WIRRAL’S favourite local newspaper celebrates its 50th anniversary this week.

Ever since 1973, the Globe has been there, covering breaking news stories, human interest tales and supporting the work of local charities, including Claire House, Wirral Hospice St Johns and Wirral Autism Together, among many others.

In 2003, for example, we launched the fund-raising campaign which aimed to raise money to build a sensory garden for special needs children who attended Lyndale School, Eastham in 2003. Globe readers raised more than £45,000 which enabled the garden to be completed in 2004.

We have also regularly covered Wirral Hospice St John’s Light Up A Life fundraising, which has helped the hospice raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for its running costs since 1996.

Tragic incidents and their impact on people have also featured in our pages over the years.

Among them was the explosion which rocked New Ferry on on Saturday, March 25, 2017. The incident left 81 people injured, but miraculously no-one was killed. The blast destroyed or damaged 63 properties and damaged vehicles and left people with broken bones, lacerations, burns and psychological trauma.

Furniture shop owner Pascal Blasio, who caused the ‘apocalyptic’ explosion in a bungled insurance job, was jailed for 20 years in 2019.

He was found unanimously guilty of causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property and fraud involving an insurance claim he made after the blast.

The Globe was among the first at the scene on the night. As months went by, we told the stories of residents in the town whose homes were damaged in the explosion.

We have also charted the turbulent history of Wirral’s historic Cammell Laird shipyard, from industrial disputes in the early 1980s, through to its resurgence as a major shipbuilding force, with projects such as construction of the RRS Sir David Attenborough, a polar research ship named in honour of the broadcasting legend and naturalist, and officially launched in 2018.

Earlier this month, the Birkenhead firm was awarded contracts by BAE Systems to build units for the Royal Navy’s Type 26 Frigates as its story on industry continues.

Big stories in recent years and months include the Covid pandemic, which began in 2020.

The borough was flung into the national spotlight in January that year after it was revealed 100 people returning from Wuhan in China, where there was an outbreak of Coronavirus, would be put into two weeks’ quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital.

The news was followed by articles that paid tribute to victims and charted the efforts by Wirral health staff to bring the virus under control.

There is a real community spirit on Wirral, echoed in major celebrations that have been covered by the Globe.

Last year, thousands came together to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Neighbours piled onto their streets to throw a party, with bunting, cakes and Union flags seen in many locations.

They did the same again May this year, during street parties for His Majesty King Charles III’s coronation.

We’ve been there in court too to report on crimes that have rocked the peninsula. In June this year, the gunman who killed a 26-year-old beautician when he opened fire outside a Wirral pub on Christmas Eve was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 48 years.

Connor Chapman, 23, was found guilty following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court of the murder of Elle Edwards, who was hit twice in the back of the head when he fired 12 shots from a Skorpion submachine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve last year.

As the Globe celebrates its 50th anniversary, change is also a growing theme on Wirral, as consultation on regeneration plan for Birkenhead continues.

The next few months are a crucial period in Wirral’s regeneration programme as a series of consultations on schemes to revitalise areas of the borough open up.

The latest consultations follow engagement events asking for people’s views on proposals for Seacombe at Scott’s Quay and Northside, near Wirral Waters (which remains open for contributions until October 2).

Through the remaining summer months and into autumn, there will be opportunities to shape further proposals which are described as key in transforming the borough’s Left Bank area of Bromborough, through Birkenhead, Wirral Waters, Seacombe to New Brighton.

Whatever happens on Wirral, the Globe will be there to bring you the latest, as it breaks online and in paper, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Thanks for reading.