Birkenhead YMCA and Merseyside Police have formed a unique partnership which it is hoped will help both organisations reach out to local young people.

Officers based at the Laird Street station have undertaken a number of initiatives in the last few years and Nigel Hughes CEO of Birkenhead YMCA decided to offer their 65 foot narrow-boat "Potential", for Officers to take young people onto the waterways.

On 19th and 20th April, four officers – Neil Town, Paul Grant, Louise Holbrook and Paul Farnworth took part in a two day intensive Royal Yachting Association Inland Waterways Helmsman course on the Trent and Mersey Canal. The police officers all successfully navigated the boat through a variety of obstacles ranging from winding congested waterways to aqueducts, double and single locks and tunnels to pass their courses with distinctions!

The plan now is for the police to take small groups of young people out on the boat to further extend their work with young people and allow them to access the remarkable and beautiful inland waterways of Cheshire during school holidays.

On the 26th April 2011 Neil Town along with two PCSO's also based at Laird Street, used the Birkenhead YMCA mini-bus to assist Kathy Shaw with taking ten children from the Bidston and St James ward to Rampworx in Aintree.

PC Neil Town said "This trip benefitted all the children, who came from different parts of the area and had differing backgrounds - their faces when they saw the facilities was priceless. Their behaviour was exemplary and they were a credit to themselves and the area."