March 2010 Archives

The Egg Run takes place this Sunday, March 28, starting in New Brighton.

The charity event raises lots for local children's charities and has become a key fixture on Wirral's calendar.

Below is the council press release with details of road closures and the route the bikes - hopefully thousands upon thousands of them - will take.

The Government has published its long-awaited review into library provision.

The report and responses to consultation are available here - not surprisingly, Wirral gets a few mentions...

The campaign to "bring the Royal Iris home" from where it is currently berthed - and looking very sad - on the Thames is continuing apace.

The Facebook group Bring the Royal Iris Back Home is growing impressively, and an online petition is also attracting support.

Below is a video, thanks to photographer Dave Wood, showing the boat in its present condition.

Labour has confirmed Phil Davies - deputy leader of the Labour group on Wirral Council - has been selected as the candidate for Wirral West.

Here's the press release:

I have tonight been told Labour has selected deputy leader of the party's council group Cllr Phil Davies, to stand as their candidate in Wirral West.

So far we're awaiting confirmation from Labour regional office but Cllr Davies' selection will probably not surprise many - even though last week he couldn't "confirm or deny" if he was standing.

Anyway, the Labour candidate will be standing against the Conservatives' Esther McVey, who has stood twice in the constituency, Lib Dem Peter Reisdorf, Phil Griffiths from UKIP, and independent David Kirwan - and as the last (so far) to declare, will have some work to do following the decision by the incumbent Stephen Hesford to step down at the next election.

Alan Stennard, Wirral Council's director of regeneration, has announced he is to retire.

For much of 2009 Mr Stennard was in the firing line over the council's plans to shut libraries and suffered much of the publicity for the policy - later abandoned by the authority.

However, Mr Stennard also achieved much of lasting value to the borough during his time as a senior officer. In the meantime, council sources have insisted when questioned that he was not "pushed out" and will not be recevieving a "Golden Goodbye" pay-off, and that the timing is more to do with changes to pension arrangements due to come into effect in the next few months.

The council press release is below:

Below is Sue Charteris' response to Wirral Council after the authority wrote to her commenting on the draft report into library closures.

For a summary you can also see this article in the Wirral News here.

Stuart Kelly, the Lib Dem challenger to Labour's Frank Field in Birkenhead, has stepped in to the row over education in the town in defence of the council.

Mr Field had accused the local authority - led by a coalition of his party and the Lib Dems, and with a Labour councillor as cabinet member for education - of failing local children.

However, he had specifically targeted the council's chief executive and education director, and accused chief council officers of incompetence.

Mr Kelly has now stepped in to support the council, after successfully helping press the authority to re-think its plans to close Ridgeway High and force an academy on many people who said they did not want one.

WIRRAL West - what can you say? Stephen Hesford announced - out of the blue - that he wouldn't be standing at the next election and the local party was faced with quickly finding a new candidate.

But it seems to have been a slow old process... Mr Hesford stepped down in January and it is not expected that the result of the postal ballot following this Saturday's hustings will be announced until March 17 - next Wedneday, St Patrick's day, no less.

That leaves less than two months to the day everyone currently expects the election to be held for the candidate to campaign... which leads us on to the next question - who will it be?

Lib Dem leader Simon Holbrook as responded quickly to the release of the letter from the council to Sue Charteris, Government-appointed inspector into Wirral's (now reversed) library closure plans.

SUBJECT: LIBERAL DEMOCRAT LEADER: WIRRAL COUNCIL LIBRARY INQUIRY LETTER

STATUS: For immediate release

"I welcome the decision to publish the Council's response to the draft inquiry report on Wirral's Libraries. It is important to remember that the Secretary of State reached no final view on the inquiry report and made no endorsement of its findings.