Wildflower celebration at eco-interchange

SNOWDROP and bluebell wildflowers are set to spring at Merseytravel’s Liverpool South Parkway interchange in the New Year, thanks to the efforts of a group of local schoolchildren.  The children, from nearby Garston Church of England Primary School, planted wildflowers to reflect the eco-friendly elements of the award-winning interchange in Merseyside and celebrate Merseytravel’s commitment to 2009; Liverpool’s Year of the Environment.

Councillor Ken McGlashan, Chair of Merseytravel’s Environment Committee, said:- “Every child who contributed to this can be very proud and we hope this wildflower area will be lasting legacy of an important year; one which will showcase the good work many organisations are doing to promote better, healthier, cleaner and greener communities.”

Neil Scales, Chief Executive and Director General of Merseytravel, said:- “Liverpool South Parkway has proved to be a major success on many levels and we have reached all of our key environmental and passenger targets.  This project was a fantastic way of involving children in celebrating the interchange – which has become a key local and regional hub for transport links.  The station and the way it operates is a great example of how infrastructure and environmental management can go hand in hand.”

Merseytravel worked with Landlife, a charity dedicated to preserving and encouraging natural ecosystems, on the project.  The wildflower habitat is on Holly Road Farm, on the edge of the interchange.  The new winter wildflowers will complement the summer wildflowers planted by Garston Church of England school children in 2007 to celebrate Liverpool South Parkways first birthday.  The sustainability elements of Liverpool South Parkway are continuing to reap rewards.  Its giant rainwater harvesting system has saved some 700,000 litres of mains water since the interchange opened.  Its geothermal heat pumps have exceeded targets by saving than 40 tonnes of CO2 a year; the enhanced roof insulation saves 3.4 tonnes of CO2 and the solar photovoltaic cells on its south facing windows saves 1.5 tonnes of CO2 by providing an electricity supply to the building.

Merseytravel, one of the country’s leading environmentally conscious transport organisations, has just released its latest Environmental Sustainability Report, detailing its successes in 2007/08.  It is available to download at:- merseytravel.gov.uk. 

Usdaw appalled at 30,000 Woolworths redundancies

SHOPWORKERS' union, Usdaw, is appalled at the news that all Woolworths stores will close by the 4 January with the loss of 30,000 jobs, if no buyer is found in the next couple of days.

There are plans for a phased store closure programme which will start with 207 stores closing on 27 December; 200 on 30 December; 200 on 2 January 2009; and 200 on 4 January.  Every store will be given just 10 days' notice before they close and staff will be asked to work up to 3 days after their store closes to clear up.  The Union and Woolworths staff will be notified of the locations of the phased store closures in four stages over the next few days.

John Gorle, Usdaw National Officer, said:- "We are shocked that staff will only be given 10 days notice of store closures and deeply disappointed by the news that no buyer has yet been found for Woolworths.  Redundancy is devastating at any time of the year, but particularly so at Christmas.

We have been informed by the administrators that the leases of up to 300 stores will be sold.  This is terrible news, as it means that our members will be made redundant and not transferred to the new owners of these 300 leases as they are
announced.

In anticipation of redundancies we sent out a detailed letter to our members at the end of last week, giving information on their rights. 

We are currently talking with the administrators to secure the best possible terms for our members with regards to pensions, holiday pay and the speed of receipt of redundancy pay.

We have also called on the Government to ensure that its rapid response teams at the local Job Centres will be ready to help staff to find new employment as quickly as possible.

Worried members should contact their Usdaw reps or the local union office and comply with instructions from their store managers.

This is an extremely distressing time and we will be doing everything we can to make sure our members are treated fairly."

John Hannett, Usdaw General Secretary added:- "I am personally devastated for the 30,000 Woolworths staff and our members can rest assured we will do everything we can to assist them at this difficult time.

The Woolworths staff are extremely loyal, dedicated and well trained and wherever vacancies exist in the retail sector we will use our contacts to find alternative employment as speedily as possible."