Frank's Westminster Blog

I began Friday with an early morning visit to Cammell Laird’s shipyard to meet with chief executive John Syvret. The news he reported to me was another positive reflection of both his leadership and the high performance and ability of all those who work there. Turnover has increased tenfold since John began running the shipyard. Better still, the yard is now building ships. Most people thought that age had long since passed. Two new ferries are...

Jane Kennedy is our first Police and Crime Commissioner. She beat five other candidates to win 56.2% of first preference votes. As she is now busily drawing up her budget we need to lobby on where we would like to see the most effective police action. There are two issues which you as voters have continually raised with me. There is the long running saga on antisocial behaviour and there is increasing concern at the level of violence committed...

In recent weeks Tranmere Rovers’ bid to build up to 90 houses on the historic Ingleborough Road memorial field has not been out of the headlines. The plans were given the go ahead at the end of October, but opponents of the bid promised to fight on. It’s clearly a very emotive proposal. I can relate to both sides. Supporters of the bid claim it deliver significant benefits to the local community, including housing provision, modern sports...

I was walking towards Balls Road on Saturday when approached by a resident coming out of one of the coffee shops towards the top end of Slatey Road. She asked what I was going to do to reverse the decline that is sadly so apparent around the Balls Road area.It was a very effective exchange. My constituent cared passionately about an area of Birkenhead in which she had lived practically the whole of her life. There was no hiding her raw emotion. I did not have an immediate answer. But her...