Two Faced Liverpool Museums-Will Alsop Declares.

And Mike Storey has Twelve. The disgraced ex council leader has a face for everyone...when it suits him, or his mentors Trevor and Doreen Jones who passed all the plans for the three black coffins at Mann Island.
Moving on from my questions to Will Alsop. It is clear the Development Cabal have taken another hit here. Showing up the "cosy" relationship between the North Vested Interest Development Agency and Neptune Developments.
But we must not forget that Storey was on the NWDA committee, he was also the Council leader. He was also on the board of Liverpool Vision and was a trustee of Liverpool museums.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/wayne-colquhoun-asks-will-alsop.html


Today David Bartlett take the time to tell the news where it is.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=architect-will-alsop-criticises-liverpool-s-8216-mediocre-8217-waterfront-buildings%26method=full%26objectid=26753889%26siteid=100252-name_page.html

THE ARCHITECT behind the failed Fourth Grace scheme has launched a withering attack on the buildings that are being built in its place on Liverpool’s waterfront.


Will Alsop, whose company designed the Cloud, said the buildings the city has “ended up with ... lie in the general malaise of architectural mediocrity that we find so popular with the current architectural press”.
He added: “In the end, this is all history but I do believe that Liverpool deserves much better than it got, whether it was my building or not.”
Three glazed black blocks in the Mann Island development and the new Museum of Liverpool are currently nearing completion at the city’s Pier Head where the Cloud would have been built.
Mr Alsop also hit out at the National Museums Liverpool (NML) for the organisation’s role in the collapse of the Fourth Grace, saying it had its own agenda.
He also claimed the North West Development Agency (NWDA) had pulled the plug on the project to meet a shortfall in funds for the ECHO Arena and BT Convention Centre.
The architect also claimed the city council had used its planning department as a “stalling device.”
His comments, during an online architectural webchat, have resurrected the row that erupted after his Cloud building was sensationally scrapped in July 2004.
The decision to abandon the project was made after it emerged that projected costs had risen by almost £100m.
Last night the council, the NWDA, and Neptune Developments who are building the three blocks rejected Mr Alsop’s claims. NML declined to comment.
Steven Broomhead, NWDA chief executive, said it was untrue that the scheme had been stopped because of a funding shortfall on the arena and convention project.
He said: “The public sector partners involved in the Fourth Grace – Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, National Museums Liverpool and the NWDA – jointly concluded that the project had become unviable due to increasing costs and fundamental changes from the original scheme.
“The estimated cost had risen from £228m to £324m and there was a massive increase in the residential element of the project, which focused on ‘form’ not sustainable functions.
“All this was likely to have resulted in the scheme being called in, causing lengthy delays in making progress on the site.”
He said the partners had been determined to deliver a “world-class” scheme, adding: “The new Museum of Liverpool, extension to the canal link and complementary mixed-use development will deliver a major iconic visitor destination, as well as delivering significant economic benefits to Liverpool, Merseyside and the entire region.”

Steve Parry, chief executive of Neptune Developments, said Mann Island is a development of “exceptional quality” and had won many plaudits from the Commission for the Built Environment (CABE), English Heritage, and commentators like Stephen Bayley.
He said: “The appeal of the development to investment institutions, and commercial and residential occupiers is undoubtedly connected to the originality of a design.
“Will Alsop is renowned for his colourful and highly individual opinions.
“I think Will should actually come up and see the buildings before judging them.
“As he knows only too well, two dimensional images rarely do justice to visionary architecture.”
A council spokesman said its planning department had raised legitimate concerns regarding the Cloud’s design.
He said: “This was not a stalling device nor was it the reason the project did not happen.
“That was because Šthe estimated cost of the scheme spiralled to nearly £100m more than the original figure and that the scheme’s character changed fundamentally from what was originally envisaged.
“This included a proposed massive increase in the residential element of the scheme – doubling the original number of apartments to 700, and 200 apartments in the Canning Dock.”

The Cabal defend English Heritage...well http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/05/sir-neil-cossons.html who was also a trustee of Liverpool Museums. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/04/who-polices-heritage-police.html
And CABE http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/cabe-who-funds-them.html

Bryan Gray the Chairman of the NWDA was also a trustee of NML.

They are All Shysters together as far as I am concerned, they who destroyed Manchester Docks http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/manchester-docks-obliterated.html and who is Stephen Bayley anyhow to comment on a city he left decades ago.

Wayne Colquhoun Asks Will Alsop Questions About The Ill Fated Fourth Grace.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to ask Will Alsop some direct questions a few years after he was unceremoniously dumped from the Fourth Grace(sic) Scheme that he had put so much into, in fact he may have even staked his company on the schemes go-ahead. I did not wish to wind him up or get him annoyed but it seems, from his reply that the whole World Heritage Blight fiasco is still an open wound with him.

It was an open question and answer session organised by Building Design Magazine. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/  This if we remember is the influential architectural publication that awarded Liverpools Terminal Ferry Building the 2009 Carbuncle Cup award.

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.aspx?storyCode=5001534

Wayne Colquhoun :
Your past comments about Liverpool when you were promoting the idea for a Fourth Grace said “Liverpool aint easy” could you elaborate
Monday June 28, 2010 3:37

William Alsop: I never floated ideas for the Fourth Grace, it was a competition which was limited to four architects of which I was one. I made a detailed presentation and was fortunate enough to win on the basis that the North West development agency would have to put in £70million of public money otherwise they should choose one of my competitors. They agreed to do this and subsequently ringfenced the £70million. I then continued on detailed work until the project was cancelled because they had to raid the £70million to meet a shortfall of funds on the King's Dock project. In my opinion Liverpool had used their planning department as a stalling device.

Monday June 28, 2010 3:41

Wayne Colquhoun : ] Indeed I think you were taken advantage of by the Liverpool city council in order to put the idea to develop the World Heritage Site, which should not have been touched. I did not like your scheme but the public in general are agreed that they would have prefered your Cloud.

Monday June 28, 2010 3:48


William Alsop: I agree up to a point. I think the site required a building, which was as brave as the three existing graces. I was in Liverpool a lot at the time in question where I got nothing other than support from the good people of Liverpool. I feel that the Liverpool museums who were stakeholders in the project always had their own agenda and were not helpful. Indeed, you could say perhaps even two faced. In the end, this is all history but I do believe that Liverpool deserves much better than it got whether it was my building or not. What they have ended up with lies in the general malaise of architectural mediocrity that we find so popular with the current architectural press. I am sorry you didn't like my proposal but in spite of this, I am sure you are a very nice man.

Monday June 28, 2010 3:53

Wayne Colquhoun : ] Thanks for your honesty.

Monday June 28, 2010 3:59


This is of course a brief exchange but it tells such a lot. He calls Liverpool Museums two faced. I think myself, they are five faced.
I could have told him that and with Mike Storey as council leader, later to resign in disgrace, and on the NWDA committee and a trustee of Liverpool Museums at the time anything else could have hardly have been expected.
I am understating when I say I didn’t like the idea, I hated it. It was from Cloud Cuckoo-land, but I know he was used by the Council Spivs to develop the idea to develop a world heritage site. Very Cosy the way Neptune Developments stayed there though.

I think the cloud was cuckoo land and would have been a Disgrace never mind a Fourth Grace(sic). But what we have ended up with, The Fifth Grace, by his help and throwing his weight behind the Fourth, is World Heritage Vandalism.

This is a building he designed called The Public, In West Bromich, that closed before it had opened.
 It has an uncanny resemblence to The Black Coffins at Mann Island that he proclaims are "A malaise of architectural mediocrity".






 http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2006/jun/25/architecture

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2008/jun/18/public

Liverpool's Press and the Culcha Of Capital.

After the infantile flurry of 2008. Liverpool celebrating being nominated European Capital of Culcha. Some said the only the culture in Liverpool was in a yoghurt in a fridge in the Iceland in Old Swan. I disagree we have loads of Culcha.....for spin and deceit. 2008 was the year that the Manchester Docks, which had remained intact, that predated the Albert Dock by 60 years was bulldozed and buried beneath a new museum which is destined to be the new Wacky Warehouse on sea. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/loyd-grossman-lectures-us-on-heritage.html

This was the year that the world heritage site was decimated by the white coffin museum and work started on the three black slugs on Mann Island. We won the Carbuncle Cup for a new Terminal Ferry Building. Some huge contracts were awarded without scrutiny by a local press, who were jumping up and down like Zebbedi on the Magic Gravy Train Roundabout, shouting how wonderful everything was………without scrutinizing. This was the year that the carbunclisation of some of our cherished landmarks took place while those at Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors idly stood by and watched. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-novatel-tragic-addition-to.html

How can you have a cultured city that is run by Spivs Cheats and Liars? http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/trevor-jone-steps-down-good-riddance.html http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Mike%20Storey  Today the informative and entertaining Seven Streets make the point we have been banging on about for years. http://www.sevenstreets.com/filter/no-cultural-policy-to-speak-of/  It backs it up with this.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a923227015~db=all~jumptype=rss

And now we have Uncle Joe Anderson running the show.
And today a Council Chief is suspended http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=liverpool-council-director-peter-cosgrove-suspended%26method=full%26objectid=26738862%26siteid=100252-name_page.html  for what everyone in Liverpool knew about.

Except the lazy bastards who are in hock to Liverpool’s PR companies at Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors who did nothing about it while their employees and friends and relations, moonlighted for glossy magazines, and wrote pathetic articles, such as where to get the best cocktail drink, in which new boutique hotel, and rubbish like that.
If Private Eye can keep an eye on the Culture free zone why cant the local press. See pic above. Now they write about a threat to the Lyceum http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/28/liverpool-architectural-gem-the-lyceum-is-up-for-sale-at-4-25m-guide-price-92534-26738907/ Which is a real threat. Built between 1800 and 1802 and designed by Thomas Harrison, the Lyceum housed the UK’s first subscription library. It had a newsroom and a coffee room and is reportedly where Liverpool gentlemen first heard news of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo.

The building narrowly escaped the wrecking ball in the 1970s, when Liverpool City Council gave the go-ahead for it to be demolished.
Developers claimed they needed the site for an extension to Central Station.
But in 1979, a few short months after Margaret Thatcher had swept to power, the then secretary of state for the environment, Michael Heseltine, announced the Government was going to buy it and fund its restoration.
Heritage campaigner Florence Gersten, who was instrumental in the campaign to save the Lyceum in 1979, is pessimistic about what could now happened to the building.

She said: “If it stays in commercial hands, I’m afraid for its future. I don’t think that’s the right use for it.
“It’s not a huge building. What are they going to do with it that’s going to compensate that sort of money?
“It’s a building that the council should have taken responsibility for. But they didn’t – they supported people’s wish to demolish it.”
She was quoted by Piloti in Private Eye see pic

Did they, the local press write about it being carbunclised? no, just how wonderful it was from some their developer mates perspective.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/now-lyceum-of-bold-street-is-to-gets.html  No they, the local press, are all on the same old magic roundabout swilling in the same bucket. To think while editor Mark Thomas has been in his last post what we have lost. Lets start with the world heritage site.

Dale Street Blues-Stinky Ink Finally Leaves The Office.

You could say better late than never. Shock Horror, a bit of truth. David finally cleans his gigs and starts telling it like it is.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/peel-holdings-liverpeel-its-happening.html  Has someone let him out of the office? Has he been told he can tell the story the way it is for once? Is he rebelling against his employers the Daily Council at Oldham Hall Street. Well he told half the story on his blog, he didnt go round the corner to 6 Sir Thomas Street.
Bartlett admitted once that when he first came to Liverpool, despite skitting Luciana Berger for it, he didnt know who Bill Shankly was.  http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/06/what-is-the-future-for-liverpo.html The ever forgetful "Stinky Ink" Bartlett forgets last week he was telling all his fodder that Liverpool was to inspire Paris, Ha! http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/06/bienvenue-a-liverpool---french.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiverpoolDailyPost-DaleStreetBlues+%28Liverpool+Daily+Post+-+Dale+Street+Blues%29 This week its how crap the city is.

He seems to have taken our advice and gone to Specsavers http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/dave-bartlett-blues-he-should-have-gone.html

Maybe he is finally catching up http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/05/dale-street-another-one-bites-dust.html Maybe he should have taken Bernie Turnip with him http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/lets-take-sentimental-journey-with.html

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpools-heritage-at-risk-royal.html or paid attention to the Royal Insurance. All in all he has to take a long hard look, he has and stop bouncing around ignoring all the facts and he may get a bit more respect. In the words of a well known local commentator that Bartlett said was too critical of him after he had a go at him on his own blog. Ronnie replied.
Ronnie de Ramper said:

Sure, I can jump up and down like Zebedee. I can skip along with Pollyanna. I can even bleat in chorus with sheep if given good reason. But why would I want to suspend my critical faculties just because I was fed something by the Press? Travel that road and you'll believe the Shanghai Expo was a colossal triumph; that Liverpool is the creative centre of the universe; and every journalist simply tells it like it is. No need for razor blades. Use your wits instead.

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/search?q=david+bartlett Or check out Correspondents blog. Mr Bartlett took his blog off his recomended section like a spoilt little child because he dared to critisize him.

We want more truth not propoganda for Peel Holdings the Council and the North Vested Interest Development Agency oh and his editor Frank McKenna http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/frank-mckenna-unofficial-editor-of.html

Frank McKenna Suckles At The Breast of Joe Anderson.

What a cosy relationship this has started out, to be, as Joe Anderson speaking at a Downtown Liverpool in Business Event apears to give the green light to anyone who wants to build any old glass shoebox. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/dlib-in-skip.html  Stating how easy it would be for its members to obtain access to a planning manager, within a week in fact.
Is Joe Anderson just a chubby version of Warren Bradley. And are the same mistakes about to be made. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/david-wade-smith-not-right-choice-as.html  In fact Joe Anderson has stood by idly and watched while the world heritage site was destroyed even taking an active part in it as a committee member on Liverpool Vision and numerous other quangos.
I am reliably informed that Nigel Lee is all over him like a rash, phoning him up and getting him on his side.
It looks like this is working. Despite mistakes for rushing development Uncle Joe says at the new Hilton Hotel on Chavasse Lawn. “This council is dogged by processes.”

He said businesses should expect to see a planning officer within one week of a pre-planning application, rather than six or seven weeks, and cited an example of an unnamed company bringing 120 jobs to the city as a result of streamlining. He said a sort of “star chamber” would be set up to oversee council expenditure, which was already £9m over budget in the first three months of the financial year.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/22/liverpool-city-council-leader-joe-anderson-reassures-business-leaders-92534-26697224/

Yes Uncle Joe the public should expect proper scrutiny not a corrupted system stacked in favour of any old shady developer.
Joe Anderson it has been said make Warren Bradley look like a scholar and I have to say here he shows how easy it is to manipulate him.
I am aware of massive donations by local businessmen to the labour party before the election. Frank is of course a old hand at manipulation and was to be seen in the background in Skelmersdale when Gordon Brown visited. Because Downtown, are editing the Trinity “Smoking” Mirror group http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/frank-mckenna-unofficial-editor-of.html  all this will not be told. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-frank-mckenna-really-editing.html I wrote to Uncle Joe requesting he considers the need for a heritage bureau that Warren Bradley insisted was not necessary. He said he would consider it.
But now it seems that it is more than obvious where his loyalties lie.
To those who are able to make him understand the need to ravish what we have left of the historic fabric without compromise while in his friend and Ally, Louise Ellman, the Dame of Derelictions constituency http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpools-baltic-triangle-more-than.html  is still in parts like a war zone 30 years after the riots.
 Joe Anderson after all was the councillor here in the centre and kept his gob shut when world heritage disaster unfolded itself. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/liverpools-world-heritage-site-memory.html



Meanwhile
NINE Liverpool day centres are to close as part of the biggest shake-up in social services the city has seen in the past 60 years. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/22/nine-liverpool-day-centres-to-close-in-social-care-revolution-92534-26697620/


Well done Uncle Joe.
New Labour.

Liverpool Library-To sell off 30,000 Books-Now Thats Liverpool Culcha, For Yerr!!

CENTRAL LIBRARY to become an internet cafe.


Well they have ruined the museum in William Brown Street part of the World Heritage Site, turning it into the Wacky Warehouse so why not destroy the Central Library and make it look like an Asda supermarket. It makes sense. Every little helps. It seems everything that this council, in my opinion, run by spivs, does, is a way of ruining the heritage of the city. Of homogonising it, turning it, into the same as everywhere else. Even its unique areas, its world heritage site. Its no good claiming that it is updating an existing structure, this does not look good, it looks very bad indeed. Not only have they got rid of all wagon loads of books from the library, selling off valuable first edittions to book dealers at knock down prices, they will now set about destroying the fabric of the structure, and the whole building. It will happen, with these proposals. Does no-one understand what heritage is in this city is, and how you merge old with new to create a sense of place and history.
 I wrote this as a post last October. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-central-library-violation.html Now it transpires the Liverpool Library is to ebay 30,000 titles patiently collected for over a century. Not content with giving the library to a private company The Fib-Dems have now set all the conditions to have a Internet Cafe, in what once was the world renowned Central Library. What a disgrace. Running the sell off will be the most uncultured set of characters no doubt, who dont understand the need to keep books. The google generation, yes we all use it, but there is no greater pleasure than finding a good book with fantastic illustratios.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-central-library-is-to-be.html I wrote further about the threats. The new Library in artists impression looks more like an Asda. Every little hurts.
So is Joe Anderson is now a chubby version of Warren Bradley? When will he save our culture.
Ben Scofield reports.
LIVERPOOL'S refurbished Central Library will have 30,000 fewer books than before its £50m re-fit.

The library was due to close this month for two years, during which it is going to be overhauled inside.
But, to free up space, Liverpool City Council are holding a fire sale for thousands of books, many of which are being sold for as little as £1. Any un-sold books are going to be given to a "social business", which will try to sell them online. Any it cannot sell will be given away to charity shops, schools and hospitals. The council said the 30,000 titles being ditched are rarely borrowed and are no longer significant.
It said it needs the space previously taken up by the volumes to display the library's special collections and the city's archives.
Liverpool Records Office will be expanded to provide for 20 more years’ worth of documents. The restored library is set to re-open in 2012. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/21/liverpool-central-library-to-sell-off-books-92534-26691563/

Liverpool to Inspire Paris- Sarkozy Says So. Or Is It Just more Bull.

No, David "Stinky Ink" Bartlett made the story up to fit in with filling empty pages at the Daily Ghost with crap stuff that is a laughing stock to journalism.  You have to question the education of those at Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors in Oldham Hall Street. In fact so pathetic is todays chip paper, today,that you have to say no wonder they are in such a bad state. The opposite to what he has, well if you could call it, written, applies.
UNESCO said that Liverpool should take inspiration from Paris in the way they have built all their modern buildings in the La Defense district away from the world heritage site.  Mark Waddington is just as thick http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/17/french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-looks-to-liverpool-to-inspire-regeneration-of-paris-92534-26669233/  Even though he was talking about regeneration in LaHavre, that I have visited 60 times, he twists it round to suit a pathetic editorial stance that only serves the people by decieving them.
New council leader Joe Anderson says: "If ever proof were needed that Liverpool is one of the great cities of the world, this report is it."You don't just have to take his word for it, ask the French.
Someone said Joe Anderson make Warren Bradley look educated.
First it was Prince Charles http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/warren-bradley-you-are-not-very-clever.html telling Warren Bradley how great it is.as if. An aquanitance gave stinky ink Bartlett a letter to the contrary from Charles's office, and he would not print any of it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/concourse-house-one-step-forward-and.html What about this carbuncle.
Oh and this one http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.html
 Imagine if they built three black coffins over the Eifel Tower. This is what Stinky Ink Bartlett writes on his blog.
 http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/06/bienvenue-a-liverpool---french.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiverpoolDailyPost-DaleStreetBlues+%28Liverpool+Daily+Post+-+Dale+Street+Blues%29 Pathetic.

I think if the french President had understood what we have done to the world heritage site he would not have said a word.

Liverpool's World Heritage Site-The Memory.

Memories are made of this. How can you be allowed to build over a World Heritage Site with UNESCO standing by and watching? Click on the photo to enlarge, and enrage. If you go down there today it is a much differing picture. How did the English Heretics advise for this?. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/05/sir-neil-cossons.html Is it because they were corrupted? http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/04/who-polices-heritage-police.html

 Because Unesco are funded by the DCMS and 15% of their funding comes from the UK permanent delegation to UNESCO. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/loyd-grossman-lectures-us-on-heritage.html Just take a look at what it used to look like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLYXCI466xs&feature=related

Joe Anderson to Save Liverpools Heritage............. with 700K

Yes, we have heard it all before. How Liverpool will be saved. The Fib-Dems told us so and then created Warrens War Zones. They even had a Historic environment champion Bernie Turner who took over from The Dame of Disaster Doreen Jones http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/05/liverpools-liberal-democrats-destroyed.html who passed plan after plan that destroyed the World Heritage Site. 47 listed buildings destroyed. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Bernie%20Turner
So with a price of 17 million being foolishly quoted to save St James Church http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/st-james-church-liverpools-heritage-at.html we can tell this is another load of hot air. The new labour administration may mean well and we have to give them a chance, but they dont appear to be able to realise the scale of the problems that lie ahead.
Liverpool has had 10 buildings on the English Heretic At Risk Register for decades. While we have been binge building all around them, slowly they decay. St Andrews Church. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/st-andrews-church-rodney-st-liverpools.html 
Oh and there is the Wellington Rooms. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/wellington-rooms-liverpools-buildings.html

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/15/liverpool-council-to-spend-700-000-to-save-listed-buildings-at-risk-92534-26652271/
Liverpool council to spend £700,000 to save listed buildings at risk

Jun 15 2010 by Marc Waddington, Liverpool Daily Post
CITY leaders plan to spend more than £700,000 saving “at risk” listed buildings in Liverpool.

They hope to be able to keep money they would otherwise have to pay back to regional development bosses – who give the grant for the works – in order to continue the programme of repairs.

A number of sites across the city stand to benefit from the move. So far, more than £1.7m has been spent on projects since the “Buildings At Risk” project began in 2001.

In February last year, the council clawed back £277,535 it spent on repairing the Welsh Presbyterian Church on Princes Road. Rather then pay the cash back to the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), the council hopes to invest it in other works in the city. Cllr Malcolm Kennedy, cabinet member for regeneration and transport, said: “Owners of buildings where we have carried out work always knew this money would have to be repaid. We have negotiated a deal with the NWDA that we can use this money to safeguard other historic buildings. This is a very sensible way of recycling money which the council is receiving and will benefit the city’s heritage.”

Sites which could potentially benefit from the retained money include St Andrew’s Church in Queens Drive (£9,750), the £6.6m restoration of the Florence Institute in Dingle (£150,000), and St Cyprian’s Church in Edge Lane (£50,000). Also, the report which went before the council’s cabinet on Friday, stated: “The council has received a verbal agreement for repayment of £125,000 in respect of statutory action taken at Seel Street, in the Ropewalks area.”

The council expects to receive £25,000 this year and £100,000 during the next financial year towards other work. The report adds that “further recovery of funding is at this time uncertain, although a further £301,000 is being pursued” in relation to funds the council has already spent on repair works in Shaw Street, in Everton, Duke Street, in the city, and Christ Church, in Kensington.

A spokesman for the NWDA said: “The funding agreement provides that any monies generated by the legal charges due to urgent works on the Buildings at Risk are to be re-invested into the initiative or repaid to the NWDA.”

It seems the Daily Ghost is now levelling itself up as the press office for Joe Anderson, making them look good........instead of asking searching questions. And in the meantime another one The Bethel Chapel in Penny Lane is about to bite the dust.

David Wade-Smith-Not The Right Choice as Business Advisor for Liverpool.

I recall telling off David Wade Smith, in no uncertain terms, outside the stitched up exhibition of the plans for the then proposed Mann Island Development. He was on the board of Liverpool Vision who gave a thumbs up to the scheme. So did the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce of which he was then Chairman. I told him he was a disgrace and didnt even live in Liverpool and was just a cling-on. He now is jockying for the position as business advisor to the new Labour administration. I recall how he argued on the local radio how great it is to have investment in Liverpool and how it was great to build on Mann Island. His own business the Roomstore at the Albert Dock closed down with lack of sales.
This appointment, would if taken up by Joe Anderson be setting a bad example by appointing him as the Mann who promoted World Heritage Disaster.  Worse, he is telling everyone he has got the job after phoning up Joe Anderson personally.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/09/stampede-for-liverpool-council-business-advisor-voluntary-job-92534-26615922/  It is reported.
LIVERPOOL’s business leaders are jockeying for position over who should get the new post of city council business advisor.

The idea of the new post has proved so popular with the business community that an independent assessor has been asked to find a suitable person.
John Flamson, Liverpool University director of strategic partnerships and development, has agreed to oversee finding the business advisor.
The city council’s new Labour leader, Cllr Joe Anderson, devised the post as he wants local business guidance in the decision-making process of his new cabinet. He sees this as the best way to revive the local economy after the recession.
Those keen to be involved are thought to include Jack Stopforth, chief executive of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, retailer David Wade-Smith and business lobby groups such as the Forum for Private Business.
Such has been the stampede of candidates cold-calling him the process of appointment is being severely delayed.
Cllr Anderson said: “We’ve been inundated with requests from business and from the independent sector.
“They’re keen to get involved and I’m delighted with the response.This suggests a future healthy partnership with business.But I hope people recognise we must take time to get it right.“I hoped to have someone in place before now, but instead we’re looking at about two months’ time.“Some local business leaders contacted me directly wanting the job, but it must be seen to be a transparent and fair process.
“I don’t want to be accused of favouring anyone or finding jobs for my mates, so I asked John Flamson to be an independent adjudicator.
“He will form a committee with two other people to create a job description and assess the candidates.”
The business advisor role will be unpaid, but with appropriate expenses.
As an unelected member of the council executive board, or cabinet, he or she will not be able to vote.
“This job won’t be the ‘be-all and end-all’ of our business involvement,” said Cllr Anderson.
“I’m also starting a leader’s bi-monthly business forum.
“Along with the council chief executive and head of regeneration we will meet the various business sectors.
We get consistently negative messages from business regarding council red tape, planning, regulations and inability to communicate about the opportunities for council job tendering.

“There must be an open and fair procurement process with companies given time to prepare bids.
“The chosen business advisor will attend appropriate cabinet meetings to advise and guide us on how it could impact on the private sector.”
Cllr Anderson will also hold cabinet board meetings around the city.These will be in venues such as Alder Hey Hospital and Peel Mersey Ports offices.
He is open to other offers for suitable locations.“We want to be seen to be in touch. I hope we are trail-blazing and I want to make sure for the first time we have regular dialogue with the business community.”
Frank McKenna, city centre lobby group Downtown Business in Liverpool chairman, ruled himself out of the job“While Downtown welcomes the fact the council is adopting this idea, it’s not right for me to take the post,” he said.
“I need to be independent and outside the procedures of the city council.
“We’d expect to have a positive relationship with the council, but also need to be able to constructively criticise it.
“Whoever is chosen should be known across the city and had involvement with The Mersey Partnership, Chamber and Downtown. It’s also really important the person chosen should be someone who runs their own business on a daily basis.
“This should be much more than just a voice representing a body or corporation. A lot of these guys don’t have their own business or that hands-on knowledge.
“Neither do we want anyone who is a mere mouthpiece. I’m really pleased it’s being introduced and we’ll support whoever is chosen.
“What they now need is a real business person who’s got the scars and can sit round and quickly identify policy and how it would impact. This is an important signal to send out and it shows how the city’s politics has improved out of all recognition.”


It will be a mockery if this man David Wade-Smith holds any power to promote similar developments in the future.

David "Stinky Ink" Bartlett-Pitches for a Job With Aurora PR.

We know how it works but do the public. Aurora who use to be the dreadful October Communications who sold us out on behalf of Neptune Developments promoting the right to build on the World Heritage Site. They had worked for NML and Liverpool Vision and the North Vested Interest Development Agency.
http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/06/guest-blog-jon-egan-on-labour.html

You would think they would be outlawed as dispicable characters but no Larry Neild decided his future was with them and jumped the sinking Trinity "Smoking" Miirror ship.
I had thought I was working with the papers, breaking news stories dispelling PR pap.
Larry reported that there was a covenant on the land at the Pier Head stating the fact that nothing could be built higher than 80ft, the approximate height of the new museum. This was a red herring and it was 40ft. This is called not doing your job properly and checking facts.  I had spoken to Rex Makin regarding the fight against Mann Island developments. "You wont stop it Wayne, he said, Doreen Jones is retiring she doesnt care". I solke to Larry the Lamb, chomping away on his molars, and he said "Very Interesting" and went and did a three part story about the Dame of Disasters life.
No wonder he got a job in PR and now slices all he likes into the paper he used to work for in Oldham Hall Street.. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/trinity-smoking-mirrors-group.html
This despite him telling me, being against all the principles laid down by the PR wand of October. I used to think Larry was a big man, in a little mans body. But now I just think he is a little man. He was being spoon fed PR snippets from Jon Egan and Co and printing it. He even won an award for his reporting in the Baltic Triangle. October Communications were PR for Windsor Developments whom, it was reported in Business Week, had a Director who had been struck off the accountants register for alleged fraud. Clever Trevor http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/trevor-jone-steps-down-good-riddance.html was in all the meetings thay held, I am relaibly informed. I dont know how these people can live with themselves.
But now Larry the Lambs predesesor David "Stinky Ink" Bartlett is getting himself in there with Jon Egan for when the Daily Ghost evaporates into thin air.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/dave-bartlett-blues-he-should-have-gone.html
Or will he get a job with Peel Holdings. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/peel-holdings-want-pier-head-stinky-ink.html
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/peel-holdings-liverpeel-its-happening.html

Beware the reportage of Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors and their PR pap on behalf of their mates. They dont represent you and never have done. They represent vested interests and some of those pretending to be reporters of balanced stories deserve no respect.

Cruising From Liverpools Langton Dock Is Scrap.

How can they do this to us. Cruise from Liverpool at the World Famous Langton Docks. What a disgusting joke. Made worse by the fact that Liverpool City Council under the stewardship of Mike Storey commissioned a new Cruise Liner Terminal that no ships can use. That has turned into a naval jetty. Take a look from the helm of the view we as a city present to our clients. A pile of scrap. This combined with the one and a half hour manouvre to get out the docks, and all this after the drive through Peels empire of mangled wire and concrete quays. Where a few ships that have not bypassed us down the Manchester Ship Canal load. It is a disgrace, a laughing stock. It is no wonder Fred Olsen is to pull out. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=top-cruise-line-fred-olsen-to-axe-liverpool-from-its-schedule%26method=full%26objectid=26531292%26siteid=100252-name_page.html You really can't blame them they have hung on for years, and made a packet. The recent Irish Jig, as they term it, on the Boozicca as a Irish tour guide termed it, was 108% full. Meanwhile the new council leader sets out a new vision for the blind Quangi, who couldn't see this one coming http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/05/26/liverpool-vision-relocates-to-10th-floor-of-the-capital-92534-26522202/ Liverpool "Lack of" Vision, the public Quango. Do none of these idiots use the facilities of Liverpool or even ask the advice of anyone who knows about shipping. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/05/12/cruise-terminal-turnaround-debacle-is-unacceptable-for-business-says-new-liverpool-council-leader-92534-26426923/ This is what Joe has to say but in reality. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/11/merseyside-council-budgets-to-be-slashed-by-more-than-25m-92534-26631489/  Liverpool is facing a fnding crisis with a Culture of Capital hangover. Southampton is Fred Olsens busiest port.

This is what The Southampton Echo have to say about it. Gareth Lewis may be one column short of a full article but I cant imagine the local press in Southampton allowing such a Cruise Liner Cock Up to happen.

By Gareth Lewis » Business Editor

LIVERPOOL’S ambitions of winning a slice of Southampton’s lucrative cruise business have been torpedoed after a major cruise line quit the city saying it was too hazardous.
Fred Olsen’s decision to pull up the gangplank on its cruises over safety fears was branded “a devastating blow to Liverpool’s bid to become the major cruise base for northern passengers”
by the city’s paper.
Ship pilots on the Mersey docks said “there was too much risk” of an accident when manoeuvring in windy conditions, leading Fred Olsen to weigh anchor after the middle of 2011.
The move, estimated to cost city coffers £4m, comes despite the popularity of the Liverpool operation, which saw Fred Olsen almost sell out its 7,700 berths on nine cruises this year.
The news will delight leaders of Southampton’s cruise industry who have warily eyed its bid to ramp up the business, fearing it would lure away passengers and liners currently travelling from here. It further boosts Southampton’s cruise credentials, with the city already the biggest turnaround cruise port – where sailings begin and end – in Northern Europe.
At just 28,000 tons, Fred Olsen’s Boudicca is a fraction of the size of the giant ships, such as the 154,407-ton Independence of the Seas, that daily visit Southampton without difficulty.
Southampton is also Fred Olsen’s busiest port.
Nigel Lingard, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines marketing director, said: “There will be no more cruises from Liverpool after mid-2011 and none in 2012.
“We feel too nervous about the current docking facility to keep it in our programme. Until we feel more secure about turning around in the city, we do not plan to come back.
“Our team do not feel comfortable with a ship based here as matters stand. It is too hazardous.
“The pilots can easily say to us at any time there is too much risk in controlling the ship in a 20-knot wind.
“That will then throw the whole cruise schedule out.”
It’s not the first blow to Liverpool’s ambitions, with its Langton Dock cruise terminal, which is surrounded by a scrapheap, voted as one of the UK’s worst by passengers.
A bid to use the new Liverpool Cruise Terminal for money-spinning turnaround cruises was thrown out by the Government following fierce industry protests because it was built with public funds on the condition it be used only for calling cruises.  http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/business/shipping/shippingnews/8193577.Rival_cruise_port_competition_is_sunk/

Garden Grabbing to be Outlawed-Too Late For Liverpool. We Have None Left.

Councils are to be given powers to stop Garden Grabbing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8728633.stm

Garden-grabbing is an emotive term used by campaigners who oppose the building of blocks of flats on land that was formerly gardens. Neighbours who have had their view spoilt by these flats object to the Government’s definition of gardens as brownfield land, which leaves them vulnerable to property developers.

That view has to be balanced against the fact of Britain’s housing shortage: the Government’s target is 200,000 new homes each year, yet only 160,000 were completed in 2006. That lack of supply artificially inflates house prices and wrenches the first rung of the property ladder away from the reach of the majority of young people. The issue hit the headlines last week, when the Conservative MP Greg Clark introduced a Private Member’s Bill calling for the removal of gardens from the definition of brownfield sites. http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article1966188.ece Portions of gardens are also being sold off by homeowners who prefer cash to mowing lawns. One couple, Zoë and Norman Carter, bought a plot of land that was originally part of someone else’s back garden in the north Cornwall village of St Breward, and have just built a new home on it. The neighbours objected. “Obviously people don’t like change,” says Norman Carter. “But we tried to combat this by using local builders and suppliers, which helped with some of the resistance.” Most of his neighbours have now come round, though he admits that a couple are still unhappy.

James Greenwood, of Stacks, the buying agents who acted for the Carters, says that garden-grabbing is on the increase: “Traditionally, it was associated with the South East but now it is a widening phenomenon. Rock in Cornwall is a prime example. There is huge demand for property here and developers are buying up any small piece of land they can lay their hands on. But a warning to potential developers: you will not be popular with the locals. Villagers will never be happy about more properties being crammed into their area.”

Those tempted to defy the neighbours and sell off the bottom of their garden should act soon: Mr Clark’s Bill is due to be heard in Parliament on October 19.

But what of Liverpool where the council gives public gardens away to developers. Warren "War Zone" Bradley was good at that, giving the whole Garden Festival site away. That was left to decay to facilitate a give away price. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/is-warren-bradley-really-that-thick.html Within the  site and paid for by public money after the Toxteth riots there was the Velodrome (see Picture).

The much needed building was dismantled right under the noses of council leaders. Warrens watch as a fire bobby was Toxteth is a mess still 30 years after the riots. Within Loiuse Ellmans constituancy.

Then there is One Park Gone West on what was Chavasse Park , now Chavasse Lawn, which is now a car park 40 feet in the air.

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-one-they-have-stolen-our.html The council allowed the building of a giant carbuncle on the site to satisfy the ex council leader Sir Clever Trevor Jones friend the Duke of Westminster. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html Voted No 4 in BDs Carbuncle Cup competition.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/building-designs-carbuncle-cup.html

Unfortunatly the laws will be wasted on Liverpool Planners this we have no gardens left.

The Liverpool Daily Post-Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors.

The last post I did was about Liverpool Museums under the stewardship of David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming (who had Loyd Grossman sacked) and how it is in dispute with a new set of architects. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/museum-of-liverpool-where-has-all-cash.html

The piece that I quoted was in the Architects Journal and this was sent to "Stinky Ink" Bartlett and "No Mark" Thomas and the Oldham Echo. Below is what they come up with. Another advertorial from the Daily Museum. No wonder we are in such a mess when the educated nonces at the Oldam Hall Street distort the truth.

Shame on you Mark Thomas, twisting the truth the editor of cherry pickers anonymous at the Liverpool Daily Ghost. (Dead man walking will someone put it out of our misery).
A disgrace to your profession.   This what he goes on to print.

Liverpool museums to receive £350,000 to fund staff training

Jun 8 2010 by Gary Stewart, Liverpool Daily Post
Add a commentRecommend LIVERPOOL museums have been awarded £350,000 to train new staff to attract visitors.
National Museums Liverpool, which includes the World Museum, Walker Art Gallery and the forthcoming Museum of Liverpool, will use the money from the Heritage Lottery Fund to train six new recruits over a four-year period.
They will learn to encourage hard-to-reach audiences to visit the museums, develop activities for ethnic groups, disabled people and children, and give guided tours for visitors. Existing staff will get extra training. Alyson Young, National Museums Liverpool’s training and development officer, said: “This award enables us to expand our work while helping existing staff build on their skills.
“It helps us reach every section of the community.”

Museum of Liverpool-Where Has All The Cash Gone.

How can a public body waste so much money and get no-where. Promised opening time 2008 then 2009, 2010......now 2011...actual opening time well just make it up, they do.
Todays Architects Journal carries a story saying that the NEW ARCHITECTS ARE NOT BEING PAID.
Richard Waite from the AJ reports.
The ongoing saga surrounding the £72 million Museum of Liverpool has taken another twist – this time over unpaid fees to project architect AEW

The Manchester-based practice, which replaced Danish firm 3XN on the scheme in late 2007 (AJ 15.11.07), is understood to be heading towards adjudication over more than £100,000 in outstanding ‘additional’ fees.
Although the practice was unable to comment due to confidentiality clauses, a source close to the project said the museum was ‘fighting a rearguard action’ to try and keep costs down.
A spokesman for National Museums Liverpool was unwilling to clarify what led to the dispute, saying: ‘As in all major projects, issues regarding fees are private matters between the parties concerned.’
However, the museum refuted rumours that project manager Mace, which took over from Mott MacDonald in August last year, has left the project.
Engineer Buro Happold, when asked whether it had been paid, simply said: ‘We have a good working relationship with our client on this project. The fit-outs are about to commence on site and we are looking forward to future opportunities with them.’
It is believed fees are still owed to 3XN, although the firm agreed to be called the scheme’s ‘creative architect’ following a battle over copyright issues earlier this year.

Initially scheduled to complete externally in 2008, the Museum of Liverpool is not now due to open until summer 2011.
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/-museum-of-liverpool-wrangles-with-aew-over-unpaid-fees/8600805.article
Not a mention in the Oldham Echo or the Daily Ghost. Is it Trinity "Smoking" Mirrors.

David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/David%20Fleming is still there how come he has not been sacked. He managed to get Loyd Grossman sacked as Chairman of NML, by reporting him to the DCMS http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/loyd-grossman-lectures-us-on-heritage.html A post taken over by plastic scouser Phil Redmond http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/museum-of-liverpool-trustees-have.html who lives in Tarporly, stating that he couldn't work with him and how come this world heritage vandal can not get on with anyone.

The picture is the ROME MAXXI which opened in 2009..well they look the same.

Liverpools World Heritage Site-A Total Eclipse of the Heart.

I noticed today that Correspondent  http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/ had picked up on piece that came from a website called Seven Streets http://www.sevenstreets.com/ and in particular a article called A total Eclipse of the Heart, meaning the world heritage site. They say;

 Imagine this. You were the custodian of a city viewpoint that adorned a thousand calendars, had snappers from Toronto to Tokyo ooh-ing and ah-ing behind their Fuji Finepix, and sharing their holiday photos with friends across the globe. That, through a thousand Flikr updates, our city went viral.

http://www.sevenstreets.com/features/total-eclipse-of-the-heart-mann-island/ I hope they dont mind me borrowing the pic I wish I could have photoshoped it that well.

They go on; And then try to figure out what thought process (if any) it would need to arrive at the decision to black it out.

Not only that, but to obscure this with a graceless, leaden hulk that wouldn’t get past first base on a RIBA Correspondence Course.

There is, among architects, a raging debate about context. Zaha Hadid says it’s bollocks – that buildings don’t have a duty to ‘blend in’ but to ‘respond’ to their immediate urban condition. We tend to agree. But even she wouldn’t be arrogant enough to block out the competition. But, then, she is a world class architect. Not a school boy who got lucky with a design competition. Liverpool is a complex city. This is not a complex debate. Mann Island is not a complex building. It’s a jagged little pill. And we’re all going to have to swallow it. At least, until it the next one comes along.

Still, Steven Gerrard loves it. He’s snapped up two luxury apartments. Good to know that, for some, that view will remain – if only from their bedroom window.

Ironic, isn’t it, that even through the fires of Blitz, the ‘Geermans’ didn’t obliterate the Three Graces. It was our friendly fire what did for ‘em.

So, in response to the outrage, Sevenstreets postulates what damage this implanted cell would create, should other city councils be quite so myopic. Reminds us of that scene at the end of 2010, a Space Odyssey… appropriately enough.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/liverpool-wins-carbuncle-cup.html

They have not mentioned the Carbuncle Cup winning Terminal Ferry Carbuncle, but well done to those of the Seven Streets for speaking the truth. We should add the site to our blog roll.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpools-pier-head-and-its-new.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/mann-island-you-know-youve-arrived.html

The Bluecoat- And The Destruction of Herbert Tyson-Smith's Studio.

I had an owner of a business in the Bluecoat in my shop yesterday trying to sell me an Arthur Dooley, which looked more like an Arthur Do-one.


He is closing down his shop at the entrance to the Bluecoat. “The new Dawn we were promised never really got started” he said. It’s a shame. His shop wasn’t brilliant but it’s sad to see any small shopkeeper go out of business. This was something I discussed in great detail with Winifred Robinson of Radio 4’s You and Yours programme while we were recording a piece for her programme. She asked if Liverpool was in danger of turning into a theme park. pic view from the Bluecoat garden and Tyson Smiths studio still laying vacant after it was dismantled and.....homoginised to suit the new plasticity.

Grosvenor-pool is now the new name for Liverpool. It seems that we now see the wholescale footfall change that now sees areas of the city empty. The wasy that paradise street was. Lets hope its not another case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2008/apr/02/the.bluecoat   I came across this Guardian video that I recall being filmed. Alistair Upstart was in full swing playing up to the cameras….he was bussed in for Capital of Culture famedom, where is he now. After cocking the whole essence of what our grand old lady was, an architectural legacy a little worn around the edges a bit frail on its feet. Then with him at the helm it got a fake botox and a silicon implant or too and makes itself a skeleton of itself. Like some old scouse mutton dressed up as lamb. Now two years later the implants have sagged, the lips have creased, she is now a poor and feeble shadow of itself and proof that beauty is only skin deep. The thick skinned vandals who destroyed its character include David “Fuzzy Felt” Fleming who should have been on the board of Starbucks he has opened more coffee bars than they have in the last 5 years. The only problem being every time he opens a new one some of our culture is moved out to allow it.

Alistair talks about Yoko Ono’s wish tree that was reconstituted in the garden. I wish they would have left it alone these vandals have destroyed the character of a great old friend of mine. I would often sit in the garden.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/liverpool-novatel-tragic-addition-to.html

There is a section on the video of a woman who opened up a handicraft shop making necklaces out of old buttons. I recall thinking at the time what would the aficionados of culture make of this as an emblem of 2008. Incidentally does anyone know who is European Capital of Culture this year, thought not? It was only us who got wound up about it. The full reality is the Capital of Culture that turned into Culture of Capital ruined the Bluecoat. The regeneration that seen the garden ruined, to what, by any stretch of the imagination, could only be labelled vandalism, also saw the grand old lady get a carbuncle behind it that shows exactly what we know about culture….stuff all because no cultured city led by cultured people, hello Warren, would commit such an act of vandalism that makes me angry every time I look down School lane. Arthur Dooley a man who I look back on and admire whilst not liking all of his art. Who campaigned to allow Liverpool artists to hang their work on the Bluecoat railings will be turning in his grave. It got hit in the war. It was rebuilt after the blitz and then the Reich marshal Nigel Lee and English Heretics under the stewardship of Simon Thurley http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/english-heritage-dumber-and-dummer.html  get hold of it and they have ripped the gubbings out of it so it is now a silicon plastic pad out of itself. I liked it better the way it was.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/bluecoat-tradgedy.html
And to think Herbert Tyson-Smiths sculpture studio (intact) was destroyed to make way for this…………and two years later its still empty.

U-534. Cut Up, Into Five Pieces, By Neil Scales and Merseyside Morons.

How can such a travesty occur? How can they get away with this? Well with the Local papers being so shortsighted that’s how. The perpetrator of this savagery even has a column in the Daily Ghost.
Today; Trinity “Smoking” Mirrors Report MERSEYTRAVEL’S U-Boat Story has been highly commended as a tourism and leisure attraction at an awards ceremony.
The commendation came as visitor numbers to the Woodside attraction reached 50,000 in the first year, more than 40% above the forecast.

The U-Boat Story was highly commended in the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors North West Awards. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/06/01/merseytravel-s-u-boat-story-commended-at-tourism-awards-92534-26560817/
Neil Scales, chief executive of Merseytravel, said: “The U-Boat Story has been a tremendous success and is playing a vital part in Merseytravel’s tourism business.

“It is appealing to a wide cross-section of people from youngsters wanting to know more about the history of World War Two to former sailors who served in the conflict.”

Here is Neil Scales with a spanner http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/11/10/neil-scales-goes-back-to-the-floor-at-merseytravel-64375-22218325/

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/environment/sponsors/merseytravel/2009/08/04/100million-investment-in-rail-heralded-100252-24342071/  Here he is telling us about the investment into the rail network and then he gives us, at our expense a Ken Dodd with a kebab statue, at Lime Street. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html

The reportage to this act of vandalism is absurd. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gaz/u-534.html  

They say that Liverpool City Council has done more damage than the Luftwaffe destroying what Reichmarshal Goering couldn’t get. But now this regions councillers and its ancillaries are going one better they are even destroying German Vessels that the RAF couldn’t get.
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gaz/u-534.html  Read the story of how it was brought up of the seabed and barged to Birkinhead. Robert Van Der Veen was in charge of the massive job. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gaz/rvdv.html  He must be sick. Why didn’t someone just tell him to cut it into five and they could have got it on a lorry. It would have saved a lot of work.
This must be the only region where you cut up an intact submarine  U-534that was rescued from the bottom of a Fjord and say it’s a success.