Welcome to “Sunday Snippets” a weekly feature from birkenhead.news. It is a round-up of important local news stories from the last seven days. Click or tap on each story to read the full article.
Japanese print exhibition opens at Lady Lever

Today at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, an exhibition of prints by Japanese artist Kunichika opens. It is the first exhibition in a national gallery outside of Japan to focus on his work.
It is showing 68 of Kunichika’s hand-printed prints, featuring behind-the-scenes dressing room views, on-stage dramatic moments and close-up portraits of actors, as well as ten prints selected from his various series of ‘female beauties’.
birkenhead.news spoke to art historian, Kunichika collector, and guest curator, Frank Milner who owns the prints that are on display.
Wirral Met Paralympian star Matthew Harding recognised at special award ceremony

Former Wirral Met College student, Matthew Harding, has been given a special award in recognition of his sporting success.
The award ceremony took place at Wirral Met’s Oval Campus in Bebington, on Wednesday 6 April and was presented by Sue Higginson, Principal at Wirral Met College, and Councillor George Davies.
Matthew is a world champion from Wirral who has amassed 45 gold and 30 silver medals for swimming and still holds the British record for the 50m and 100m breast stroke.
Birkenhead charity worker honoured with Royal Order from the Kingdom of Cambodia

A charity worker from Birkenhead has been honoured by a visit from the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Cambodia in recognition of his outstanding humanitarian work overseas.
Lou McGrath was decorated with the Medal Award Royal Order of Sahametrei from the Royal Government of Cambodia for his work in supporting victims of conflict through The Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation in Cambodia.
Since its inception 11 years ago, The Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation, under the direction of Lou McGrath, has supported vital landmine and explosive clearance in the region, as well as establishing mine risk education and prosthetics training programmes and funding an Inclusive Vocational Training Centre for People with Disabilities in Pursat.
New dog-friendly coffee shop opens at Hoylake railway station

Wirral Merseyrail passengers and their furry friends can now enjoy breakfast together after a new dog-friendly coffee shop opened at Hoylake railway station.
Flissy’s @ The Station officially opened with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting attended by owners Felicity Dean and Andy Dean and Merseyrail Deputy Managing Director Jane English.
Felicity, who lives in Wirral, already owns Flissy’s Coffee Shop at GJs in Thurstaston and hopes to bring the success to Hoylake.
Wirral MPs call for resignation of Johnson and Sunak

Johnson’s fine makes him the UK’s first-ever serving prime minister to be found guilty of breaking the law.
PM Johnson said, “Today, I received a Fixed Penalty Notice from the Metropolitan Police relating to an event at Downing Street on 19 June 2020. Let me say that I immediately paid the fine and I once again offer a full apology.”
On 8 December last year, Mr Johnson said in parliament, “I understand how infuriating it must be to think that the people who have been setting the rules have not been following the rules.”
Petition to twin Birkenhead Park with New York’s Central Park

Birkenhead Park is 175 years old this week and was the inspiration for the design of Central Park in New York.
The 140 acre Birkenhead Park was designed by Joseph Paxton and opened on 5 April 1847 by Lord Morpeth and thousands of people attended the ceremony. It is generally acknowledged as the first publicly funded civic park in the world.
New York’s Central Park is an urban park in New York City. It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually, and is the most filmed location in the world.
Local secondary schools come together for a night of live music

St John Plessington Catholic College and St Mary’s Catholic College hosted a night of live music in New Brighton on Friday 8 April.
The schools, which are part of Holy Family Catholic Multi Academy Trust, took over Hope Anti- Supermarket, New Brighton, with a number of student bands and singers playing in the venue.
The event ‘Friday Night Live’ celebrated the music abilities of students from across the Trust and gave emerging local talent the chance to play in a professional environment.
The Monkey with No Bum swings from page to stage at Port Sunlight

A popular children’s book which teaches youngsters to love themselves just the way they are, has been turned into a live musical for the stage.
And Asa Murphy’s charming tale The Monkey With No Bum – The Musical is set to entertain young audiences and their families at venues across the Liverpool City Region this spring and summer.
The show, which features catchy original songs, enjoyed sold out success when it was premiered at Liverpool Theatre Festival’s Little LTF festival of new works last July – with an extra date added due to demand, and then went on to entertain Epstein Theatre audiences during February half-term.
Full list of candidates for all Wirral wards in 2022 local elections

The 2022 Wirral local election is due to take place on 5 May 2022 to elect members of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. This will be the last election where a third of councillors are elected, following recommendations from a government report into the Council’s finances.
Wirral Police weekly news round-up

This is the birkenhead.news weekly round-up of police activity in and around Wirral during the previous seven days.
What’s On? Guide

Visit our “What’s On?” guide for Wirral and the surrounding areas in the coming weeks.
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