THE ginger chipmunk has told the fireman to get his act together! Well, I had to get your attention somehow, when my subject is the rather dry but very important issue of the Liverpool City Region.

The ginger chipmunk is the name that’s been given to the ever enthusiastic Communities Secretary Hazel Blears. The fireman is our very own Warren Bradley, who continues to ply his trade with hoses and ladders while leading Liverpool Council.

The two met up at Downing Street last week to sign multi-area agreements which underpin the new City Region.

There are now ten of these across the country. They represent the Government’s latest way of devolving power in England, following the collapse of the Regional Assembly project.

The idea is for the six councils on Merseyside to work together, instead of separately, not only on cross-border projects like the Ocean Gateway, but on two of the sub-region’s greatest economic weaknesses, unemployment and skills.

With cross-boundary working and less control from Whitehall, the aim is to get more youngsters off job seeker’s allowance. With more employer involvement, it’s hoped to get 77,000 more people trained to NVQ Level 2 and 54,000 to Level 3. On employment, the aim is to get Incapacity Benefit claimants below 100,000.

There’s only one problem with these fine aspirations. We are in the middle of a vicious recession with thousands of jobs being lost every day.

That may have been what Cllr Bradley had in mind when he reportedly told Ms Blears 40% of the people of North Liverpool were "economically inactive" and that would take time to sort out.

The permanently perky Hazel rejoined that he was being unambitious, and told Cllr Bradley that she would accept no excuses!

Another objective of this city region is to stop the feuding between Merseyside councils that has been so damaging in the past. To avoid being carried away by the euphoria of the Downing Street signing ceremony, I decided to pop in once again at the Kirkby Public Inquiry. Yes, the examination of the Tesco/Everton scheme is still going strong, a bit like one of those never-ending court cases in Dickens’s novels.

Under examination was a witness for Liverpool City Council which is trying to stop what their new sub-regional partner, Knowsley, regard as a vital development in their neck of the woods.

Let’s hope this doesn’t undermine efforts to work together in the wider interests of Liverpool City Region.

There are positive signs in this direction. The next stage of the city region programme is to move from voluntary to legal agreements which would bring even more powers from central government.

It had been presumed that Greater Manchester City Region, which has been operating since last summer, would be a hot favourite for this.

Knowsley is chairing the new Liverpool City Region and the authority’s Chief Executive, Sheena Ramsey, has indicated they are hoping the new body will be a candidate for extra powers, too.