Frosty reception to competition

THERE’S been a chill in the air surrounding the Liverpool Park’s photo competition. In June 2010, the city council’s parks team asked residents to capture the beauty of Liverpool’s parks in a photograph.

To date, nearly 100 entries have been received, but strangely, the majority of pictures all capture the city’s green spaces covered in snow.

Liverpool city council’s cabinet member for the environment, Councilllor Tim Moore, said:- “The standard of the photos we’ve received have been fantastic, and if it was a winter-themed publication we were producing we’d be spoilt for choice! However, as it’s a calendar we’re putting together we need pictures which represent all the seasons. With the closing date looming, we’re urging as many people as possible to send in more pictures so we can produce a calendar which has a brilliant variety of shots.”

The closing date for entries is Friday, 10 September 2010.

Residents are encouraged to take photos of their favourite park or green space – whether it be one of the city’s beautiful Victorian parks such as Sefton or Stanley Park, or maybe capture one of the more unknown green hidden gems which can be found across the city.

To enter the competition, email your image along with your name address and postcode to:- parks@liverpool.gov.uk. Remember to give your photo a title, a brief description and the location. Up to two photos can be submitted, and if they’re emailed, the files must be no larger than 3mb.

Or you can download an entry form from:- liverpool.gov.uk/parks and post in your entries as a print or on CD to:- People’s Parks c/o Parks and Greenspaces, Coach House, Calderstones Park, Liverpool, L18 3JD.

The calendar will be sold through the city parks’ Friends Groups and various park outlets such as cafes and gift shops.

Competition rules:-

► All photographs entered should be taken of, or in, one of Liverpool’s parks or green spaces.

► If anyone under the age of 16 appears in the photo, consent of a parent or guardian is required.

► The competition is open to all amateur photographers and is free of charge.

► Images may be digitally enhanced to remove spots or scratches, but cannot be manipulated.

For full list of rules please visit:- liverpool.gov.uk/parks and click on the events section.

The People’s Parks competition has been organised by the city council in partnership with the Liverpool Parks Friends Forum.

JLA continues to fly high, with greatest increase in passengers of any UK airport

THE latest analysis of UK airport passenger traffic flows shows that Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) had the largest increase in passenger numbers of any UK airport in the first third of this year compared to the same period in 2009.

A comprehensive report produced by well respected aviation industry consultants RDC Aviation, contains the latest analysis of UK passenger traffic flows as reported by the UK CAA up to April 2010. Liverpool was shown to be just one of only six UK airports in a list of 50, to see any growth in passenger numbers between January 2010 and April 2010.

89,050 more passengers used JLA over the period - the greatest increase in passenger numbers seen by any other UK airport, up 6.4% on the previous year. In terms of scheduled passengers, Liverpool now moves into 8th place in the league table of busiest UK airports with almost 1.5 million passengers having used the airport by the end of April 2010.

The additional services now being operated by airlines such as KLM, Eastern Airways, easyJet and Ryanair, in comparison to the same time last year, have all contributed to this current success.

To accommodate the growing passenger numbers, work on a £12m development program continues. The recent phased opening of a new passenger security screening area in July gives more space for passengers and uses the latest generation security equipment. Expansion of the Airport’s departure lounge is also taking place, bringing a number of new and exciting retail developments and high street names to the Airport for the first time and is due for completion by late Autumn 2010.

Peel Airports’ newly appointed CEO Craig Richmond commented:- “To think that Liverpool is growing its passenger numbers by more than anyone else in the UK with airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester continuing to see a decline in passenger numbers is yet another milestone for JLA. We recognise that the recession isn’t over and that Liverpool, like all UK airports will no doubt have some tough months ahead, however, by continuing to work in partnership with our airline customers and improve our passenger facilities, we remain confident that JLA will be well placed to grow its business further as we come out of the recession.”

Iain Smith of RDC Aviation said that:- ”When looking at what’s happening across the UK, our latest research clearly shows that Liverpool John Lennon Airport is bucking the trend when it comes to growing its passenger throughput.”