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Blaze Guts A
Merseyside Cricket Club
FIRE destroyed the historic
Hightown Cricket Club's pavilion with the worst damage being the
building that housed the club’s function suite in the early hours of
Sunday, 16 January 2011. At the height of the blaze neighbouring
homes in Thirlmere Road were evacuated as the blaze was tackled by
30 fire fighters. The fire took 6 appliances to try to bring the
fire under control and the efforts of the fire fighters manage to
save part of the oldest section of the structure, that houses the
changing rooms.
Also escaping the flames where the clubs
squash courts. After the main blaze was put out 3 appliances that
remained at the scene to dampened down Sadly for the club, the money
making side of the club house, housing the clubs small bar named
“Spike Bar” and their main function room that could take up
to 120 people are now rubble. Early reports in some of the media
have indicated the cause as an electrical fault, but it is to early
to say as a full investigations is now taking place. The single
storey building, has stood for over 100 years and was used by many
local residents.
After the fire one local resident on
Thirlmere Road told us that:- "This is utterly devastating for
us all. The club will have to now do a lot of fund raisers within
the next few months in order to help pay for re-build costs. Also
with the cricket season nearing, we just hope they can do it in
time."
Postal backlogs -
still on going!
LAST week we asked the Post
Office about the problems with the postal services in our area. Back
on 13 December 2010 Royal Mail announced it had; "put a range
of measures in place to tackle the impact of the severe weather on
deliveries to those parts of the country most impacted by the heavy
snowfalls." yet in the North West the post is still delayed.
Many in Formby and Southport have been reporting problems well
before the bad weather, so what is going on? We asked Royal Mail for
a comment and yes Royal Mail has apologised for the delays and
blamed changes to the way deliveries were made and the weather. They
also have added they have cleared the backlog, yet people are still
with out items? Commenting on problems with mail backlogs on the
North West, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) warns that Royal
Mail moves to slim down ahead of privatisation are damaging the
service and urges the public not to take their frustration out on
postal workers. CWU’s North West regional secretary Carl Webb,
said:- “The snow and ice did cause major problems for Royal
Mail, but it’s not right to still be delivering Christmas cards and
presents the second week of January. In the North West we would have
struggled with Christmas mail anyway because of all the closures and
cut backs we’ve had in the past year. Royal Mail is slimming down to
be more attractive before the government privatises it, but that’s
having a major impact on service levels. It’s no coincidence that
the places where we’ve had most difficulties and biggest backlogs
are where mail centres were closed in the last year, Crewe and Wigan
for example. Royal Mail hasn’t been filling job vacancies and didn’t
hire extra vehicles in some areas meaning we were short on both
manpower and logistics when the Christmas rush came.
Postal workers have been putting in long hours and had leave
cancelled but there’s only so much they can do without back-up. But
that back-up costs money and affects Royal Mail’s profits. However,
private mail companies failed in the face of bad weather and high
mail volumes. We know that many private companies ended up sending
their mail to Royal Mail to deliver because they weren’t up to the
job, but that obviously increased the pressure on Royal Mail’s
operations. Contracts that had been won by private mail companies in
many cases reverted to Royal Mail when it was clear they couldn’t do
the job. We understand that mail backlogs are very frustrating for
customers, but I appeal to the public to see the big picture and not
to take out their frustration on postmen and women. These backlogs
are a sign of things to come if the government gets its way and
privatises Royal Mail.” CWU also has added that it is
opposed to the Postal Services Bill which will privatise the Royal
Mail, putting post offices and mail services at risk. So what is
going on? Also why is it we have seen problems with the post for a
lot longer in some areas of Merseyside? Has your post got to you
yet? Has your business been affected by it? Please email your views
and thoughts on this topic via our news room email address:-
news24@southportreporter.com. |
