Transport yourself here

Oct 3 2012 Birkenhead News

RECENTLY Cllr Williams (Heritage Champion) said he was aware of the good work undertaken by the group that keep the Transport Museum’s road fleet moving although he has never accepted an invitation to come the museum at Taylor Street and speak to us on the museum’s future.

I therefore invite him and any other Wirral councillors who maybe interested to come to Taylor Street this coming Sunday to the Bus and Tram open day, they will witness a small sample of the visitors who take a great interest in transport heritage as this day usually brings a great deal of people from around Wirral and beyond.

As the future of the Transport Museum hangs in the balance perhaps they will see and appreciate the hard work and support the army of volunteers that keep the museum vehicles and exhibits going all year around helping the one full time and two part time employees as a going concern.

Councillors, you should also be aware that this museum was set up with European funding and with a little more TLC (as is being provided now), this museum is a huge asset to Wirral’s tourism and eduction departments.

In the words of a famous past game show host... Come On Down, it maybe your last chance!

See you there.

Phil Hales,

Volunteer with the award winning One Borough Group

Vote for our cause

COMMUNITY Space Challenge is competing in the final of The National Lottery Awards 2012 and is calling on your readers to help it win before voting closes on Sunday, October 28.

Young people from Wirral Community Space Challenge learnt how to remove graffiti from signs at a local woodland nature reserve and are now putting their new skills to the test on housing estates where they live.

The project is competing against just two other finalists in the Best Environment Project category of The National Lottery Awards, the annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects. National Lottery players raise over £30million each week for Good Causes. The awards recognise the life-changing difference that Lottery-funded projects – both big and small – make to local communities.

Anyone can vote for Community Space Challenge by going to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/ awards

The winners of the awards will be celebrated at a special star-studded awards ceremony, which will be broadcast on BBC One in December.

Jackie O’Sullivan

National Lottery Awards

Get rural, get real

WHY is Wirral Council hell-bent on competing with cities like Liverpool and Manchester?

The Wirral is made up of lots of small and large towns and villages, with some beautiful greenbelt areas (fast dwindling).

This is what makes the Wirral interesting and unique, and one of the reasons many people come to visit.

Yet the council seems to continually come up with grandiose ideas, totally out of proportion for this small peninsula, insensitive to the real needs of our local environment and our people's real needs.

We seem to be getting-what I call the China Syndrome in Birkenhead, a truly monstrous unimaginative ungreen spread of concrete giants. These could take 20-30 years to complete with no real evidence that these buildings (offices blocks) will all be utilised.

Unrealistically the council are promising jobs – oh yes, when in 20-30 years who will occupy these offices?

Oh and now we have another grand plan in West Wirral between Hoylake and West Kirby – a golf resort covering hundredss of acres of greenbelt land some of which I believe is below sea level. This while our West Kirby fire station is under threat of closure and our local NHS on its knees with the bosses closing down the critical part of our A&E dept at our main hospital Arrowe Park.

How will this development affect our famous Royal Liverpool golf course? The recent UK Women's Open was very popular, yet the council admitted they failed to support local businesses by encouraging all the visitors from around the world to use the local shops etc. How much will all this cost? Who is paying – us the public? What about all the extra traffic congestion this may cause, new roads for access and what is known as infill – hotels etc.

So Wirral Council obviously want the Wirral to become an urban spread with all our towns and villages joined up with more roads and more concrete, whittling away at our unique diversity.

Get real WBC.

Charles Barnes

via email