BIRKENHEAD has the most improved town centre - that's the view from Liverpool by a man who should know, Chris Farrow, Chief Executive of Merseyside Development Corporation.

Mr Farrow was in town to attend the AGM of Wirral Methodist Housing Association, in the new International Business and Management, Conway Park, Birkenhead, to tell of MDC's 16 years of rejuvenation and to hear how homes are to be created in the Hamilton Quarter

En route, he exclusively hinted of an imminent announcement of a new business retail park on waste land near the town centre, at Green Lane.

Mr Farrow has just signed a deal with Mersey Docks for a Ro Ro Ferry at 12 Quays, Birkenhead, and expects work to start any day now on a multi-million pound high tech' campus at 12 Quays.

He also said pan factory, Meyer UK, Morpeth Wharf, 12 Quays, is to double the size of its warehousing to handle extra work, following acquistion of the Prestige Kitchenware Group.

A factory unit is also to be built, by another firm, on the site of the former Tranmere tannery, New Chester Road.

"With all the other improvements in Birkenhead we have the most improved town centre in the North West," said Mr Farrow.

Merseytravel's showpiece bus station at Claughton Road has just won a top design award from the Royal Institute of British Architects, while work on the new Conway Park railway station nearby is progressing, meaning a temporary timetable comes in from this weekend.

Family retailers Wilkinson opens a new store in the new Europa Centre, Birkenhead, on October 24. And, 91 years after the closure of the famous Della Robbia Potteries, Iain and Joan Ogilvie have opened an arts and craft gallery in the same Listed building. Blackthorn Galleries are just off Hamilton Square, on the corner of Price Street.

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