Frank’s Westminster Blog

I’m pleased to report progress on two fronts. First, members of the Save Woodside Ferries Action Group met last Friday with Councillor Liam Robinson, Chair of Merseytravel and his officers.  We had a really useful meeting. There now seems to be a common commitment to trying to keep Woodside open. This is thanks in no small part to the thousands of Birkenhead residents who have expressed their opposition to proposals which would bring about the closure of the terminal….

Social surveys that were undertaken a little over a century ago picked up on the mouldy, damp and poorly ventilated homes in some parts of the country that were wreaking havoc on their tenants’ health and wellbeing. Fast forward to 2016 and still there are parts of Birkenhead in which parents are having to throw out their children’s toys and clothes because they are caked in mould, while the bathroom light cannot be switched on because there is water dripping through the…

As always when I report back on our Feeding Birkenhead campaign, there is a mixture of depression and excitement. For when we met last Thursday at FareShare’s new Wirral depot, groups helping to feed Birkenhead’s hungry reported that some residents spent Christmas Day in cold, dark homes with no food. Others had begged for a candle or two to avoid having to endure this prospect. Around two in five families – including those working in insecure jobs – who are turning to

Might I begin 2016 with a plea to Wirral residents wishing to play their part in saving the ferries service? Since Merseytravel began consulting on plans to cease running ferries to and from Birkenhead, I have set up the Save Woodside Ferries Action Group with Councillors Jean Stapleton and Paul Doughty, and with Vicky Nowak. We wrote to Merseytravel before Christmas asking them to throw out this unacceptable proposal. But we have yet to receive a reply and the meeting to discuss the…

Birkenhead has led the way this year in the national fightback against hunger. That was one of the themes running through last week’s cross-party report, A route map to ending hunger as we know it in the United Kingdom, which was launched by the Archbishop of Canterbury. A second theme, sadly, was that hunger in our town is here to stay unless the Government can pay benefits and tax credits promptly and in full, protect the wellbeing of strivers working on zero hours contracts, and bring