Prescot and its ‘Flat Iron’ building

The steeple of Prescot Parish Church just as the sun was going down.

Local history has always fascinated me and I often blog about it across Sefton and indeed Merseyside and West Lancs.

This piece – see link below – in the Liverpool Echo took my eye:-

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/prescot-flat-iron-building-its-16553994

Prescot’s connections with clocks is well known but this significant Lancashire town also has some interesting historic buildings too – my shot of its parish church heads up this posting.

Prescot – Maghull Wind Orchestra to perform in Festival Finale

The now well established Prescot Festival runs from 21st June until 30th June this year and Maghull’s very own Wind Orchestra has been invited to perform in the finale with soprano soloist Danielle Louise.

I hear that the orchestra went down very well at Lydiate Festival recently so if you want to hear them you know where to go – a quick trip down the M57 to Prescot on Sunday 30th June.

Prescot – It gets that Shakespeare feeling

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/work-finally-start-merseysides-globe-14520495

The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above

Must admit this clearly long running story has not hit my radar previously.

Is this in a round about way (and never to be admitted officially of course) some form of apology from Knowsley Council for demolishing Prescot Leisure Centre?

Prescot murder – Carl Cashman speaks out

Carl Cashman

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/prescot-councillor-says-town-safe-13860776

The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above

Carl is a friend of mine and a more dedicated community campaigner you would do well to find. He steps into matters that other politicians shy away from. Every community needs a councillor like Carl.

Where on earth is Halsnead Park? Yes that’s what I thought too.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38486907

The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above

When I saw the list of Garden Villages to be developed obviously Halsnead in Merseyside jumped out at me and I have to confess that despite living on Merseyside for 48 years and travelling all over it this name had never been on my radar at all.

A quick Google search brought up a primary school and a caravan park near Whiston in Knowsley Borough where the M57 and M62 Motorways intersect. Then old chum Keith found a link to the document below on Knowsley Council’s web site and the picture began to emerge.

www.knowsley.gov.uk/pdf/SD02a%20Addendum%20to%20Report%20of%20Representations%20Made.pdf

And I started to wonder because to me the site looks like it should be a part of Merseyside’s Green Belt and ‘should be’ seem to be the important words because I asked my good friend Cllr. Ian Smith of Knowsley Borough Council and this is what he said:-

‘It’s green space taken out of the Greenbelt in 2016. Once again Labour run Knowsley Council is not taking any notice of local people. This area is built up enough without further development. It is adjacent to the Lickers Lane Estate built to take the overflow from Liverpool in the 60s & 70s.
We want to see the Local Plan amended with Halsnead being returned to the Greenbelt. The site should be protected, it includes farm land, woodland, fishing lakes and football pitches, and mobile homes on Halsnead Park.’

Why I am backing Carl Cashman to be Merseyside Metro Mayor

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Yesterday I attended a hustings meeting at Dovedale Baptist Church Hall in Liverpool to hear prospective Lib Dem Mersey Metro Mayor candidate Carl Cashman speak. Carl is an impressive young man who seems to have that ‘X’ factor that many other politicians simply don’t.

So what are Carl’s assets? Well youth is one, being in his 20’s brings us a candidate unburdened by the baggage that many older politicians carry with them. He has a fresh perspective and one that folks seem to like.

Carl has not had a privileged upbringing; he was brought up a a Merseyside Council estate.

He is big on green issues and has been a thorn in Labour’s side as they keep trying to build on Green Belt and green spaces. This is a huge issue across Merseyside.

He’s already a Borough Councillor on Knowsley Council regularly taking on the appalling record of Labour in running that Council. This is the Council that was staring down into the abyss of potentially having no schools where young people could take A Levels recently!

He wants more social housing built. The Merseyside housing crisis is at it’s worst in terms of the supply of such properties.

He wants to find a way of improving the income of those living on the Minimum Wage. A Merseyside initiative to try to address our low wage culture – Why not give it a go?

The people of Prescot and Knowsley have taken this young man to their heart and I hope he gets selected as the Lib Dem Metro Mayor candidate so that more electors can find out why Carl Cashman is going places.

Oh and by the way, yes I know that the vast majority of us don’t want another politician running our lives but this new post (Merseyside Metro Mayor/Liverpool City Region Mayor) is being imposed on us in 2017 whether we want it or not.

It’s a result of the Tory Government and Merseyside Labour doing a second or even third rate deal which supposedly devolves significant powers to Merseyside from Whitehall. The powers are far too limited though and Westminster will still be calling the vast majority of the shots, surprise, surprise!

Carl wants to renegotiate that shabby deal so that we have real power over our own affairs locally. And he does not want power for himself but to push that power down to local communities wherever its possible to do so.

Carl is not a man to be told what to do by Westminster, neither is he a slave to a party political machine. Watch this young man go places.