Letters to Editor:- "Annual Ted Walters International Short Story, Poetry and Playwriting Competition 2011"

"OUR competition which is now in it's 5th year and it gives £1 from every single entry entered to our chosen charity which is the Macmillan Cancer Support. For details of our Annual Ted Walters International Short Story, Poetry and Playwriting Competition, please log onto the following two websites:-

the-village.co.uk/tedwalters.htm (Competition Entry Form and Rules)

liverpoolwriters.com  (This website is still under construction)

1st Prize - First Place:- £200
2nd Prize - Runner Up:- £50
3rd Prize - Third Placed:- £15 Book Token

There will also be a Long and a Short List of entrants in all of the 3 categories.  The deadline for all categories will be 30 June 2011.  Thank you." Tommy McBride, Group Secretary/ Founder Member, The University of Liverpool Creative Writing Society for Lifelong Learning.

Take walking to new heights

PLACES are still available for teams to scale the UK’s highest peaks in just one weekend for the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The National Three Peaks Challenge takes place from Friday, 24 June 2011 to Sunday, 26 June 2011. Teams will climb
Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon. Participants must be over the age of 18. For more information, contact:- 0800 169 3672, email:- northwestwales@bhf.org.uk or you can also visit:- bhf.org.uk/n3p.

23% rise in arrests from Crimestoppers information

OVER 3,300 members of the public have provided information to Crimestoppers this year which has led to a 23% increase in the number of people arrested and charged on Merseyside as a result of this information. Ian MacDonald, Chair of Merseyside Crimestoppers said:- "A huge thank you must go to the people throughout Merseyside for using the charity to pass on information about crime. We’re extremely proud that Crimestoppers continues to play such a vital role in helping to make our local community a safer place to live. I must pay tribute to the great work of Merseyside Police in how they have dealt with the information that we have passed to them. The value of this information is clearly seen by the number of arrests that has resulted. I’d like to reassure the public that our service is completely anonymous and in the 23 years that the charity’s been running no one has ever been identified. The service is run for you, the public, to help make your community a safer place to live. We are not part of the Police or government, we are an independent charity, so by contacting us you’ll never have to give a statement to the Police or go to court."

Throughout the year Crimestoppers have run many high profile campaigns in Merseyside on burglary, gun crime, bank robberies, counterfeit goods, Illegal tobacco and drugs cultivation which have led to arrests. We also ran a very successful awards evening which acknowledged the contribution that members of the public make in the fight against crime  Nationally, the charity has achieved a one per cent increase in actionable information and a 10% increase in the number of people arrested and charged as a result of information passed to Crimestoppers. This shows that the quality of information Crimestoppers has received during the past year has been of high quality, whilst there is only a 1% increase in information, many more individuals have been arrested as shown by the 10% increase year on year. Crimestoppers operates the 24/7:- 0800 555 111 telephone number for people to pass on information about crimes anonymously. Information can also be passed via the charity’s website crimestoppers-uk.org.