The Nifty 250: News of the day in so many words

MERSEYSIDE FIRE AUTHORITY IS TO AXE 80 posts in a bid to save a £5m deficit. The Fire Authority passed the proposals at a meeting on Thursday as it tries to meet a £5m budget deficit it says is caused by lower Government grants. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has condemned the plans, saying there is already a "chronic shortage of staff". The cuts would be made to the fire authority in the next three years.

A WIRRAL COUNCILLOR HAS BEEN FOUND dead at a house in Moreton. Police were called to the property in Bradgate Close, on Thursday morning after a friend of Suzanne Moseley, the Conservative councillor for the Moreton West and Saughall Massie ward discovered her body. Police are treating the death as “not suspicious”.

THE LIVERPOOL-KIRKBY MERSEYTRAM SCHEME is back on track after being abandoned. Yesterday, transport authority Merseytravel approved a report into the £400m-plus Line One from Liverpool to Kirkby. The plans will now be sent to the city region’s super-cabinet for approval next month, with the hope unified Merseyside business case will be presented to the Department for Transport for funding.

LIVERPOOL HAS ENTERED THE “PREMIER LEAGUE” of university education. The city has become just one of four in the UK alongside Birmingham, Manchester and London, to boast three “fully fledged” universities which award all their own degrees. City leaders said the development was proof Liverpool’s higher education provision was world class.