Curtain falls on Wirral’s last Arts Council after 37 years

Jun 24 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Liverpool Daily Post

THE last surviving arts council in Wirral has been forced to close. Wallasey Arts Council has spent almost four decades pioneering arts in the community and bringing musicians like Julian Lloyd Webber to appreciative audiences at the Grosvenor Ballroom, in Liscard.

Over the years, its familiar fluorescent posters have heralded the arrival of famous names including American pianist Ann Schein, Moira Shearer, David Kossoff, Peter Donohoe and poet Adrian Henri.

There were also regular link-ups with up-and-coming performers from the Royal Northern College of Music.

A concert at St Hilary’s Church, in Wallasey, earlier this month, featuring the Wirral Viennese Players, attracted more than 100 people.

But with chairman Noel Ormrod stepping down after 34 years and no-one willing to take on the role, the curtain has finally fallen.

Committee members will take a formal vote on the closure at an AGM on July 3.

Grandfather-of-one Mr Ormrod, 77, who became chairman in 1975, said: “There have been so many highlights and I suppose the story of Wallasey Arts Council, certainly in the last 10 years, is the story of my musical taste.

“I seem to have managed to put on things that people have liked. Our final concert could have been a sackcloth and ashes job, but I introduced the music and tried to keep it as light-hearted as possible.

“People seem upset to see it go.”