Review of the Year ... The news from your Wirral News, July to December 2010

Dec 29 2010 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

July

PLANS to hand over control of Wirral’s parks and countryside services to a private company were given the go ahead. The authority hoped to save millions of pounds a year by taking on a private organisation to maintain parks, cemeteries and countryside services. The Labour group used the call-in procedure to force a further meeting but their call for the plans to be changed was defeated.

BIG Lunches took place across Wirral as more than a million people nationwide closed their streets to party. Bunting was blowing in the wind and cars were diverted as neighbourhoods from Wallasey to Claughton, Bromborough to Neston, came together to eat, drink and be merry.

A FLAGSHIP £24m development in the centre of Birkenhead had the plug pulled on it by the council at the eleventh hour. The ambitious scheme was intended to create 1,000 jobs and see a casino, 120-bed hotel and a restaurant and office blocks built on Europa Boulevard, close to Conway Park train station.

THE Duchess of Cornwall spent an hour at the Wallasey Sea Cadets base in Victoria Road, New Brighton, observing a drill and demonstrations of rigging and cutlass swinging. Camilla has been patron of Wallasey Sea Cadets for two years and she visited Wirral during a packed day of duties in Merseyside, including a visit to the Queen Victoria liner as it made its first call into Liverpool.

August

A BRAVE dad who dived into a burning home was dubbed a hero by his grateful neighbour. When Bobby Jones heard screams next door, he leapt over the fence dividing their terraced homes in Claughton to tackle the blaze. He said it was “just natural instinct”.

IT WAS announced around 100 new jobs were to be created at Bromborough’s Croft Retail Park with the opening of four new shops.

A THUG ran over a paramedic tending to a road crash victim with the medic’s car. The paramedic was treating motorists in Birkenhead when a thief jumped in his car, which was filled with life-saving equipment. The paramedic stood in front of the car to try to stop it being taken, but the yob drove straight at him.

SCORES of the largest known species of jellyfish washed up on Hoylake shore. Bathers, paddlers and toddlers were urged to be on their guard after as many as 100 lion’s mane jellyfish (right) appeared at the high tide mark.

A WALLASEY Marine who lost both of his legs in Afghanistan proposed to his girlfriend. Pete Dunning made the romantic request to Laura Burton at the Paralympic Games, in Vancouver.

It was announced the chief executive of Wirral was to retire his post after 12 years. Steve Maddox was to leave his post on September 30 and deputy chief executive Jim Wilkie was appointed as an interim for up to nine months.

WIRRAL News backs the Quit Stop Wirral campaign, run by NHS Wirral, in the hope to encourage at least 5,000 people to pack in the habit by March 2011.

THOUSANDS flocked to Wirral to enjoy a feast of bank holiday fun. In Hoylake, vintage aircraft displays, street theatre and a funfair pulled in the crowds for the 36th Hoylake Lifeboat Open Day. Meanwhile, crowds binged their way through two days of sensational fare at the Wirral Food and Drink Festival at Claremont Farm, near Bebington.