Wirral News letters: January 5

Jan 5 2011 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

Ambassador for tourism?

MAY I congratulate Cllr David Elderton on his latest initiative to attract more visitors to our peninsula.

He refers to more large events within our countryside as a way of attracting more visitors.

Could I respectfully remind him that Wirral countryside ranger service (one of the first in Britain, and now under serious threat from council cuts) have been arranging large events since their foundation.

To name aŠfew: Viking re-enactments and steam rallies in Royden Park; English civil war re-enactments and Viking re-enactments in Arrowe Country Park; and a massive list throughout the entire park ranger network on an annual bases of activities for all the family.

In fact the ranger service put on more events than any other organisation.

I can applaudŠthe initiative of attracting more visitors, butŠhaving watched the last Open golf from Hoylake I cannot remember the name of Wirral being used many times by the national and world media and a map of the peninsula coming onto our TVsoften.

Please Cllr Elderton could I make a very serious suggestion: Call a public meeting inviting anybody who has Wirral at heart to come together and form a common group supporting Wirral tourism and do as other areas have done andŠseek volunteer ambassadors with immediate effect.ŠŠ

Charles Hales

via email

Help dogs’ home

AFTER reading the article in this week’s News (Dec 29) I went with my son to look at the dogs in Birkenhead kennels on Corporation Road.

It’s a very clean space for the dogs. One thing that stood out was that they had plastic beds. How cold they must have been in the cold weather.

I’m sure there are plenty of priorities but they could do with some blankets but as they say, the buildings could do with upgrading.

So how about local people with a trade, maybe on the dole, between jobs, plenty of time on their hands, give them a big hand and give the dogs a new home for the New Year.

They have been appealing for so long and managed to keep it open for the dogs that are just left stray or unwanted.

There are a lot of good people out there. Let’s try and give them a hand.

Jean Barnes

via e-mail

Fouling is worse

MY husband and I decided to go for a nice New Year’s Day walk, but were disgusted at the amount of dog dirt along Wakefield Drive, Leasowe Road and along Moreton Shore.

I walk almost every day and I was shocked at the amount of dog fouling generally along our route, it seems to have become a whole lot worse in the last few weeks.

I owned a dog for 16 years and would always clean up after my dog. The majority of dog owners ARE responsible, but the few who are not, let the whole community down.

MRS BRERETON

Leasowe

Let’s get tough

I READ with interest the so-called new initiative instigated in Moreton and surrounding areas to deal with dog fouling (News 22/12/10).ŠŠ

Considering this team was apparently set upŠ “early this year” it appears their success rate so far must be minimal. Š I base my comments on the recently published information stating that whereas Liverpool Council issued 581 penalties for dog fouling, in the same period Wirral issued one. This only confirms my belief that Wirral is happy to be a dog toilet, and that we have no respect for the wonderful environment we live in. Š My wife and I are fed up keeping one eye on where we are treading and one eye on the scenery. Come on Wirral Council lets start getting tough on the anti-social dog owners.

A Disillusioned Walker

Moreton

Snow hid mess

WHAT a shame the snow has gone. How lovely it was to see a blanket of white covering our streets and making everything look fresh and clean.

Sadly the result of a thaw is that one can now view the disgraceful mess of fag ends left outside pubs and pizza cartons left outside takeaways whilst walking along Market Street in Hoylake.

Is it any wonder tourists venture abroad for their holidays, where local business owners take pride by cleaning pathways outside of their properties. Is it beneath us to follow this example?

I can only imagine that some people believe that these items must defrost with the snow.

Is it unfair to question why we are not all taking responsibility for ensuring our streets our kept clean and making an effort to be proud of the place we live.

MARIE STROUDE

Hoylake