I WOULD just like to make an appeal to the makers of the next Bond film – please come to Wirral!

I was interested to read your story about Marc Gee filming his next film here and pretending it's all in America.

We are being used more and more for all the blockbusters, from Harry Potter to Jack Ryan. It might only end up as couple of minutes on screen but it's brilliant for us to see our homeplace being used in this way.

So far it all seems to have been based around the Birkenhead tunnel but the possibilities are endless.

Imagine our own Daniel Craig strolling down Market Street, with Hoylake doubling for the village where the latest enemy of MI6 is hiding and plotting.

Thurstaston's red rocks would be perfect as Mars or another alien landscape in a sci-fi film. And Seacombe or Rock Ferry would be just right for Mike Leigh and one of his gritty improvised dramas.

Wirral council should be doing more to encourage filmmakers to come here. Why should Liverpool have all the fun?

FILM FAN

Oxton

Hit a milestone

LAST year the generous people of Wirral wrapped, packed and donated 11,283 shoe boxes to the Operation Christmas Child (OCC) appeal.

These boxes contributed to a grand total of 94 million boxes that have been delivered to needy children in over 100 countries since the charity started 22 years ago.

This year we hope to achieve a remarkable milestone – the delivery of the 100 millionth gift-filled shoebox to a child. From humble beginnings in Wrexham OCC is now the largest children’s Christmas charity in the world.

Shoeboxes make a difference to the lives of children. These children may be orphaned, diseased, homeless, traumatised by war and/or living in poverty – they are the last, the least and the lost.

A shoebox filled with gifts can make an enormous difference to the child who receives it – each box brings joy and each box brings the love of the person who packed it. The shoebox itself will not solve the material problems that the child endures but it brings hope to the child and to others in the community.

We would like to thank Peel Holdings for once again generously being part of our community by providing warehouse units for us to use to check the boxes.

If you want to know more please contact our Area Coordinator, Margaret on 07506407272. You can also leave a comment or question on our “Wirral OCC” Facebook page.

We are always happy to answer questions and we have trained CRB-checked speakers who are more than happy to speak to groups, small or large, about OCC. Please get in touch!

Patricia Hardman

On behalf of the Wirral OCC volunteers

Charity concern

REGARDING Wirral RSPCA and S.Smith’s letter this week, (October 31), I do believe the vast majority of the public are animal lovers, both nationwide and in Wirral, but I feel the latter are tiring of reading the same hard-luck story at such regular intervals about lack of Funds and the possible closure of the Animal Centre.

Anyone who reads the Financial Report for 2011 on Wirral RSPCA’s Website, will see that S Smith’s “struggling animal charity” (quote) still has over a million pounds in its funds, so why are we being told in this week’s article featuring Simon Weston, that there is only half a year’s funding left? Apparently, it costs £30,000 a month to run the centre – I wonder what percentage of that money is actually spent on the centre animals and their needs and what percentage makes up the salaries of the branch staff - and is Mr Weston himself going to be paid for sitting in his kennel all week doing nothing?

The local RSPCA branches are supposed to be self-funding but if Wirral branch does become financially unviable at some time in the future are the parent organisation in the south, (themselves sitting on millions of pounds of public donations) going to stand by and watch one of their animal centres close? If so, maybe we should all be asking ourselves if the RSPCA is a charity we even want to support at all.

Name Supplied