Column by Wirral Council Leader Dave Jackson (Labour).

IT'S a steady, unchanging, sort of occupation, gardening. I've decided I'm going to print a new slogan for my back bumper - 'weeding is good for you'.

I really need my time on the allotment just to relax and stay human. Perhaps that's because outside the allotment, life is anything but steady and unchanging! I sometimes feel breathless just with the rush to keep up with everything that's happening.

I was at a conference last Friday with all sorts of VIPs and dignitaries, discussing the impact that Europe can have on our area. There's a danger that we could lose out on tourism and new business over here because the rest of Europe will seem more attractive when it shares one currency, and we were looking at this.

Angela Eagle, MP for Wallasey and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was speaking, as was Lyndon Harrison, our Euro MP. Of course, we couldn't let the opportunity slip by to lobby Lyndon Harrison for all the help he can give us with the major Ocean Dome tourist attraction that we hope to happen in New Brighton.

We don't really know yet whether putting together the complex packages of money from different sources to fund new regeneration schemes will be easier or more difficult under the new system planned. The government has set up a North West Regional Development Agency to co-ordinate and improve the economic performance of the whole region and the Government Office for Merseyside is going to be combined with its counterpart in Manchester to form one North West office.

The advantage is that the system should be simpler. The unknown element is whether we will gain from being part of a wider area, or lose out as Merseyside becomes just a sub-region of the broader North West. In the end, I think that's going to be very much up to us and how we handle it. I'll be able to let you know how things develop because I've been elected to their policy committee.

Meanwhile, it makes sense to work closely with all our near neighbours. At the moment, we're talking to Chester, Ellesmere Port and Cheshire about the possibility of a partnership with us to be set up under the auspices of the Local Government Association, so we can discuss issues of mutual concern and see what action we can take together in different areas that will be to our joint benefit.

On a completely different note, let me congratulate three young men in Wirral who have been selected from 30,000 initial contestants to appear on the new 'Gladiators' show. They are Karl Mullins, a 26-year-old firefighter from Bromborough; Alan Forshaw, a 29-year-old lifeguard from Noctorum, who works for the council; and Neil Parsley, a 24-year-old professional rugby player from Caldy.

It makes me go dizzy and reach for a beer even to think of the effort required to reach such a level of fitness! Congratulations and good luck lads from all of us.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.