Further to the news that the proposed HVDC cable could come ashore at a landfall site in Meols, energy company SP Transmission announced in July that the preferred landfall location is at Leasowe.

In a news item on their website, SP Transmission said: “At our information event in February we presented two possible landfall locations for the cable to come ashore on the North Wirral coast: Dove Point (Meols) and Leasowe. These options have now been considered in detail and a landfall at Leasowe has been identified as the preferred option. The attached fact sheet describes how this decision was reached.”

The fact sheet detailing the decision process is available in pdf format.

Expect long delays and tailbacks this week as National Grid repair a gas leak in Meols.

Temporary traffic lights are now being used on Birkenhead Road between Station Approach and Fornalls Green Lane. Expect disruption, especially at peak travel times in the morning and evenings.

Meols is being considered as the “landfall” location for a subsea high voltage direct current power cable and local residents are concerned that the cable is too close to residential property.

Power company National Grid are proposing the laying of a high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable from Scotland to a power station Connah’s Quay, north Wales. The HVDC cable will be under the sea until it reaches land, when it is then laid underground across Wirral. The cabling technology is new and such there is no past-usage safety history available. Full information about the proposals are available on this official website.

The location at which the HVDC cable reaches land is termed the landfall location and there are currently two preferred locations along the Wirral coastline. The location that has possibly received most publicity on regional TV and news is at the car park at Leasowe, near the lighthouse. Moreton & Leasowe Conservative Councillor Ian Lewis has outlined his concern about Leasowe being the landfall location on his blog.

The other location is at the end of Meols Parade in Meols. A suggested landfall location is at Meols slipway where the HVDC cable would run underground between the last house on Meols Parade (no. 298) and the Hoylake Coastguard building (see map – click for larger). The cable would then run under fields behind properties on Bennets Lane, where an inspection building will also be built, and then subsequently across Wirral. Local residents say that they met with and have been assured by National Grid experts that the technology is harmless and that a static, electro-magnetic field emitted by the HVDC cable is safe.

Meols residents Deana and Dave Kay who live next to the landfall location on Meols Parade believe that there are other options for the  HVDC cable route which avoid passing closely to residential properties,  They believe that without enough objection and registered concern from Meols residents the chosen landfall location for the HVDC cable will be very close to Meols as it is an easier and cheaper solution for Scottish Power than Leasowe.

If you want to register your objections or concerns about Meols being the landfall location before the public consultation ends at the end of March you can:

1. Use the official contact details page on the Western HVDC website – all forms of contact (letters, phone calls, web forms, emails are counted)
2. Complete this petition campaigning against the cable being located within 100m of residential properties
3. Contact Deanna Kay directly via email at mail@deanakay.co.uk

Please leave any potential comments or questions you might have on this feedback page as that way they can be properly answered and recorded by National Grid.

Many thanks to Ian Powers for sending in this detailed article about the sewage outfalls near Meols:

If you walk along the sea wall from Meols slipway to Moreton, you might notice that there is a kink half way along the route. As well as defending us from the sea, the sea wall was also used as a defence from potential invaders during WWII.  Positioned on the kink was a large concrete pill box which has now vanished.

This area was also the scene of a major civil works project, and those works were the subject of very heated discussion. A lot of seaside towns were seeing population growth, and they wanted to dispose of the increased sewage in the sea. There was much discussion both locally and in Parliament throughout the 1960s. During one YMCA Pantomime, our resident dame Bill Stanley composed a parody on Eartha Kit’s “Old Fashioned Millionaire” where he sang “I’d build a huge Atomic Sewage Scheme” during civic night when Hoylake Councillors attended the show.

I believe Hoylake originally had a number of sewage outfalls, including the Dovepoint Road outfall and one at this location called Crawford’s sewer.

To dispose of the increased sewage, the North Wirral Sewage scheme was created, and in 1971 a 900mm steel pipe encased in concrete was assembled on the grass at this point. At high tide a tug pulled the pipe out to sea over Spencer’s Spit whilst welders attached length after length of pipe together. When the pipe was about a mile and a half in length, it was sunk to the sea bed and buried with jets of water. The striped post in the photographs marks the sewer, and you can see a disturbance in the water of the gulley as it goes over the concrete protection.

I am not sure what happens to the sewage today, but I think the effluent was screened before entering the pipe and there was a macerator at the far end. The sailing club knew where the far end was, and they tried not to capsize anywhere near that point!

The capacity of the pipe was about 4.5 million gallons a day, and the Atomic Sewage Scheme parody nearly became true when Capenhurst applied to dispose of low level waste down the pipe.

Hoylake cine club used to hold an annual competition for amateur movie
makers, and I remember one winning entry was a film about the whole project called “Outfall”. I wonder if a copy of this film still exists?

Every Thursday at St Johns Church there’s a coffee morning at the church centre from 10am til 12pm. Along with a warm welcome, tea, coffee, biscuits and sometimes bacon sandwiches are served. Once a month the Community Support Officers (from Hoylake Police station) have a table where you can talk to them and voice any concerns/ideas.

The now-removed scaffolding was there whilst the gutters were repaired late last year. St Johns has also had a new heating system installed over the last few months.

Did you know that the Great Meols Bowls Club has a website? Well it does and you visit it right here.

Situated in School Lane opposite Meols Park, the well maintained bowling green has proved to be popular for many years. Older Meols residents will recall that on the other side of the much-improved club house there used to be a few lawn tennis courts. I can even remember buying the odd ticket myself from the lady in the ticket office back in the late 70′s