WIRRAL leisure chiefs enjoyed a glass of real ale when they mixed business and pleasure at the CAMRA Wirral annual beer festival. It was staged at the new Pacific Road Museum events centre, the council's latest leisure amenity.

Pacific Road has just hosted Birkenhead Scouts' fantastic Gang Show '99 and now the beer festival. Wirral Leisure and Tourism Director Andrew Worthington, with Assistant Director Ian Coles, said fact-finding visits to both of these shows the potential of Pacific Road as a major venue for different types of events.

Wirral CAMRA chairman Allan Machin was delighted with the way the three-day festival went. CAMRA staged two previous festivals at Pacific Road before the refurbishment. He said the amenity was greatly improved adding that people attending their second festival in October would notice further improvement as Phase II of the work was completed.

Drinkers with unused vouchers were invited to donate them to Wirral CAMRA's adopted charity, the RNLI at Hoylake Lifeboat Station.

There was a wide range of real ales to taste, ranging from Cains, Liverpool, to a lesser known 'adventurous' Liverpool brewery, Passageway, producing Docker's Hook and Genuine Blonde.

CAMRA also thanks Hamilton Quarter for assistance in promoting the successful beer festival.

Hopes that a brewery may locate itself in Birkenhead's Hamilton Quarter seem to have faded.

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