of charge.

The family of one of the other contestants I was sat with on the night had raised in total £1,700 and this gained her the title of Miss Charity and fast-tracked her through to the final 30.

It was announced on the night that more than £20,000 had been raised in total by the Miss England event for the nominated cancer charity.

I felt the whole experience on the night was awesome and to see my daughter standing on stage with 91 other hopeful contestants was indeed a very proud moment for my family and one we will never forget.

If anybody is interested I would suggest they visit the official Miss England website – www.missengland.info where there are many photographs from the night which show a good time was had by the majority of the contestants and their family and guests.

SHEILA BONNEY

At a loss to understand MP’s views

STEPHEN Hesford, the West Wirral MP, has intervened in the matter of the proposed relocation of a doctors’ surgery in Heswall.

As a resident of the constituency which he represents, I am at something of a loss to understand why he devotes so much time to relatively minor local issues, while failing to involve himself in matters that might benefit all of his constituents and the public at large.

Frank Field, for example, contributes greatly to the welfare of the people of Birkenhead and far beyond through his involvement in pensions and benefits issues.

Delivered to my home this week was Mr Hesford’s latest newsletter in which he claimed to have disagreed with the former Prime Minister over the Iraq war.

However, I do remember that he abstained from voting when the proposed invasion of Iraq was discussed in Parliament.

He poured scorn on the Conservative Party because Quentin Davies MP defected to Labour at the end of June, and because stiffer sentences are now being imposed for gun-related crimes.

No mention, I noted, of the defection to the Tories of five Labour councillors in Ealing Southall on the eve of the July 19 by-election, or the recent early release of 5,000 prisoners because of prison overcrowding.

Hardly a balanced view, one might think.

A C MORRIS,

GREASBY

Surgery support

I AM very sorry to say, and this is going to hurt many a Green Party member, that the Warren’s nursery probably won’t sell again as a going concern. There are many people over 50 who go to the doctors, in particular older people with bad legs who have to go upstairs, so I am supporting the surgery there.

As there is no apparent other place for the surgery, it is better to take the Warren’s.

It is a good surgery. There are good doctors and patients there so, like Stephen Hesford, I am supporting this surgery.

IAN CREE,

HESWALL

Tunnel thanks

I AM grateful for the information in respect of the Bidston Hill tunnels. I must say that tunnelling downward seems ill-advised and I wonder if they were worthy of the expense, given that most people would be in either street shelters or Anderson shelters in the garden?

Those under Tranmere were, of course, through a rock face and, as I lived in Thompson Street at the time, recall the crockery rattling as they blasted.

J EVANS,

UPTON

Drainage delays

THE driveway and garage of our home was recently flooded - not from the downpour but up from the drains.

After much buck-passing, I got through to the technical services of drainage and coastal protection on phone number 606 2004.

I reported that the land drain was backing up and required cleaning out.

The following week the same thing happened again and this time more properties were affected.

Technical services were again informed.

If you live in the Newton area and have had any drainage problems, please call technical services so that maybe, just maybe, something might be done before the situation locally becomes completely catastrophic.

JOHN WRIGHT,

UPTON

Supermarket plea

I WOULD like to offer some observations regarding Patrick Hughes’ comments on the proposed introduction of a quality supermarket into Neston.

I am a Neston resident and I would dearly like to support the town.

A quality supermarket would mean that my family and I would be spending more time in Neston rather than travelling to Ellesmere Port or Heswall for our weekly shop.

While doing this, we would probably go for a coffee at the local coffee shop rather than outside the area.

The local farmers’ market or the Friday market is never going to be enough to support this town.

Indeed I would like to share a comment from the woman we bought our house from four years ago: “We use the bank in Neston, but that is about it.”

If businesses are offering what people want, they will prosper with the additional footfall.

It will drive up standards rather than damaging the local economy.

Oh, and by the way, recycling is here to stay. Get over it and use the right bin for heaven’s sake.

M C FARRELL

Common sense

IN all the years that I have visited Leasowe Common, like thousands of other people, I have never known a child to be injured by any vehicle there.

In fact, to my knowledge I have never known there to be an accident of any kind to any person in the area.

I believe, closure of the gate makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to stopping joyriders on quad bikes.

I have personally asked hundreds of families, 800 in fact, about the gate closure and I get the same appalled response time after time.

I have not met one person who agrees with the council’s decision.

In fact public outcry is the only message I can hear from people.

This gate closure will only cause traffic congestion on the main road in the height of summer when hundreds of families will use the common.

Now there is a recipe for an accident to happen.

Mr Angell, as the chairman of a committee, alongside the council, may as well call yourselves defeatists.

You are giving in to a handful of mindless thugs who are hell bent on vandalism, and spoiling it for hundreds of law-abiding members of the public who have used this common for many years in the same way.

Also I must point out, you seem not to have considered the people who are disabled, young as well as elderly.

People who are infirm and in wheelchairs need vehicular access to the common, they too like to be considered.

GEORGE THORPE,

MORETON