BOOST FOR LESSONS IN SMART TRAVEL AT MERSEYSIDE SCHOOLS

THE government has awarded £75,000 to primary schools across Merseyside for Walk to School initiatives. More than 100 schools in the county are set to benefit from the funding of up to £1,000 each, including 31 schools in Knowsley, 26 in Liverpool, 21 in Sefton, 18 in Wirral and seven in St Helens.

The funding will be used to set up Walk to School projects such as walking buses - where pupils are led by staff or volunteers to follow a set route to school - as part of their School Travel Plans. A School Travel Plan is a commitment from schools to help ease congestion by encouraging pupils, parents and school staff to choose healthier, greener and more sustainable ways of travelling to school - such as walking, cycling and public transport.

As a further boost to Merseyside schools, TravelWise - Merseyside Transport Partnership’s campaign to help people make sustainable travel choices - held a School Travel Planning event in Liverpool this week. Teachers and support staff from more than 90 schools from around the county attended the event, designed to share ideas on how to encourage more people to walk to school and use other alternatives to the car.

Sarah Dewar, TravelWise Co-ordinator, is pleased with the commitment Merseyside schools are showing towards encouraging cleaner, greener and healthier ways of travelling to school. She said:- “We’ve really seen School Travel Planning initiatives grow in popularity with pupils and parents, as well as school staff. 400 schools have now adopted Travel Plans with 40 more to do so this year. This funding is a real boost to increasing sustainable travel around Merseyside.

We’re getting some excellent feedback from schools who have adopted a travel plan. Some of the obvious benefits include less cars and improved safety around the school gates. Many schools are also experiencing more interaction between the whole school community, as well pupils becoming fitter, healthier and more alert.”

TravelWise is set to launch this year’s BIG Walk to School initiative over the next few months. As part of the BIG Walk to School, pupils, parents and school staff are challenged to swap the car, in favour of walking to school, at least once a week during the summer term. And there are always some fab prizes up for grabs for the most dedicated walkers, including stickers, games and school stationery.

To find out if your school has adopted a School Travel Plan and how you can get involved, visit:- LetsTravelWise.org and check out the schools pages, or call 0151 330 1253 for more information.

Enforcement should be about quality not quantity,

THE IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) wants the Department for Transport (DfT) to rethink its proposal to make careless driving punishable by a three-point fixed penalty ticket and fine.  The call is published in the latest edition of Advanced Driving, the IAM members' magazine.

Careless driving offences are currently dealt with by the courts and can be punishable with a fine of up to £2,500 and six penalty points. If the proposal goes ahead, a blanket enforcement approach will bring a wide spectrum of driving behaviours under the 'careless driving' heading.

IAM's director of policy and research, Neil Greig, said:- "This blanket approach will mean that driving offences, which could have been charged as dangerous driving but weren't, could be dealt with in the same way as minor parking knocks. The IAM does not believe that this is good for road safety; it will only lead to an increase in the quantity of enforcement rather than quality."

The call is one part of the IAM's response to the latest DfT consultation paper 'Road Safety Compliance'. The paper outlines a number of proposals on how to encourage motorists to comply with a variety of key traffic laws including drink and drug driving, speeding and driver retraining.

Business talent on the telly!

A new entertainment show for Channel 4 is looking for people with business ideas, products or inventions to be taken on and mentored by one of our business gurus. No matter how weird and wonderful your idea, we want to hear from you!

Hat Trick Productions, a television company is currently developing an evening entertainment pilot for Channel 4. The show will include a segment where contestants will be invited to pitch ideas to an entrepreneurial investor.

Sarah Bevan Fischer, Head of Region for Make Your Mark Northwest, a national charity committed to inspiring entrepreneurs to have ideas and make them happen says:- “This is a fantastic opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas and hopefully get some investment and obviously some exposure in the process! There is so much talent in the Northwest - so we need to hear from you!!”

Hat Trick Productions is interested in hearing from you whether you already have an established business or a brand new idea you’d like to pitch. To find out more about the show, please email or call 0151 229 1787.

Filming takes place in London next Saturday, 28 March 2009, so don’t delay!

Leading the way in patient safety

FIGURES just released by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) show that Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust has one of the strongest commitments to patient safety in the country.  The Trust had the 4th highest reporting rate and was in the top 10 for speed of reporting.

The figures, covering 377 NHS organisations, show the number of patient safety incidents, the time taken to report them and whether patients came to any harm.

Martin Fletcher, Chief Executive of the National Patient Safety Agency, said:- "We believe that an organisation with a high reporting rate is much more likely to have a strong commitment to patient safety and high safety standards."

Alan Lee, Risk Manager for the Trust said:- "We have been encouraging our staff to report incidents as soon as they happen for many years. These figures clearly show that the message has got through. Incidents are bound to happen, but when they do, it is essential that staff report them as soon as possible, so we can take action to stop them happening again.  Just as important however is the seriousness of an incident. Many Trusts are reporting high numbers of serious incidents. Our data shows that nearly 90% resulted in "no harm", much better than the national average of 66% and 10% resulted in "low harm", again much better than the national average of 22%. No incidents resulted in "severe harm" or "death"".

LIVERPOOL TO BE CAPITAL OF FREE CULTURE

LIVERPOOL has unveiled a highlights programme of over 100 events and festivals in a bid to be the UK capital of FREE culture in 2009.  The city announced it is to build on its success as the 2008 European Capital of Culture, which generated £800m for the regional economy, by commissioning several major FREE cultural events including a waterfront festival and a public art parade similar in scale to the ’08 hit Go Superlambananas.

Liverpool City Council is inviting arts organisations to bid to deliver a FREE festival of art, music and film staged over three weekends in the summer on its world famous waterfront.

The On The Waterfront festival aims to reflect Liverpool’s connection to New York and would be one of the premiere events to celebrate the city’s Year of Environment – the first ’08 legacy themed year. It will also overlap with Tate Liverpool’s major art exhibition for ’09 – Colour Chart – and a new film festival AND at FACT. The Year of Environment has also inspired the commissioning of a FREE public art event called A Winters Trail – which would be staged in the run up to Christmas and have a similar impact to Go Superlambananas event last summer.

As well as new events for ’09 there will also be major artistic commissions, worth up to £25,000, attached to some of the city’s celebrated FREE outdoor festivals.  And for the first time the city will be staging an exhibition of all the grassroots cultural projects it funds in the summer, as well as staging a celebration of a neighbourhood wide arts programme – called Four Corners - at the Bluecoat in July 2009.

The council’s new culture team – called Culture Liverpool – has also revamped some of the biggest FREE events on the calendar, such as:-

► HUB Life and HUB Night – a new week-long fringe festival for the UK’s biggest free extreme sports event, delivered in partnership with major cultural organisations – 24 May to 31  may 2009.

► Liverpool’s Lord Mayor’s Pageant – to be car free with new route, June 6, supported by new week of children’s events in the June half-term break.

► Mathew Street Festival’s Fringe Festival is to be expanded – 30 August  to 31 August 2009 .

Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said:- ‘’Delivering ‘08 was a huge challenge but the real test is maintaining momentum and these highlights show it is going to pass it with flying colours. To be offering so much free culture, that no UK city is even attempting, speaks volumes for the way the city’s cultural sector works together. It shows the momentum of ’08 will never be lost and Liverpool will forever be a cultural capital.’’

Today’s announcement comes just 6 weeks after the council approved an £8.45m arts budget maintaining Capital of Culture funding levels for the next 2 years, benefiting 67 arts organisations. Equivalent to a phenomenal 42% rise from 2005 to 2011, the council is also investing £2m more in culture than before it set up the Liverpool Culture Company in 2005.

Claire McColgan, Head of Culture at Liverpool City Council, said:- ‘’Being European Capital of Culture has raised everyone’s expectations and although its impossible to repeat that year, its clear from these highlights for ‘09 that Liverpool’s ambition and ability to deliver a knock-out programme is second to none. We have learnt a lot from ’08, we know that collaboration works and that people have a huge appetite for new events and we’ve listened.’’

9 other major FREE events to look out for in ‘09 include:-

► The Great Green Sculpture Challenge over Easter Week at Tate Liverpool.

► The End of the Line:- A new major drawing exhibition by 11 international artists, at the Bluecoat - 22 May to 19 July 2009.

► Colour Chart:- Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today at Tate Liverpool – with works by Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst. Under-12s go FREE. 29 May to 13 September 2009.

► The 2008 BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral - 15 August to 20 September 2009.

► New Radicals:- From Sickert to Freud - exhibition of early 20th century British masterpieces from L.S. Lowry to Stanley Spencer. The Walker -10 July to 20 September 2009.

► Urbanism ’09 – New work by Liverpool Biennial with week-long celebration of 6 months of environmental interventions on the Leeds-Liverpool canal. 16 September to 20 September 2009.

► Under the Volcano:- A major Bluecoat exhibition to mark centenary of Merseyside’s giant of modern fiction – Malcolm Lowry. 25 September to 22 November.

► The Rise of Women Artists;– Tracking the historical changes influencing women artists from painting to ceramics at The Walker – 23 October 2009 to 14 March 2010.

► Next Level:- Game Spaces Beyond the Screen – a celebration of the evolution of computer games at FACT from December to February 2010.

Councillor Gary Millar, Executive Member for Enterprise and Tourism, said:- ‘’I think this programme would be worthy of any European Capital of Culture – it’s that good. In the recession, providing so much free events is going to be a huge boost in our efforts to maintain the city’s appeal as a world class cultural destination.’’

Liverpool is also staging some of the biggest cultural events to hit the UK this year, most notably at the Echo Arena which will host legends from Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan to blockbuster shows such as Walking With Dinosaurs and The Blueman Group.  2009 is set to be a big year on the stage with Jonathan Pryce returning to the Everyman for Pinter’s The Caretaker, Roger McGough adapting Moliere’s Hypochondriac for the Playhouse, Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine returning to The Royal Court and The Empire stages Peter Pan for its Christmas pantomime show.

There will be 2 world premieres by Liverpool writers in Nicky Alt’s One Night in Istanbul and Lost Monsters by Laurence Wilson and new writing will be celebrated at the city’s three main literature festivals – Everyword, Writing on The Wall and Chapter and Verse.  As well as Dylan and Clapton, Joan Baez will be performing at Philharmonic Hall which is also hosting a Spanish tribute to The Clash and will see Vasily Petrenko lead the RLPO in another season of stellar concerts and take residence in a new rehearsal space in Everton.

On another musical note, the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral stages a World Premiere bell ringing interpretation of John Lennon’s Imagine for FREE and there will be a FREE Royal Opera House screening of the Barber of Seville in July while English National Ballet perform Giselle at The Empire in the autumn.  New for 2009 will see FACT staging the AND Festival of New Cinema and Digital Culture in September. The festival will then alternate between Liverpool and Manchester every year.  And new for 2009 in the sporting arena will see Liverpool staging a new Triathlon (21 June 2009) and first ever professional Twenty-20 cricket match (22 June 2009).