Frank’s Blog

A key aim of the Feeding Birkenhead campaign is the relief and prevention of child hunger in our town. I’m pleased to report recent progress on two fronts. First, the Leader of the Council, Phil Davies, has agreed to act on our requests for all eligible children in Wirral to be signed up for free school meals. The Council will use its Housing Benefit data to find out which children are eligible, but not registered, for free school meals. This will allow officers to sign up all eligible

The school bells ring this week for the last time until the start of a new term in September; a delight for lots of children, but an incredibly worrying six weeks lie ahead for some. The absence of school brings with it the loss of free school meals, adding up to £20 to a family’s weekly outgoings. For poorer families, in particular, this can feel like a heavy blow. Indeed the cross-party inquiry on hunger, which I co-chaired, discovered a rapid increase in the numbers of families

It was both depressing and uplifting last Friday to open Wirral Foodbank’s new “Fuel Bank” initiative. The Foodbank is offering credit vouchers worth £30 to those poor souls in Birkenhead who need an emergency food parcel but simply cannot afford the fuel required to cook it. The depression comes from the reality that there are people in Birkenhead who haven’t a penny to put food on the table or gas in the meter. But it is so uplifting that we have nPower, a…

The toll charges for the two tunnels that bring people to and from the Wirral are a very sensitive topic. Tunnel users on the Wirral side of the water, and no doubt those tunnel users that live in Liverpool, feel aggrieved at Merseytravel’s policy over these charges. The sense of grievance stems from the fact that Mersey tunnels more than pay for themselves and debt attached to them could have been written off many times before now. Worse still, the profits from the Mersey tunnel tolls

It was marvellous seeing the workers at Cammell Laird on Friday processing the major aircraft carrier orders.  I met one worker whose hand I first shook in 1986 when he signed on as an apprentice at Laird’s. On Friday I shook his son’s hand. He has just followed in his father’s footsteps by starting with Laird’s as an apprentice.   The fortunes of this father-son duo show just what an important role Laird’s has held in Birkenhead over…