Thursday 23rd December 2010 Pensioner and dog beat off attacker
When a lowlife thief threatened to kill 76-year-old Angus McMeekin and
his dog if he didn’t hand over his cash he soon found he’d picked the
wrong victim. The deaf and visually impaired pensioner said he went
“ballistic” when the intruder sneaked into his Merseyside home and
demanded money. The robber got a thwack over the head with McMeekin’s
walking stick before turning and running away empty-handed. "I might
have had a triple bypass, but no-one messes with this Scotsman," Said
McMeekin, who had been briefly in his garden with his dog when he
discovered the intruder. "As we walked back through the house Sven
stopped at the bedroom door and started growling as they do. When I
looked at the floor I could see snowy footmarks, I opened the door and
there was a guy hiding behind it.” Merseyside

Monday 18th October 2010 Mersey bridge plan escapes spending review cuts
Plans for a second bridge between Runcorn and Widnes will go ahead,
the chancellor has confirmed, despite its £431m price tag. The Mersey
Gateway project was on hold awaiting the outcome of the Treasury's
Spending Review. Earlier in October George Osborne said the project
was one of his priorities, leading to optimism that plans for the
bridge would get the go ahead. The chancellor has now confirmed that
the six-lane toll bridge, agreed by the last government, will be
funded. Mr Osborne said: "The priority here has been to target waste
and welfare, to invest in our health care, to give real increases in
the school budget and to invest in the things that are going to make
our economy strong. Projects like Crossrail, which will go ahead,
projects like the Mersey Gateway, which is going to go ahead. Those
things are actually going to get us out of this stronger and able to
pay our way in the world." Merseyside

Tuesday 7th September 2010 Site of Ringo’s Beatles début burns
The place where Ringo Starr, the drummer for the Beatles, made his
club début in 1962 has suffered a fire. The former Kingsway club on
Coronation Walk in Southport caught fire during the night of Monday 6
September, 2010. The club is no longer in use and the building is due
to be demolished as part of a £9m regeneration scheme. The site is to
be turned into a hotel, shops and residential apartments. Ringo, who
was originally named Richard Starkey, was not the first Beatles
drummer but joined the group to replace their original skins man Pete
Best. Merseyside

Tuesday 31st August 2010 Hoylake lifeboat station's open day draws crowds
Hoylake lifeboat station’s open day proved extremely popular with
thousands of people flocking to the event. The organisers hope the day
has raised around £20,000 towards a new lifeboat. The lifeboat station
open day on the Wirral was held in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution (RNLI), a charity that receives no government funding
despite their vital lifesaving work. The Hoylake RNLI lifeboat station
hosted the event on Bank Holiday Monday on 31 August 2010. Hoylake's
lifeboat station was originally founded in 1803 and is one of the
oldest in the country. The station moved to its current premises in
2008. Merseyside

Tuesday 20th July 2010 River Mersey oil spill
The River Mersey is the site of a clean-up operation after gallons of gas oil leaked from a barge into a dock in Liverpool. The spill, at Huskisson Dock, was from a barge that was unmanned and not in use at the time. Harbour Master, Captain Steve Gallimore, said a boom was set up across the mouth of the dock, to prevent the oil from spreading into the River Mersey. According to Gallimore the spill doesn’t present a great problem: "It should be pointed out that gas oil is a very light oil, and that much of the spill will simply evaporate." Merseyside

Wednesday 10th March 2010 Jump a club queue with a condom
Clubbers in Liverpool carrying a condom can jump the queue at selected
clubs in Liverpool as part of a bid to promote safe sex in the city.
The ‘Rubbers for Clubbers’ initiative is being backed by NHS Liverpool
Community Health and sexual charity Brook.

Dr James McVicker, clinical director of sexual health at NHS Liverpool
Community Health, told the press: "The campaign takes an innovative
approach to safeguarding the sexual health of the city's young people.
We have a strong coalition of local businesses that has pledged to
make condoms more visible, provide incentives for people to be
prepared to carry them, and distribute condoms in selected locations
at appropriate times. With their support we have every chance of
improving on the campaign's previous success." Merseyside

Monday 23rd November 2009 Merseyside’s decorated penguins to raise eco-awareness
More than 200 decorated penguins are on display in Mersyside as part
of the city’s Year of the Environment. The glass-fibre penguins, The
Go Penguins, were decorated by schools, community groups and
celebrities. Birkenhead-born entertainer Paul O’Grady designed on of
the penguins, which he called ‘Owl Ma Penguin’, which he said was
inspired by a childhood memory of a lady known as ‘Mary Ellens’.

The ‘colony’ will be seen across Liverpool, wirral and St Helens until
the 10 January 2010 and is designed to highlight the dangers of global
warming and the of melting polar ice caps. Merseyside

Friday 24th July 2009 An extra £13m for Merseyside theatre
The Everyman Theatre in Merseyside is set to enjoy a £28m refit after the Arts Council granted an extra £12.8m in funding. The theatre first occupied its converted chapel home in 1964 and last had a refit back in the 1970s.

The project still has a £2m shortfall, but the theatre is about to start a public campaign in an effort to make up the remaining financial gap. Artistic director Gemma Bodnetz was reported as saying the revamp would mean “a new home for the extraordinary range of talent in Liverpool”. Merseyside

Tuesday 21st July 2009 Asbo warning at Knowsley Safari Park
Persistent trouble with local vandals has led to the adoption of a special Asbo scheme to deal with the yobs - the park’s own baboons! The Asbo’s, or Anti Social Baboon Orders, are designed to deal with the mischievous inhabitants of Knowsley Safari Park’s monkey jungle.

Baboons in the park are already well known for the odd transgression involving a snapped off wiper blade or wing mirror, but things have taken a turn for the worse recently. The baboons have learned that if one of the larger baboons jumps up and down on a car’s roof box, it will flex enough to burst its lock. The other baboons then swarm around to check out the contents of the luggage case. Merseyside