Wirral Council Leader Dave Jackson ( Labour) writes exclusively for the Wirral Globe.

IT'S NOT often that I celebrate the balloon going up. Usually that phrase is the stuff of nightmares for me, preceding, as it does, information about some dire happening or other that I really would rather not know about.

But just for once I was really glad to see the balloon go up. Or, to be more precise, 25 hot air balloons go up to cross the River Mersey in style. (OK, so one made the crossing via a not-so-stylish unscheduled stop on a sandbank, but that's ballooning for you . . .)

It was the first Balloon Festival we've had on Wirral, and the largest event of its kind in the North West.

As well as providing a great spectacle and entertainment, events like these have another side to them. They're all about promoting Wirral, not just to those of us who live here, but to those who might be persuaded to come and visit us as tourists, or to companies who might want to locate here, or to those people who might be persuaded to buy goods or services from Wirral companies. As part of the River Festival, with other events taking place at Woodside and on the other side of the river at Albert Dock, the ballooning formed part of a larger picture which is about how we, and other Merseyside authorities, can use the River Mersey to our advantage as a unique selling point to help us promote ourselves.

Still on the topic of promotion, I was really pleased to see that Wirral achieved a five-page spread, 'Tales of the Wirral', in the May issue of the tourism magazine 'In Britain'. With areas covered from the Mersey to the Dee, ranging from the ferry and aquarium at Seacombe to Port Sunlight, to Thornton Hough, to Hilbre Island and the walks around Thurstaston and along the old railway tracks country parks, with colourful photographs to match, it was another very welcome piece of promotion for Wirral. Thanks to all those who helped put the material together.

Even areas of traditional beauty or public popularity may change their uses over time as needs and cultural thinking develops. The gardens in Hamilton Square were once locked gardens available only to the square's residents. Now they are an open public space to be enjoyed by everyone, and increasingly the square is being used as a place to hold special tourism events, attracting people back into the centre of Birkenhead. Alongside this we have to deal with a predicted increase in traffic over the next decade as more people become car owners, and the already heavy traffic flow at peak times now. The result has been changes made which aim to ease the situation in the square.

I confess I have had my ear severely bent on some of these changes, with people saying they knew nothing about it. Just for my own peace of mind, I checked back to see what consultation had actually taken place. I won't reproduce the whole list for you here, because it contains nearly 40 different dates between May 1995 and May 1998 on which different elements of consultation with everyone from residents, to local businesses, to bus operators, to cyclists, to regular users etc., have taken place, culminating with a large newspaper notice advising everyone of the agreed changes and their date of implementation.

Where there are still real problems, we'll continue talking, but I'm afraid it's a sad fact that in areas like this, however much we aim to please, and consult as many people as possible, the old saying remains good: "You can't please everybody all of the time." You'd think as politicians we'd know that by now, wouldn't you?

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