Bring back dances at Woodside

Aug 29 2007 by Sue McCann, Birkenhead News

OVER a year ago the afternoon tea dances at Woodside ferry terminal were cancelled.

These occasions gave pleasure to a great number of people and also brought custom to the tea bar.

Passengers on the ferry boats used to come to the terminal to listen to the music and watch the dancing.

I made inquiries as to why it was decided to end these dances and was advised to write to Emma Degg, Wirral Council’s head of tourism. This I did, but never had a reply.

Those who aim to breath energy into Wirral waterfront should bring back the dances for some excitement.

ELSIE POLLARD,

MORETON

Not very classy

I AM very much against Wirral being tagged on to the so-called Mathew Street festival because it is a Beatles celebration - we don’t need Abba, T Rex and Led Zeppelin stages.

Some people even wanted some soul music too. The festival has turned into a right mess.

Fairgrounds everywhere, drunks being sick in the street - no thank you - not on the Wirral side.

I very much believe Wirral warrants its own Beatles Day at, say, one year the Grosvenor Ballroom and the following year Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight.

These are original Beatles’ venues with large halls and stages.

This would be more than ideal and a Beatles Day to remember.

Wirral is a lot more upmarket than Liverpool and we should stage a classy event.

GEOFF WOOD,

WALLASEY

That old excuse

I READ with dismay that Wirral Council failed to collect over £4m in council tax last year due to “computer faults”.

How often do we hear that excuse?

In spite of this, our spendthrift council is to expend £300,000 on a piece of design art. This sum is the product of 224 Band D taxes from householders who have paid their council taxes.

I was, however, reassured to learn that the resemblance of the statue to one already in Ireland was a pure coincidence and that the designers earned their no doubt substantial fee.

CHARLES NUNN,

UPTON

What a waste

WIRRAL Council exhorts us to recycle but tells us that we cannot recycle window envelopes.

I have just received my electoral roll registration form from the council, delivered in - yes, you've guessed it - a window envelope.

We are told from all sides to be security-conscious and shred all personal mail such as bank and credit card statements to avoid identity theft but we can’t recycle the shreddings.

They have to go into the household waste. What a waste - does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?

And these are the people we elect to safeguard our interests.

People of Wirral do a great job of recycling.

Take a look around our local shopping centres and watch as shoppers recycle fast food packaging into litter.

MYSTIFIED,

CLAUGHTON

Green-eyed issue

OH DEAR, why is Mr Donovan so upset by the very occasional use of land by a local businessman’s helicopter?

I am a poor Oxton resident and am delighted one of my fellow residents has had such good fortune and prosperity and remained local.

Is this really a green issue or more of a green-eyed monster?

JAN TRAINOR,

OXTON

Important lesson

REGARDING Birkenhead School’s application for occasional helicopter use.

My sons attend the school and it was precisely because of the evident emphasis on teaching the boys and girls to become responsible, caring and valued members of the local, national and world community (as opposed to self-centred) that helped us to choose the school.

The fact that the school actively supports a bus service, run by parent volunteers, and used by more than 250 pupils from all over Wirral, in order to ease local congestion and pollution, is an added bonus.

One lesson we can all learn from this episode is to do away with out-dated, misconceived stereotyping!!

PUBLIC TRANSPORT-LOVING, NON-4x4 OWNING, BIRKENHEAD SCHOOL PARENT

Doubling up

I READ with interest the story of Arnie Steel and the letter by R Carribine.

I do not think that a VC and a MM, which are awarded for valour and acts of courage, compare with a campaign medal.

If a soldier is given a medal for valour and does another act of valour, he can be awarded a bar to the original medal. I have never heard of a bar being awarded to a campaign medal.

I served in Malaya with the 1st Battalion the Worcestershire Regiment from 1950 to 1952. I was badly wounded a week before I was due home and spent three months extra on my National Service two years, most of it in Kinrara BMH Kuala Lumpur on the surgical ward.

I do not understand why anybody would want to wear two campaign medals for the same campaign.

The lads we left behind in the cemeteries of Singapore and Ipoh never had a chance of wearing theirs.

The medal issued by the Malaysian government could not be awarded to any soldier who fought before the independence and the most dangerous years were 1949 to 1953. Personally, I was too pleased to come home and not being under the constant threat of somebody trying to kill me.

L COOK,

HESWALL

Totally unsuitable

I TRAVEL daily along the A5137 between Barnston and the Clatterbridge roundabout. In recent months there has been an increasing number of large wide vehicles using this road including both juggernaut-type lorries and buses.

These vehicles are totally unsuitable for this narrow and winding road. These vehicles are often so wide that their driver is unable to keep within the lane width even on the straight and, especially at the many sharp bends with little visibility, these vehicles often projects well into the opposite lane.

The cyclists and horse riders who also use this road are specially vulnerable.

It is clear there is either inadequate police enforcement to prevent these very large vehicles using this road or else the classification of this section of road needs to changed to ensure a safe environment for all road users.

PETER MASON,

LOWER HESWAL

Art for art’s sake?

OUR elected representatives in the Town Hall have agreed to spend £300,00 on yet another “sculpture”.

It will contribute what exactly? Not only that, it is planned to place it on what is undoubtedly the busiest roundabout in the borough where drivers need all their concentration and no distractions.

It is so easy and painless to spend other people’s money. To “save” our precious council tax, we have closed public toilets and reduced library hours. Some roads are in a disgraceful state, and the Wirral Way is to be refurbished and needs council cash to bolster its Lottery grant application, and so on. These are just a few examples.

One has to question the competence of the council chamber incumbents to wisely spend taxpayers' money - surely there must be a local government Ombudsman to whom this sort of extravagance can be referred?

And one also would have thought that a lesson might have been learned from another waste of public money sitting on the Hoylake roundabout. I realise what it is supposed to represent but, if it was not so serious, it would be laughable that a collection of unintelligible blackened metal sitting in what looks like an unkempt bit of ground in the middle of the road cost well over £100,000.

G P HUGHES, IRBY