Ex-pat shows us and tells us about the Bush Fire near their home over the last few weeks

WITH Capital of Culture looming, we have decided to run reports about lives outside the UK. This is the first of the letters from an ex Merseysider.

"I don't know how much you know over in England I do know it was on your news because my cousin rang me up to check if we were OK. 

The bushfires were the worst we have had in Western Australia, they were started deliberately on Saturday 15 January and were still burning a week later, finally coming under control and being allowed to burnout almost ten days after they were lit. As far as the story around the town goes apparently the fire bug lit a series of fires using timing devices. The WA government are offering a reward to try to catch the person who did this. During the height of the fires another idiot went around lighting more fires the other side of our township, I don't understand the mentality of this.

We live about 2 to 3 kilometers from the nearest fire front, which happened to be a friends property, they were lucky they had moved all their horses to another property and all they lost were some fruit trees from their orchard and had the ground up to their house burned. Luckily their homes were saved. 

Because we live on the edges of the metropolitan area we have a Bush Fire Brigade, ran by volunteers who are trained to put out bushfires, these volunteers are amazing, they drop everything when called and go out and fight the fires, some of them did not go to their paid job the whole time the fires were raging. We even had volunteers from down South of WA, the North of WA and the Goldfields (East), come to help us. I heard the perimeter of the fire was over 150km long, massive great areas have been burnout. The Salvation army were wonderful looking after the Vollies with food and drinks etc. 

Because we are an Orchard area, in our hills are grown Stone fruits, Apples, Pears. Many people lost the trees that are their income. Many people were taken to hospital having trouble breathing, because of the amount of Soot and smoke in the air. 

On the Sunday when I took these photographs our normally totally blue skies were an strange brown and the sun had an strange orange glow on the ground. As I stood outside taking the photos, blackened leaves and burnt branches and tree bark were falling onto the ground around me. They were just like charcoal when you picked them up. That is a big risk to homes, if you have leaf litter in your house gutters or in the valleys of your roof or in piles around your house, when the burning embers land they can catch fire. You can see in one of the photographs my husband up on the roof using a leaf blower to keep the roof clear, we did this several times over the burning period. 

Since the fires our community has gotten together and we are tying yellow ribbons around our Mail boxes to show our thanks and at the local Bottle Shop (Off License) and Petrol Station there are tins where we all are donating money to 'shout a drink for the Firies" 

I hope some of this will help you, probably too much rambling." Regards, Jacki Hewson.

If your are an ex-pat from Merseyside and have a story about your area, send it in. But please let us know about where you are from and a bit about your self. 

LIVERPOOL WOMEN LEFT BEHIND IN THE SAVINGS RACE

WHEN it comes to savings, girls are quicker off the blocks than boys, but soon get left behind in the race to stash their cash, according to Lloyds TSB Savings.

Analysis of nest-eggs across the UK reveals that children are laying firm foundations for their financial futures, with the average 11 to 15 year old having a huge £1,026 tucked away. The battle of the sexes starts young, however, and boys take an early lead in the savings race boasting an average balance of £1,281 compared to the £771 that girls have tucked away - the difference of a whopping £510. 

In Liverpool the savings gap is firmly established by this age with boys having an average of £882 tucked away compared to just £645 for girls. 

Matthew Osborn from Lloyds TSB Savings, comments:- "From a really strong start as children, it seems that when girls get older their love of saving slows down. Possibly, as their attentions turn to the typical teenage interests of clothes, make up and boybands, their ability to save is affected."

Savings drop to their lowest point between the ages of 16 and 20, when the average balance is £530. By this time, boys across the UK have become firmly established in pole position, having a savings pot of £594 compared to girls' £467. This picture is confirmed in Liverpool, where girls have an average balance of just £468 and boys have raced ahead with an average balance of £550.

By the time they reach the 25 to 34 age group, men have an average of £1,770 tucked away compared to just £1,302 for women and the wedge between men and women is even more firmly in place by the time they approach retirement. Amongst the over-65s, women have an average savings balance of £4,889 and men have the race in the bag with £7,257.

The research also found:-

* As people start working their savings habits pick up, with average balances rising by almost a quarter (23 per cent), from £530 between the ages of 16 to 20 to £682 between the ages of 21 to 24. 

* The leap is even higher between the age brackets of 21 to 24 and 25 to 34, going up 44 per cent to £1536.

Matthew Osborn concludes:- "To make sure the financial chasm between men and women doesn't become ever wider we all need to take responsibility for saving for the future. By getting into the habit of saving regularly as youngsters, we can really make a difference to the way we live in later life."

The Wirral is forecast as one of the Top Ten places to live!

ACCORDING to recent studies by TFL, a supplier of property data to Thomson Directories, The Wirral is forecast as one of the top ten places to live in the UK.
Technical Forecasting Ltd was tasked by Thomson Directories to look into the area of house price growth. Their studies suggests that the growth in house prices over the last two years has been attributed to a number of factors such as low interest rates, poor stock market performance and relatively low unemployment. Initially the fastest growth was seen in London and the South, but over the last year Wales and the North have started to catch up with growth rates of between 12 to 20% being recorded. This trend has now slowed down with some areas recording growth as low as 3% in the South.

Although average prices over the coming year or two are forecast by TFL to continue to increase at around 5% a year overall, there is considerable local variation in these figures. Looking at the overall market at town level, The Wirral is in the top 10 places to own a property in the country. Growth rates here are forecast to average over 10% a year, on the basis of historic price variations in combination with many other factors including unemployment, industrial output, interest rates and business confidence.

Local property information can be found at, www.thomsonlocal.com/property, providing comprehensive information on current and forecasted prices, neighbourhood profiles, web links to major estate agents and property services such as surveyors, removals and building contractors. Also included is data on area crime rates, contact details for the local government offices and information on council tax bands, all extremely useful when considering moving to a new area. 

Merseyside sees a huge reduction in autumn delays on the railways

TRAIN delays caused by leaves on the line fell by a huge 63% in Merseyside and north Wales last autumn, according to figures released this week. 
In autumn 2003 trains were held up for 22,790 minutes because of leaves but last year that figure dropped to just 8,507 minutes.

Andrew Skidmore, Network Rail's general manager for the area paid tribute to his leaf-fall teams:- "We had four teams of three people and it was their task to proactively check known leaf-fall sites and also respond to incidents within problem areas. They did an excellent job, as the figures demonstrate. We also had four mobile operations managers directing their work, and a dedicated 'autumn controller' coordinating everyone's efforts throughout the North West."

The main weapon used in the battle against leaves is a substance called Sandite. It looks like gritty wallpaper paste and it helps trains to get a better grip on the rails. Network Rail used special trains to blast leaf contamination off the tracks and then lay Sandite. It also has sixteen lineside machines in known trouble spots in the area that automatically squirt Sandite on the tracks as trains pass by.

The leaf-fall teams have portable Sandite dispensers as well as machines that scrub the rails clean with steel brushes. Armed with this equipment they were able to liaise with train drivers reporting problem areas, and get to the root of the trouble before it had a major impact on train services. In fact, the whole rail industry worked together to get a grip on the problem.

The end result is that not only was there a dramatic reduction in delays to trains but there were no signals passed at danger as a result of leaves, compared to two in 2003, and there were only four station overruns compared to 16 the previous year.