Recently in Wirral news Category

All but one of the candidates from major parties have now been selected in Wirral's four constituencies to fight the next General Election.

And it looks like Wirral could see some changes ...

WALLASEY'S Liberal Democrats have selected Steve Pitt - president of Wallasey Liberal Democrats - to be their candidate for Wallasey in the next General Election.

The release accompanying the announcement says he was born and brought up in Wallasey; attending Egerton Grove Primary School and Wallasey Technical Grammar School.

It now completes the selections by the three main parties, with Labour's Angela Eagle defending her seat and Leah Fraser the Conservative challenger.

LABOUR has selected a candidate to fight Leasowe and Moreton East ward - a key battleground for the party after it elected its first Conservative councillor at the lastr local elections.

What had long been seen as a Labour stronghold saw Ian Lewis take a council seat there in 2008.

Labour had selected Lorraine Krimou to fight the seat but she stood down and the charity she runs is in dispute with the Leasowe Development Trust which is chaired by Ron Abbey - a Labour councillor in the same ward.

I LIKE a story with a happy ending.

In March 2008 I wrote about the sad state of Wirral's tribute to the world's first powered submarine, Resurgam.

WIRRAL MPs rarely speak to us about matters of national - or dare I say, international - importance - preferring to stick strictly to the local stuff.

Bus services? Muddy fields? Derelict buildings? Allotments? Not a problem for some (in particular Wirral South's Ben Chapman).

And, while that might not be your cup of tea if you want investigative journalism and in-depth analysis of politics, it's bread and butter for a local, weekly newspaper.

But if you want an opinion on everything from agency workers to disaster relief in Haiti, Neston and Ellesmere Port's elected representative is your man.

IT seems most people - including us in the media - were taken by surprise by the announcement last Friday that Wirral West MP Stephen Hesford was planning to stand down at the next election - not least his local party members.

My colleague David Bartlett has blogged suggesting Mr Hesford - who cited family reasons for his decision - may have jumped before he was pushed (by the voters). Pretty much everyone who has taken an interest in these things knows there is no love lost between Stephen Hesford and Esther McVey.

Having written the story up for today's Daily Post I spent many hours last night trying various numbers for the MP without success (my apologies to whoever it was who so patiently answered the phone) and even this morning the mobile number I used to be able to contact Mr Hesford on remained switched off. His office - which did not seem to be answering the phone for a long while this morning - eventually said Stephen Hesford was "travelling" and could not be contacted. I was also told there is no further comment on his decision, that he was stepping down for family reasons.

THE first blows have been exchanged in the election battleground that is the Wallasey constituency - and you can read the entire exchange below.

Liscard Labour candidate Darren Dodd has taken the offensive the sitting Liscard councillor Leah Fraser, who as well as defending her council seat is also standing against Angela Eagle for the Parliamentary constituency.

Mr Dodd has taken issue with the fact that Cllr Fraser is standing for re-election in Liscard as well as challenging Angela Eagle. The implication being that the Liscard councillor is not sufficiently confident of winning against Ms Eagle and wants to keep hold of her council seat just in case.

WIRRAL looks set to be a major battleground in this year's election, with the Tories hopeful of winning up to three of the borough's four seats.

Wirral West, where incumbent Stephen Hesford had a majority of just over a thousand votes last time round and has since seen boundary changes giving a notional Tory majority, is a major target. And Wirral South where Ben Chapman - who plans to step down at the election - saw Labour with a majority of under four thousand in 2005 is also high on the Conservative to do list.

But Wallasey is the one I will be watching most closely, where Angela Eagle won in 2005 with a 9,109 majority against Conservative Leah Fraser.

Anyone who thought (or hoped) they'd heard the last of libraries for a while will be sadly mistaken.

Sue Charteris, who headed up the Department of Culture inquiry into Wirral Council's library closure plans has again been asked to look into another proposal to shut libraries - this time in Northumberland.

Ms Charteris and her thinktank Shared Intellidence have been asked to carry out the "strategic review" by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA).

The full press release from the MLA is below:

EVER heard of Bromborough Hill? No, me neither.

But the Forestry Commission believes that's what we'll all soon be calling the old tip off Dock Road South.

I attended a presentation today on Wirral Council's plans for the coastline stretching from Rock Ferry to Eastham - more on that in another blog post - and among the speakers was Chris Waterfield, Newlands Programme Manager for the Forestry Commission.

Jokes about names aside, he said he's expecting a decision on Monday from the North West Development Agency (NWDA) on whether they will be funding a long-awaited £2.3m project to landscape the site and turn it into a park.

"Unofficially", said Mr Waterfield, the funding has been approved and all it needs now is the signature of a senior figure at the NWDA, who is on holiday until Monday.

Once the trees, grass and benches are in place, there are also plans for an "iconic sculpture" at the park's highest point, which people would be able to climb to take in the views across the waterfront.

Mr Waterfield said it was a long way off: "We have to look into the technicalities of putting a structure on top of a landfill site, so I can't say whether it will..but it should form part of the final project."

The trouble with "iconic sculptures" is that they always make me think of the row another one caused a few years ago elsewhere in the borough.

New Brighton clown, anyone?