Southport and Ormskirk NHS Hospital Trust to receive ₤458,000 to upgrade and refurbish local Hospitals

THE finalists in the 2020 Liverpool City Region Culture and Creativity Awards have been chosen from more than 700 nominations in a huge show of support for the cultural sector across the whole City Region, which has suffered a massive impact in the face of Covid19.

The judging panel, including:- Chairs of the Culture Partnership, Phil Redmond and Maggie O' Carroll; CEO of the Kuumba Imani Centre, Michelle Charters and the Liverpool Echo's Laura Davis; met to consider nominations from across the City Region to decide the list of finalists and choose the recipient of the Inspiration Award for Lifetime Achievement.

They also chose the 6 finalists for The People's Choice award for Outstanding Contribution to Culture.

They are:-

►  BlackFest - A grassroots Arts festival developing work by Black artists including:- music, theatre, film, visual arts, spoken word and poetry.

►  Gaynor La Rocca - The Artistic Director at Imaginarium Theatre, a community arts based theatre organisation, which provides an extensive creative community programme for local people.

►  Milap - an Indian Arts and Culture company, producing a performance programme of festivals, events and tours, for Indian music and dance students and artists.

►  The Atkinson - Sefton's home for music, theatre, art, literature and history offering an exciting and varied destination for families, cultural tourists and arts enthusiasts.

►  Bill Elms - Liverpool Theatre Festival - The Liverpool Theatre Festival held 19 show stopping performances of 12 productions for live performance fans for its inaugural staging at St Luke's Bombed Out Church, in Liverpool.

►  Writing on The Wall - WoW promotes and supports equality, diversity and inclusion. Their exciting writing development programme nurtures new and aspiring novelists, poets and spoken word artists.

►  More details will be revealed about how people can vote for their People's Choice winner in the New Year.

The Covid19 Pandemic has brought a different feel to the awards which will take place via a digital ceremony in February and include a best dressed competition. It also brought 2 new specially created impact awards to recognise and acknowledge individuals and organisations who used culture and creativity to make a significant impact on people's lives during the Covid19 Pandemic.

Nominations to these 2 award categories; Covid19 Creative Response (organisation) and Covid19 Creative Response (individual) made up more than a quarter of this year's nominations and the judges had a difficult time choosing the finalists.

Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram said:- "Our City Region's amazing creative talent is in our DNA, so it's right that it's being recognised with this really strong and diverse list of finalists from a high number of nominations. Congratulations to all the finalists. 2020 has been incredibly tough year for the Culture and the creative arts and while we've been able to support some sectors, they need more support to sustain them to be a key part of the economic recovery. The quality of the field this year has been really high and I wish all the finalists the best of luck."

Chair of the Culture Partnership Phil Redmond said:- "Once again it was a difficult task choosing this year's finalists which, once again demonstrated the vast array of talent across the City Region and it's heartening, especially in this difficult time, that so many people made the effort to nominate those who they felt had made a significant impact to culture and creativity."

The Culture and Creativity awards were created as part of the Metro Mayor's Percent for Culture initiative, to recognise the value and power for change that the arts, cultural and creative sector can bring in reinforcing the City Region as 1 of the most vibrant and exciting places to live, work, study, visit or do business.

This year's awards cover arts and cultural events, innovation and creative activity that has taken place within the Liverpool City Region during the period 1 April 2019 to 12 November 2020.

All entrants must live, study and/or work in the Liverpool City Region (eg. Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral) or have created work/projects that significantly benefit the residents or visitors to the Liverpool City Region and/or has positively contributed to the development of the local economy.

For more information about the categories please go to:- LiverpoolCityRegion-CA.Gov.UK.

MERSEY Ferry users are being reminded that Seacombe ferry terminal is set to close, on Friday, 18 December until summer 2021, to allow extensive refurbishment works to take place. Ferry services will be suspended after the final commuter run on Friday, 18 December 2020. They will resume at Woodside from the 1st commuter service on Monday, 4 January 2021. The same timetable as is currently used at Seacombe will apply to commuter services at Woodside. Commuters who pay for weekly, monthly and yearly passes will also still benefit from free parking at Woodside. The move to Woodside will also coincide with the re-opening of the U-Boat Story museum to the public, having been closed since the start of the Coronavirus Pandemic earlier this year. Mersey Ferry commuters will still be able to travel cross river as services will be running between the Pier Head and Woodside, Birkenhead for the duration of the works. Cross river services will also operate during the day. The works are part of a major investment to keep the services running for many years to come. It will see the linkspan bridges, which are over 130 years old and coming to the end of their operational life, replaced and the landing stage undergo a major refurbishment, including upgrading the mooring bollards and installing new powered gangways. The pontoon will be removed from the water to carry out these works. This should allow the stage to operate for another 25 years before any major maintenance intervention is needed. For the duration of these works, the vessel will not be able to berth and therefore Seacombe ferry terminal will close. Merseytravel will use this opportunity to carry out other maintenance requirements in the terminal itself and work with Eureka Mersey! to prepare for their works planned in and around this site.

Speaking about the refurbishment works, Cllr Liam Robinson, transport portfolio holder for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority said:- "We would once again like to thank our loyal customers for their patience while these essential improvement works are carried out at Seacombe. These works at Seacombe are vital to make sure the ferries can continue to operate from there for many years to come. We've been able to make sure that ferry users will still be able to travel across the river by diverting services to Woodside. The Mersey Ferries are an important part of our cultural identity in the City Region. We know that Coronavirus continues to have a huge impact on everyday life, but this shows our commitment to continuing to invest in the ferries for the future."

Further details about the Seacombe closure can be found on the Mersey Ferries website. Also, customers are reminded to always follow the current guidance regarding use of public transport including the Mersey Ferries during the Coronavirus Pandemic as restrictions may apply and to follow key advice about how to travel safely. More information is available on the ReThink travel website.

Bill Esterson MP calls on Government to release PPE usage data after Merseyside firm "ignored"

BILL Esterson MP has called on the Government to reveal how many surgical gowns secured in a ₤122m deal signed with a firm with links to the Conservative party have been used by the NHS. Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson said the Government must reveal whether the gowns supplied by PPE Medpro have passed safety checks.

Mr Esterson, said a firm from his own constituency had been asked to supply proof of a CE mark before the Government would even contemplate a contract with them. The firm, Florence Roby, failed to win a contract to supply washable gowns and have since made staff redundant at their Knowsley based firm.

Mr Esterson said:- "Florence Roby were forced to jump through hoops to even get a hearing and even after they did that they were told no thanks; their offer was ignored. Now we hear that the supply of gowns was the most pertinent problem in the early months of the Pandemic."

The Government previously said it awarded the ₤122m contract to supply PPE to a company run by a former associate of Conservative member of the House of Lords, Baroness Mone; without going out to tender; because it was required urgently. But the BBC has reported that the medical gowns bought for the NHS at the end of the 1st lockdown have never been used.

NHS Providers, which represents English Hospital Trusts, told the House of Commons spending watchdog that the supply of gowns was the most "pertinent problem" over several months.

The DHSC told the BBC that contracts for the gowns must meet the British Standard for the sterilisation of medical devices or a:- "technical equivalent."

PPE Medpro followed this second route. This required the DHSC to seek approval from the health regulator, the MHRA, for them to be used in the NHS. The DHSC and MHRA declined to comment when asked for details of the approval application made for the Medpro products. There is as yet no record of PPE Medpro or either of its 2 Chinese suppliers on the regulator's exemptions list.

Florence Roby's Ben Roby, from Formby, said:- "There is a stark difference between the way some of these companies were awarded contracts compared to the manner in which we were treated. Despite us offering a high quality, sustainable product which was more cost efficient per use, we were given the run around and eventually overlooked. If we were awarded a contract we would have saved and created jobs in the UK and the North."

Mr Esterson has submitted a Written Question to the DHSC asking for the figures to be made public.

Click here to here Mr Edterson raising this issue up in Parliament.
 

Play Audio Copy of his speech and the session:-

Link to full report connected to the audio above.