Just a few items of news for you:

Arson Attack On Hoylake Pub

On my way to the tip on Sunday morning I drove along Market Street and noticed a police van blocking Shaw Street. As I got close I could see that the top of the road was taped off. As reported by HeartWirral (a local radio station) fire crews were called to the Punch Bowl in the early hours of Sunday morning to deal with a fire in the bar area. The reports suggests that police suspect this was a targeted arson attack.

Parade Centenary Celebrations

Sunday was the last day of the Parade Centenary celebrations and we went to take a look at the classroom and the history exhibition. Well done to all those involved in the weeks events - it was evident that a lot of hard work had taken place. I personally loved seeing all the old photos of Hoylake …great stuff !

Paving Slabs

The council were down on the prom last week replacing the big, broken slabs of disturbed concrete that mysteriously moved the other week.

Weather

Well it’s going to be really hot this week - so much so that the BBC weather reports suggest you might want to visit NHS Direct for advice on coping with the heat. It was hot today (Monday) though we did have the odd spell of rain.

If temperatures do rise during the week then do take care of yourself, your pets and your property. Don’t forget to close ground floor doors and windows when go out. If you’ve drawn ground floor curtains to keep the sun out, do check that you’ve not left windows open behind them. Oh, don’t leave your car windows and/or sunroof open overnight - if it rains during the night, I’ve found on more than one occasion that a wet drivers seat isn’t very pleasant on the drive to work

Last Sunday afternoon I popped down to a garden party being held to raise funds for Hoylake & Meols In Bloom. Fortunately the rain held off and quite a number of locals came to see and enjoy Jan Fosters lovely, award winning garden. Jan has informed me that the event raised £490 and this will go towards the planting of the tubs, borders, etc throughout Hoylake and Meols. New additions for this year include more flower tubs in Meols and the flower boxes on the railings at Hoylake roundabout.

Here are some photos of the event:

Recognise this view? No ..well picture yourself stood opposite The Ship Inn in Wood Street, facing the Co-op Supermarket and The Row.

Syd Bird sent me this photo from the 1960’s and his great grandfathers Jesse’s Yard must be just out of shot on the left. Note the sign on the wall indicating the new development to come. Whatelse can you tell everyone about this photo?

You can click on the photo for a larger version.

And why not visit my (currently quieter) West Kirby site for another great 1960’s photo.

The Liverpool Daily Post this morning reports that Wirral Council and Mersey Docks & Harbour Company are aiming to find an appropriate new use for the whole site.

Mersey Docks & Harbour own the building whilst the adjacent car park is owned by the council. Some locals are keen to see the building turned into a lifeboat museum. It is quite likely that other interested parties will be thinking about converting the building into a bar/restaurant and property developers may consider the site suitable for apartments.

What do you think? Feel free to comment.

The Liverpool news section on the BBC website has an article about the Parade School centenary.

Hoylake is home to Chris Boardman, the former professional cyclist and Olympic gold medal winner. As an aside, cycling has always been of interest to me - I used to be a member of a local club and I’ve even been in the same time trial races as Chris Boardman (I used to let him win of course!).

Well Chris was featured in The Times today discussing his successful bicycle business. I’d no idea that Halfords have sold more than 10,000 Boardman branded bikes. You can read the full story online by visiting this page.

Other than Chris, has Hoylake produced any other leading sportmen and women?

Thanks to Peter Wilson for alerting me to this article.

A few updates to various news items…

It’s the Parade School Centenary this week! You’ll find more information about what’s happening on this page.

A road sweeper truck was down on North Parade today as the council attempt to clean up Friday’s windblown sand.

The golfers in the unique Willow Golf challenge successfully completed their target of playing all 6 English courses to have staged the Open in 24 hours. They arrived by helicopter at Royal Liverpoool, Hoylake and tee off was at 1.20pm.

I popped along to the Hoylake & Meols In Bloom garden party fundraiser yesterday afternoon. I’ll hopefully have some photos for you all in the next day or so.

Following on about the post about bin day, did you know that it’s National Recycle Week?

What Hoylake news have you got for me - if you’ve got any then please do get in touch?

Thanks to those of you who alerted me to the problem of drifting sand down on North Parade again. The breezy conditions caused the dry, fine sand to be blown off Hoylake beach and onto North Parade. I’ve been informed that cars were getting stuck (for a short while) in the sand and drivers have been making diversions around the side roads and pavements to avoid getting stuck.

I took the above photo at around 5pm and as you can see a JCB was being used to scoop up the sand. It was either being dumped over the railings and back onto the beach or being dropped at the old Hoyle Road slipway next to the model boating lake.

It seems that the drifting sand is becoming more of a problem - I’ve mentioned it before of course. What will it be like come the autumn with the typically strong winds?

Not the most scenic of Hoylake views for you all today …more of a snapshot of daily life in 2009! But of course bin day today is far removed from what is was say 30 years ago. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago in Barton Road (behind the Green Lodge).

When we lived in Guffitts Rake in Meols in the late 70’s I can recall the bin men walking into the back garden to actually get the bin, carry it to the road to empty it and then bring it back again. How was that for service!

Some years ago we all got green wheelie bins and they were emptied every week. Then we got brown bins for garden waste and they were emptied every other week (except over the winter). Then things got a little more controversial with the introduction of the grey recycling bins. I say controversial because along with the introduction of grey bins came fortnightly emptying of the green bins. The alternate emptying of green and grey bins is not universally popular and can cause hygiene problems. In warm weather, rotting food waste can smell (even when bagged) and in some instances householders can find maggots in their green bins. Another practical issue with an increasing number of bins is having the outside space to store them.

There have been newspaper reports that an additional bin is being considered. I gather that a slops bin (sounds lovely I know, I’m sure they won’t call it that) is being considered for food waste that can be converted into fuel or burnt in an incinerator. About 25% of councils already have separate food waste collections - not something we have here in Hoylake at the moment. It can only be a matter of time before Wirral Borough Council at least consider implementing such a system.

Feel feel to comment.

All MP expense claims for the last four years are now available online for public viewing. Certain details (addresses, etc) have been blacked-out  for privacy and security reasons.

Your local MP is Stephen Hesford and you can view his expense claims, till receipts, utility bills and such like on this page.

You’ll find previous related posts here and here.