Dive in and win at Liverpool Aquatics Centre

LIVERPOOL Aquatics Centre is expecting to welcome its 500,000th visitor in the next week – and is offering a free holiday to the landmark customer.  Thanks to a sponsorship deal between Liverpool City Council and Norfolkline.com, the lucky person will win a 4 day family holiday to Dublin, including car ferry crossing.

The state-of-the-art £17m facility in Wavertree has been a runaway success since it was officially opened by Britain’s Olympic swimming squad last July at the national shortcourse championships.  As well as clocking up half a million users in less than a year, the centre, which has an Olympic sized 50m pool that can split in to three different sizes - has also attracted more than 3,500 new members. 

All children under 17 are able to use it at no cost using their free council Future Lifestyles passes, as can over 60s through the Lifestyles Senior programme.

Council leader Warren Bradley said:- "As well as attracting elite athletes and competitions, this centre is a major part of our drive to improve the health of the local community.  ’I’m delighted it is attracting so many users and to reach this milestone so quickly underlines the value of giving the public with access to affordable, top quality leisure centres.’’

Liverpool Aquatics Centre is the biggest investment in the city's swimming facility for decades, and together with an Indoor Tennis Centre, Athletics Centre and extensive synthetic and grass sports pitches forms part of the Wavertree Sports Park.

Its 50m pool has a unique moveable floor which allows the depth to be varied and can even be raised above the water line for it to be used for dry sports such as aerobics. It also houses a 400 seat athletics arena, meaning the centre can host major championships.

The project included additional investment to improve the former Lifestyles Picton, which has seen a large expansion of the gym which now contains 94 pieces of state-of-the-art equipment.

Donation of TVs to Spinal Unit

THE Southport Paraplegic Sports and Social Club have recently donated £5,000 to the North West Regional Spinal Injuries Unit for the purchase of televisions in the intensive care and high dependency wards of the Unit. The TVs are ceiling mounted on telescopic movable arms to enable patients to watch TV while lying on their backs.

Alan Gibbons, Chair of the Club said:- "We felt we wanted to do something for the higher injury patients and the ceiling mounted TVs seemed an obvious need and we are very happy to have been able to fund this."

The Sports and Social Club was formed in 1960, when the spinal unit was based at the old Promenade Hospital in Southport. The aim of the club has always been to help patients with their rehabilitation after an injury through sports and social events. Over the years many people who before their injury were not in the least bit athletic have gone on to represent Great Britain at various paralympics after taking up their sport through the club. Current members include David Gale and Jamie Burdekin who both took part in the Beijing Games last year.

The Club is open to anyone with a disability, whether they were a patient at the unit or not, and if anyone is interested in joining they can contact the Secretary Steve Lathom on 0151 924 6887 or the Spinal Injuries Unit for more information.

NEXT OF KIN APPEAL - STEPHEN EDWARD MCALOON

LIVERPOOL Coroner's Office is appealing for the next of kin of Stephen Edward McAloon, 38, who died on Sunday, 31 May 2009, in hospital.

The Coroner's Office has been unable to trace Mr McAloon's next of kin and is appealing for any relatives to come forward.  There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

Any next of kin, or anyone who has information about Mr McAloon's next of kin, is asked to contact Liverpool Coroner's Office on 0151 233 4707.