Christmas festive opening hours for key services

23 December 2022

Wirral Council has confirmed details of festive opening hours for key services.

Some council areas will shut down, with others offering limited opening hours, over the festive period meaning that some services will be unavailable at that time.

Many services can still be requested through the council website, but may not receive attention until 3 January 2023.

Details of opening hours for various attractions, services and more are detailed below:

Adult social services

Adult Social Care operates through the Christmas period. If you require support or have an urgent need relating to Adult Social Care in Wirral between 9am and 5pm on 28, 29 or 30 December, please contact the Central Advice and Duty Team on 0151 514 2222 and press option 3. If you are calling after 5pm, or on any of the days not listed above, and if your enquiry is urgent, please contact the Emergency Duty Team on 0151 677 6557.

Bin collections

After discussions that continued throughout the Christmas holiday period between Biffa and the council, we were informed on Wednesday 28 December, that an agreement has been reached between Biffa and their workforce and planned industrial action has now been called off. 

Biffa employees have resumed work from Wednesday 28 December.

Inevitably, due to the previous week of industrial action between 5 and 11 December, some prevailing winter weather conditions during December and the Christmas bank holidays, it will take more time for the crews to reach a point where kerbside waste collections will return fully to their regular schedule.

Additional crews will be working to collect green bins from all roads that were still outstanding even after last week’s ‘catch-up’ operation. Biffa has a list of those streets affected.

Residents whose green bin was not collected week commencing 12 December or week commencing 19 December put your bin out for collections and crews will aim to collect them 28-30 December.
Normal, scheduled collections are now taking place, though they may be later than usual due to catch up. Please put your bin out for collection on your scheduled day and crews will empty them as soon as possible.

Street cleansing and alleyway cleansing is also resuming, with priority being given to emptying litter bins and street cleansing in high footfall areas.

Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority have advised that Household Waste Recycling Centres will be open as usual from 8am to 5pm, only closing Christmas day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Birkenhead Market

Birkenhead market will be open 9am to 5pm on 24 December. The market will be closed on 25 December, reopening on 28 December from 9am to 5pm. The market will then close again on 1 January, reopening on 3 January from 9am to 5pm.

Children's Centres

Bromborough Children’s Centre, Rock Ferry Children’s Centre and Brassey Gardens Children’s Centre will close on Friday 23 December and re-open on Tuesday 3 January.

Seacombe Children’s Centre will also close on Friday 23 December, reopening from Wednesday 28 December to Friday 30 December, 9am to 5pm. Seacombe Children’s Centre will then close again until reopening on Tuesday 3 January.

Children's Services

If you’re worried about a child over Christmas and New Year, call the Integrated Front Door on 0151 606 2008 and select option 2, open 9am to 5pm excluding weekends and bank holidays. Out of hours, you can call the Emergency Duty Team on 0151 677 6557. If a child, or anyone else, is at risk of immediate harm, dial 999.

Council Tax and Housing Benefit support

The council’s general telephone services, including Council Tax and benefits support, will be closed from 5pm on Friday 23 December, reopening at 9am on Tuesday 3 January 2023.

The One Stop Shop support line (0151 606 2005) will be open 10am to 4pm on 28, 29 and 30 December for support with Emergency Financial Support only.

COVID-19 vaccinations

Book or manage a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination.

You can book a vaccination appointment on the National Booking Service or you can find a local walk-in clinic on the NHS website.

Crime and safety

Report any crimes or suspicious behaviour via @MerPolCC, 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111. In an emergency always call 999.

Culture & cafés

Williamson Art Gallery and Museum remains open to the public until 4.30pm on Saturday 17 December. The Williamson will reopen at 10.30am on Wednesday 18 January 2023. The café will also reopen at this time.

Birkenhead Priory closes to the public at 4pm on Saturday 24 December 2022, and reopens 12pm Wednesday 1 February 2023.

The Floral Pavilion will operate on the following dates over the festive period:

Christmas Eve/Saturday 24 December, 9am to 5pm
Christmas Day/Sunday 25 December, CLOSED
Boxing Day/Monday 26 December, 11am until show closes
New Year’s Eve/Saturday 31 December, 9am to 5pm
New Year’s Day/Sunday 1 January, CLOSED

The Box Office will be open on the same dates as the theatre, but will operate from 10am to 4pm on 24 and 31 December, and 11.30am until the show closes on 26 December. The box office will reopen on 3 January at 10am.

The Floral Pavilion Café will operate the same opening hours as the theatre, except for opening from 10am on 24 and 26 December.

The Courtyard at Royden Park remains open until 4pm on Christmas Eve (24 December). It will reopen on New Year’s Eve (31 December) operating between 9am to 4pm, with the same opening hours on New Year’s Day (1 January).

The Box at Leasowe Leisure Centre will trial additional opening hours from Monday to Thursday, 4.30pm to 8pm until Thursday 22 December. The Box will be closed from Monday 19 December and reopen on Saturday 7 January at 9am, when their normal opening hours will resume (Saturdays and Sundays, 9am to 5pm).

Domestic abuse

Click here for details of how to access support over the festive period

Gritting and winter services

Gritting teams will be on standby 24/7 every day until the Spring, including over the festive period.

Highways and street services

Please call 0151 647 7810 to report an emergency relating to:

trees
road and pavement maintenance and repairs
road signs
traffic management
traffic signal faults
fly tipping
highway drainage and flooding
dangerous buildings and structures

Homeless and Housing

The Housing Options Team will be operating an emergency triage service only between 24 December and 4 January. In an emergency situation, where a household has nowhere safe to stay that night, they should call the Central Advice and Duty Team on 0151 514 2222. This service operates between 9am and 5pm. If your enquiry is urgent and you are calling after 5pm, or on a bank holiday, please contact the Emergency Duty Team on 0151 677 6557.

If you, or anyone you know, sees someone who is sleeping rough then time is off the essence, please do a referral through to Streetlink as soon as possible. This will ensure Wirral’s local outreach team will be able to respond and send staff to engage with the person and offer appropriate support.

Leisure

Invigor8 leisure centres, municipal golf courses and Wirral Watersports centre will be open until 3pm* on 24 December. They will be closed between Sunday 25 December and Tuesday 27 December.

They will reopen from Wednesday 28 December to Saturday 31 December with normal opening hours excepting Saturday 31 December when they will close early at 3pm*.

They will be closed on 1 and 2 January, reopening as normal from Tuesday 3 January.

*Please visit the Active Wirral website for full details and closing times.

Invigor8 leisure centres, municipal golf courses and Wirral Watersports centre will be open until 3pm* on 24 December. They will be closed between Sunday 25 December and Tuesday 27 December.

They will reopen from Wednesday 28 December to Saturday 31 December with normal opening hours excepting Saturday 31 December when they will close early at 3pm*.

They will be closed on 1 and 2 January, reopening as normal from Tuesday 3 January.

*Please visit the Active Wirral website for full details and closing times.

Libraries

Wirral’s Libraries will close for the festive period on different dates.

Libraries closing on 22 December include:

St James (at 5pm)
Seacombe (at 5pm)

Libraries closing on 23 December include:

Beechwood (at 5pm)
Eastham (at 5pm)
Moreton (at 5pm)
Upton (at 5pm)

Libraries closing on 24 December include:

Greasby (at 1pm)
Heswall (at 1pm)
Rock Ferry (at 1pm)
West Kirby (at 4pm)
Bebington Central (at 5pm)
Birkenhead Central (at 5pm)
Wallasey Central (at 5pm)

All libraries will reopen week commencing 3 January. Normal opening days/times for each library can be found on our website: wirral.gov.uk/libraries

Registrars

Wirral Register Office will be open as normal up to 24 December. It will also be open 9am to 4pm on 28, 29 and 30 December to register deaths only. Full service will resume from 3 January 2023.

Social media

The council’s social media accounts will not be routinely monitored over the festive period. You might see some key messages posted on those channels, most of which will have been pre-scheduled, but there will be no one online to reply to queries. The best place to report issues is wirral.gov.uk.

West Kirby flood wall

Works on the construction of West Kirby flood wall will pause for Christmas on Friday 23 December and restart again on Tuesday 3 January 2023.

All the pre-cast wall is in place between Riversdale Road and Dee Lane and work will resume in the New Year.

During this time, barriers protecting the work area will remain in place, but access to South Parade will be clear.

Free 2-hour short stay car parking at Marine Lake Watersports car park will be open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5.30pm until 6 January 2023.

The on-site community information hub will be closed after Wednesday 21st until 3 January 2023, open 10am to 4pm.

Wirral Infobank

The Wirral Infobank website provides lots of information about the support available in communities across Wirral, including: