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Southport and  Mersey Reporter -  Your free online newspaper service covering the Merseyside region - (Greater Liverpool).
Covering the news in and around Merseyside

MERSEY REPORTER

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Issue:- 20January 2010

Blaze Guts A Merseyside Cricket Club

FIRE destroyed the historic Hightown Cricket Club's pavilion with the worst damage being the building that housed the club’s function suite in the early hours of Sunday, 16 January 2011. At the height of the blaze neighbouring homes in Thirlmere Road were evacuated as the blaze was tackled by 30 fire fighters. The fire took 6 appliances to try to bring the fire under control and the efforts of the fire fighters manage to save part of the oldest section of the structure, that houses the changing rooms.

Also escaping the flames where the clubs squash courts. After the main blaze was put out 3 appliances that remained at the scene to dampened down Sadly for the club, the money making side of the club house, housing the clubs small bar named “Spike Bar” and their main function room that could take up to 120 people are now rubble. Early reports in some of the media have indicated the cause as an electrical fault, but it is to early to say as a full investigations is now taking place. The single storey building, has stood for over 100 years and was used by many local residents.

After the fire one local resident on Thirlmere Road told us that:- "This is utterly devastating for us all. The club will have to now do a lot of fund raisers within the next few months in order to help pay for re-build costs. Also with the cricket season nearing, we just hope they can do it in time."

Postal backlogs - still on going!

LAST week we asked the Post Office about the problems with the postal services in our area. Back on 13 December 2010 Royal Mail announced it had; "put a range of measures in place to tackle the impact of the severe weather on deliveries to those parts of the country most impacted by the heavy snowfalls." yet in the North West the post is still delayed. Many in Formby and Southport have been reporting problems well before the bad weather, so what is going on? We asked Royal Mail for a comment and yes Royal Mail has apologised for the delays and blamed changes to the way deliveries were made and the weather. They also have added they have cleared the backlog, yet people are still with out items? Commenting on problems with mail backlogs on the North West, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) warns that Royal Mail moves to slim down ahead of privatisation are damaging the service and urges the public not to take their frustration out on postal workers. CWU’s North West regional secretary Carl Webb, said:- “The snow and ice did cause major problems for Royal Mail, but it’s not right to still be delivering Christmas cards and presents the second week of January. In the North West we would have struggled with Christmas mail anyway because of all the closures and cut backs we’ve had in the past year. Royal Mail is slimming down to be more attractive before the government privatises it, but that’s having a major impact on service levels. It’s no coincidence that the places where we’ve had most difficulties and biggest backlogs are where mail centres were closed in the last year, Crewe and Wigan for example. Royal Mail hasn’t been filling job vacancies and didn’t hire extra vehicles in some areas meaning we were short on both manpower and logistics when the Christmas rush came. Postal workers have been putting in long hours and had leave cancelled but there’s only so much they can do without back-up. But that back-up costs money and affects Royal Mail’s profits. However, private mail companies failed in the face of bad weather and high mail volumes. We know that many private companies ended up sending their mail to Royal Mail to deliver because they weren’t up to the job, but that obviously increased the pressure on Royal Mail’s operations. Contracts that had been won by private mail companies in many cases reverted to Royal Mail when it was clear they couldn’t do the job. We understand that mail backlogs are very frustrating for customers, but I appeal to the public to see the big picture and not to take out their frustration on postmen and women. These backlogs are a sign of things to come if the government gets its way and privatises Royal Mail.” CWU also has added that it is opposed to the Postal Services Bill which will privatise the Royal Mail, putting post offices and mail services at risk. So what is going on? Also why is it we have seen problems with the post for a lot longer in some areas of Merseyside? Has your post got to you yet? Has your business been affected by it? Please email your views and thoughts on this topic via our news room email address:- news24@southportreporter.com.

 

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DO you have a band or are you a solo or duet? Do you have your own words and music as we do not use cover bands.  You must own all the copyright of your music and words!  If you do and want to get played, let us know. we are updating our online play lists for our online radio site Liverpool Reporter.  Email us to news24@liverpoolreporter.com.  Also for bands who sign up, we have other ways to get your music heard... So what are you waiting for?  Email us NOW for more information...

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