Could lockdown ending bring a return of the traffic issues we witnessed last year?

AS the UK Government launched a fresh:- "stay at home" message despite declining infection rates, the success of the vaccine rollout and the announcement of a roadmap out of lockdown, it has not stopped many for heading to the coast.

As a new advertising blitz was launched, England's chief medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said:- "we must all continue to play our part" in controlling the spread of the virus, the fact is many people are not taking notice. Especially by those who have been vaccinated and now do not see any danger from the Virus. Evidence of this can be seen on the roads in and around Merseyside's beaches, with cars from as far as Manchester and Preston, in some cases even further, parked up on them, as families head to the beach. A local resident, who walks her dog, on Formby's Dunes said:- "Just hearing the people's conversations as they walk past you know they are not from the area."

This increase of activity over the last few sunny days has also seen the return of large numbers of cars parking up on residential side roads, raising local residents fears of a return to what happened last year, over the summer, once the March lockdown had finished. Now many local residents are asking the simple question:- "Can our MP's ask for the Council and Police, to have powers to close areas to non locals, if an area gets overloaded, like it has over last summer."

The worry is strengthened by the fact Summer Holidays might be messed up as the vaccine rollout has lead to some interesting issues that could see more people staying in the UK for their holidays. A resident said:- "If we have a repeat of what happened last year, this time it could be far worse. Our roads at times could not allow emergency services to get down them, and that is extremely worrying, and it is not just the Mersey Coast that has had this problem."

What are your thoughts? Please email us with your views on this topic, to:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com.
 

Appeal launched to help Southport Dad in US Hospital waiting for kidney transplant

AN appeal has been launched to help a Southport dad who is in a US Hospital desperately in need of a kidney transplant and money for life saving medicine. Father of 3 Paul Mook, aged 59, should be looking forward to his 60th birthday, on 2 April 2021. Instead he is lying in the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center in Alabama suffering from Stage 5 kidney disease and diabetes. With no health insurance and in a country with a very different health service to the NHS he is in urgent need of life saving drugs and diabetes medicine as the Hospital bills mount up. The situation is so dire that Hospital bosses urged his wife to chase a Tax refund just so they could put a dialysis port in his arm. Paul's family on both sides of the Atlantic have launched an appeal to help him, setting up a GoFundMe page and a raffle as they urge people to help give what support they can. The appeal is being led by Paul's distraught family including his wife, Heather Mook, in the USA, and his niece, Monika Mook, who is in Southport in the UK. Paul and Heather recently celebrated their 20th Wedding Anniversary. Heather is now doing all she can to help her stricken husband. She said:- "With a heavy heart I'm asking for help. Paul is in Stage 5 kidney disease and we've lost our health insurance because he can no longer work. We have applied for disability but that could take up to a year. I'm doing my best to keep the household bills paid and it doesn't leave anything for his medicine or his diabetes supplies. The Doctors are helping the best they can by taking $5 to $25 payments. The Hospital has made me sign a paper to get our Tax refund just to put a dialysis port in his arm. It was a $13,000 surgery that I will still owe on after they take what they can get. I am so worried about him running out of his life saving medicine more than anything. Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you."

Monika meanwhile is determined to raise funds from Southport, UK. Paul was born up in the scenic seaside resort, growing up in the village of Crossens before his family moved to live on Shakespeare Street near Southport Town centre. He attended Crossens Primary School and then Christ Church School before moving onto Ainsdale High School. He worked at Swift's, in Preston, when he was younger, and worked in professions including as a welder and a bricklayer. Paul moved with friends from Southport, to live in the USA in the 1990's. He has a son, 25, living in the USA and a daughter, 35, and a son, 30, who live in Doncaster in South Yorkshire in the UK, where he lived before emigrating to the USA. Monika said:- "Uncle Paul is in Hospital in the USA but grew up in Southport and spent much of his adult life here. He was a Crossens boy and grew up there until my Nan and Grandad got a shop on Shakespeare Street then they moved there. My whole family are Southport through and through but a lot are older or gone now. Uncle Paul needs a transplant right now and we need to raise funds for him. We all know that they don't have the NHS like us over there. The 1st thing I am going to do to help to raise funds is to start a raffle. If anyone has any prizes or donations or anything that could help, then please get in touch. Please donate and share the appeal if you can. Please message and donate and I will be getting some raffle books by the weekend. Hopefully we will have some good prizes from people coming through. A lot of Uncle Paul's old friends from Southport have already donated and I would just like to thank them, and everyone else who has donated already."

Please donate, please go to the GoFundMe Page:- "Fundraiser by Heather Mook - Paul needs help with medical expenses."