Welcome to “Sunday Snippets” a weekly feature from birkenhead.news. It is a round-up of our most popular good news stories from the last seven days. Click on each story to read the full article.
£4m roads maintenance investment continues to make progress
The annual summer programme of road repairs and maintenance in Wirral is set to conclude next month.
By the time the work comes to an end, more than £4 million will have been spent this year on a programme of resurfacing, repairs and other improvements to roads and footways across the borough.
Around 120 locations were listed for works on the roads programme, with priority given to those in the most urgent need of attention as identified by independent condition surveys, inspections and suggestions from elected members and residents.
New food project provides a huge ‘welcome back’ to school
A new project in Wirral is delivering a huge 112 pallet-loads of food to local schools in an effort to help families in need through the first few weeks of the new school year.
Known as the ‘Welcome Back to School Food Support Project’, the scheme will see special ‘pantries’ set up in 40 local schools, allowing them to put together free food packs containing a range of essential items for the children to take home.
Climate focused creative writing classes for children
Children in Wirral can access some free online creative writing classes over the next couple of months all focused on climate change and its impacts.
Wirral Libraries are working with Read Now Write Now 
, Literary Arts organisation, and climate change charity, Hope for the Future, to deliver sessions throughout September and October.
As part of the classes, children aged 7 to 11 years old, will be able to take part in live online writing workshops and recorded workshops, as well as being able to access learning resources. During each of the sessions, children will hear about real life climate change concerns and then be able to write a short story of their own. Stories will then be shared through social media and displayed in selected local libraries.
Maggie’s cancer support centre at Clatterbridge formally opened
Philanthropist Steve Morgan spoke of his “overwhelming pride” as he formally opened the brand-new purpose-built Maggie’s Wirral at the Steve Morgan Foundation Building in the grounds of Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Wirral.
The centre was completely commissioned, designed, built and funded by the Steve Morgan Foundation to replace the previous interim centre which opened in 2014, and has given the charity more space, allowing its team of professional staff to deliver more of their core programme, courses and support groups.
The formal opening comes three months after Maggie’s moved its programme of support to the new centre. Since then the average number of visits to the centre has more than doubled.
Curtains set to rise as Floral reopens to full houses from next month
New Brighton’s Floral Pavilion Theatre will be welcoming back audiences to all theatre performances, at full capacity, from October 1 2021.
The first live event to perform at the theatre will be the All-Star Superslam Wrestling show on Sunday 3rd October at 3pm. This is just the start of a busy season of shows and events scheduled to take place in the theatre and the front of house areas.
Highlights from the Autumn 2021 – Spring 2022 season include family shows Peppa Pig – Best Day Ever and the Floral Pavilion pantomime, Beauty and the Beast starring Melanie Walters, Gwen from Gavin and Stacey as Fairy Bon Bon.
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A new recycling service for paper containers with metal ends, such as Pringles tubes, hot chocolate, nuts and other products, has been launched at Merseyside’s 14 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) this Recycle Week.
Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority has introduced the service in partnership with Veolia and the Alliance for Beverage Cartons & the Environment (ACE UK).
Local residents can now recycle their containers alongside food and drink cartons via specialist bring banks located at HWRCs throughout the region.
Experienced Public Health Nurse joins hospice team as key worker for people living with Motor Neurone Disease
Specialist community public health nurse, Liz Stear, is Wirral Hospice St John’s first Motor Neurone Disease (MND) key worker for Wirral and Ellesmere Port.
Having supported many families in the area for the previous ten years, working a varied and diverse caseload, Liz works alongside local health and social care agencies as a dedicated link for all the people in the area who live with MND, alongside their families and other carers.
As part of the hospice multi-disciplinary care team, she will signpost services and recommend approaches that have benefited many people to live as well as they possibly can with life-limiting illnesses.
Princess Anne visits Maritime Knowledge Hub project at Wirral Waters
HRH The Princess Royal visited Wirral Waters on Friday 17 September 2021, at the end of a full week of engagement during London International Shipping Week. The visit marked the start of a special day in the local industry calendar with the 7th Mersey Maritime Industry Awards taking place that evening at Liverpool Football Club.
In her capacity as Patron of Maritime UK, Her Royal Highness, received a dedicated briefing from Mersey Maritime CEO, Chris Shirling-Rooke, who is also Assistant Chair of Maritime UK and Simon Eardley, Policy and Partnerships Co-ordinator and Programme Manager for Regional Growth.
Mersey Maritime leads on the national regional cluster development programme which is delivered in partnership with Maritime UK and the Department for Transport. This programme of activity sees the direct delivery of regional priorities identified in Maritime 2050, the long-term strategy for the industry launched in 2019, and being rolled out around the entire coast of the United Kingdom.
Scope charity shops call for ‘goods and garms’
New polling from Scope charity shops reveals the average adult from the North West has on average 28 unworn items of clothing and footwear in their wardrobe. That’s potentially 1.5 billion items taking up valuable space throughout the UK.
Tops top the list of unworn items as people from the North West have an average of eight in their wardrobes and a foot-stomping 34 per cent have more than five pairs of unworn items of Footwear. The national figures suggest women hoard more footwear, having slightly more items at 6, compared to 4.
The research comes as the disability equality charity launches its National Stock Campaign, #ShareTheScope to encourage the public to clear out their cupboards and donate their pre-loved goods and garms.
Wirral Dad Launches £100,000 Fundraising Campaign For The Hive Youth Zone
A local finance professional has launched an inspirational campaign to raise much-needed funds for The Hive Youth Zone on The Wirral.
Will Roberts, who is an investment director at the Liverpool office of Rathbone Brothers PLC got involved with The Hive following a tour of the multi-award-winning centre earlier this year. The ground-breaking charity, which is based at the impressive purpose-built centre in the heart of Birkenhead, provides activities and experiences for young people from right across the Wirral, 84% of members live outside of Birkenhead and Tranmere.
Since opening in 2017 the Youth Zone has had over ½ million visits from members age 8 – 19 (up to age 25 for young people with a disability) and has raised aspirations, improved health and wellbeing, enhanced prospects and increased the confidence and self-esteem of literally thousands of young people.
Lifelong Wirral resident Gwen celebrates her 100th Birthday
“I was born in Shamrock Road, Claughton Village in 1921.”, Gwen Trenchard said. “Just three years after the Great War.” The world has changed a lot in the time since then, but Gwen has spent all of her life within a few square miles of where she now lives.
birkenhead.news met up with Gwen and her son Ron, and daughter Beb, for a chat about her life. To say that Gwen has led a busy life is a bit of an understatement. To this day, her social diary is as full as ever, keeping herself busy with church and a variety of sports clubs. On top of all that, she still finds time for knitting, baking, and puzzles.
Going back to the beginning and speaking of the aftermath of WWI, Gwen said, “There was no work or anything for people and if you had a father who worked, you were on a scale above other people.”
Birkenhead set for ‘transformational projects’ as Town Deal projects agreed
Millions of pounds will be invested into a series of transformational projects which will play a pivotal role in the renaissance of Birkenhead.
Following the borough’s successful Town Deal bid, which netted £25 million of Government funding for Birkenhead, ten milestone projects will help transform Birkenhead as part of the wider regeneration taking place across Wirral.
It comes after a major consultation asking local people and businesses what they believe is special about Birkenhead and what work could be undertaken to enhance the area for everyone, as well as the work of the Town Deal Board who developed a vision and plan for how the funding could be utilised to benefit Birkenhead.
COP26 Zero Carbon battle bus heads to New Brighton
The Planet Mark zero carbon, fully electric “Battle Bus” is heading to the Floral Pavilion Theatre, New Brighton on Friday 1 October to offer practical net zero advice to businesses across the City Region.
This flagship free event will celebrate local efforts to create greener and fairer communities in Liverpool City Region and explore the ways in which everyone can make a difference when it comes to climate change.
Hosted by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), businesses will have the opportunity to find out more about why achieving net zero carbon is so important as well as hearing about the importance the role of SMEs will play in achieving the North West’s ambitions to become the UK’s first carbon-neutral region.
A sense of place: ‘Space is the Place’ exhibition at Convenience Gallery
A new exhibition is currently running at Birkenead’s Convenience Gallery. “Space is the Place”, by Patric Rogers and Angelo Madonna will run until 1 October.
The exhibition at the Bloom Building, Abbey Close, near to Birkenhead Priory, is a part of Convenience Gallery’s “In Cahoots” 2021/22 programme.
Space is the Place is Patric Rogers in collaboration with Angelo Madonna’s deeply personal memoir to his most sacred of spaces, Hilbre Island. It is a cerebral exhibition project exploring the psychogeography of one of Wirral’s iconic landmarks.
Actor Daniel Craig appointed honorary Royal Navy Commander
Actor Daniel Craig has been made an honorary Commander in the Royal Navy – matching the on-screen rank of James Bond.
The James Bond actor attended primary school in Hoylake and he also attended Hilbre High School in West Kirby. Upon finishing his compulsory secondary school education at the age of 16, he attended Calday Grange Grammar School as a sixth form student. He played rugby union for Hoylake RFC and still helps them with fundraising events.
Commander Craig’s appointment as an honorary officer reflects his personal support for UK Armed Forces and links it with the legacy created through the guise of the fictional British secret agent.
Merseyside sports stars support WUTH Charity Golf Event
Over 50 golfers took part in the first Wirral University Teaching Hospital -WUTH Charity Golf event including pro golfer and charity ambassador John Singleton, Tranmere Rovers midfielder Jay Spearing and former WBC Cruiserweight Champion Tony Bellew.
The event was in support of Arrowe Park Hospital’s Neonatal Unit and its ‘Tiny Stars’ fundraising appeal. The appeal is aiming to raise £1.5 million for improvements to the unit, which cares for very poorly and premature babies.
Tony was part of the DT Hughes Group team along with managing director Dave Hughes, who is a continued supporter of WUTH Charity. Also teeing off at the prestigious Carden Park Cheshire Course where teams from Tesco, Venturi Cardiology, SLG construction and others.
Wirral group prepare to climb Everest in 2022 in honour of Mallory
In May 2022, a group of lifelong friends from Wirral will retrace the famous steps of George Mallory in a centenary celebration of the 1922 British Mount Everest expedition.
As part of the Tri4Life team, the group has completed a number of incredible challenges over the last twenty years; from biking across America to swimming the English channel, raising thousands of pounds for charity along the way.
The 2022 Everest expedition will be the team’s most ambitious adventure yet as they attempt to scale the highest peak in the world, following the same route Mallory took nearly 100 years ago.
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