AS ONE of the Hoylake Ward Councillors, I feel I must respond to Alan Stanbury's letter ("Lack of facilities is inconvenient," Globe, November 29). I am tired of hearing complaints about the lack of toilet facilities in Hoylake.

More than five years ago this Labour-dominated council voted to close nearly 10 out of 20-odd public toilets throughout Wirral. My fellow councillors for this ward, John Hale and Gerry Ellis campaigned strongly to redress this problem in so far as Hoylake and Meols are concerned. To date the council has spent more than £300,000 refurbishing the toilets opposite Dovepoint Road, Meols, with a new disabled facility. At the other end of the promenade there are public toilets in the park at the bottom of Hoyle Road.

In the centre there is an ambitious and very welcome development by an entrepreneur for a cafe off the promenade opposite Trinity Road which will have provision again for public toilets. The delay on this project must be placed at the door of English Nature, who for some obscure reason are concerned that the development of this much needed facility will affect the birds on the shore?

Mr Stanbury also complains about the expenditure on the controversial sculpture on the roundabout on Market Street. First, the cost was borne entirely by European funding and not one penny of local taxpayers money was involved. Secondly, while the "birds"' are not everybody's cup of tea, in fairness the project and the choice of subject for the sculpture was open to wide debate at many public meetings such as the Hoylake Regeneration Committee, at all of which it was open to Mr Stanbury and those sharing his opinion to attend. Finally, shame on him for carping about the money spent upgrading and modernising the shopping centres of Hoylake and West Kirby, as he argues "to impress visitors to the golf tournament". I am not a golfer, but the general consensus in the ward and echoed throughout the whole of Wirral ,is that we were host to what was arguably the best attended Open Golf Championship in the last 40 years and which has now generated enormous and exciting potential in Wirral Finally, I am confident that the residents of Hoylake and Meols are generally very satisfied with the legacy of the Open.

David Kirwan, Conservative Councillor, Hoylake, Meols and Central West Kirby