Liverpool's "Dodgy Planners" and Beetham Tower.

How can the Liverpool City Council pass plans for a massive tower block in the world heritage buffer zone, on land, that the Land Registry wouldn't allow the flats contained therein in to be registered, because there is a flying freehold that should never have been considered suitable for building a tower on in the first place.
How come the city council allowed the developer Beetham to build over a highway.

Right from the onset of Liverpool's new found wealth, well, the ponsi scheme created by the council and its Liverpool Vision cling-ons funded by the North "Vested Interest" Development Agency, Mike Storey, now Lord Storey, was there giving our land away. Beetham Plaza which was Wilberforce House,was gifted to Beetham.
This plot was originally sold to Betham as a area for landscaping for their original boring tower.
The Fib-Dems even scrapped the City Councils Tall Building Policy to accommodate them and Grosvenor. I GAVE A COMMENT TO THE DAILY POST ON HOW OUTRAGOUS IT WAS THAT MIKE STOREY AND WARREN BRADLEY COULD DECIDE THIS.
What about the WHS buffer zone.

So given the garden adjacent his first erection, for a peppercorn, what does Hugh Frost, a client of mine who seemed, like a gentleman when he came in my shop, do.
Bungs in a planning application for a 37 storey tower on a plot the size of a postage stamp and Liverpool's Dodgy Planners say, Yes that will do nicely.
Now I am not saying there is any corruption going on, or has gone on, well not in public anyway, but it just goes to show the complete lack of stringency that should, have been adhered to, that seems to have been relaxed to accommodate a developer in this case. 

Is there corruption in the City Council and its planning department?
That is a question I was asked three times this week.
I refused to answer while I am building up a file, that is in depth, you see unless you keep your eye on the ball what goes past you with the slight of hand of a magician is bewildering.

And Beetham must have thought they had pulled a rabbit out of the hat when the, apparent, oversight of being given some land for, it was reported £163,000 turned int the price someone would pay for a broom cupboard in the flats. They even said Micheal Owen had taken a penthouse.well Larry Neild said so as city editor, creating this illusion of respectability and desire around it. It was later raided by the drug squad.

Charles Hubbard the vice chair at the time of the Merseyside Civic Society, whose son worked for Beetham handled the negotiations to save two listed cottaged in the shadow and on the grounds of the then proposed tower.........clever.
If there has ever been a waste of space, its the MCS.

If I recall Doreen Jones Liverpool's own Dame of Architectural Disaster, and her brief (for decades) Rex Makin walked out of a St Georges Hall Trustees meeting because Beetham had given £200,000 to the fund to restore the hall........how strange.

Then it all went wrong for Hughie and (estranged) Son.
Faced with not being able to register the properties he couldn't sell them on and his assetts sat losing money, because Beethams gearing at the bank was stacked the wrong side.
Now put the tower has now gone into administration and we the public are owed £750,000 by Beetham or one of its offsetts.

Last week it was reported that;

LIVERPOOL council officials are set for urgent talks with the administrators of the city’s West Tower over £750,000 it was due to be paid for “fresh air”.
In 2008 Mapfield Properties agreed to buy a patch of land and airspace beneath the 40-storey tower from the council.
Mapfield had been unable to sell luxury apartments in the skyscraper after the Land Registry refused to register potential sales because part of the building overhangs 36 square meter of public highway.
Mapfield – part of the wider Beetham family of companies – decided to buy the land in Brook Street to resolve the issue.
But the deal was never completed and the council has not received any money.
Now Mapfield has gone into administration the council faces a new round of negotiations with administrators Grant Thornton.
A council spokesman said: “We haven’t received the money from Mapfield.
“We have been negotiating with them. We were attempting to get a deal. But Mapfield has gone into administration.
“We are meeting the administrators early this week.”
Beetham originally bought the land on which the West Tower stands for just £163,000 in 2003 from Liverpool City Council. The deal led to an outcry over whether the council had got the best price for the land.
Read More http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/02/08/liverpool-council-chases-750-000-west-tower-payment-for-fresh-air-92534-28130883/

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/02/04/liverpool-s-west-tower-goes-into-administration-92534-28112749/

I had predicted this would happen some time ago. Trying for towers and generally building them as in Manchester with its massive Walkie Talkie whistling tower..I......ts behind you.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/bye-bye-beetham.html
Southwark council the subject of a Beetham planning application issued a statement  in March 2009.
It said;"At Southwark Council, we give a great deal of thought to the benefits very tall buildings actually bring to their local area. As a council with a large landholding, we understand the advantages of tall buildings in the right communities, but we will not allow something that gives Carte blanche to developers to build very tall buildings where they are not appropriate."


Then it seemed they had got out of the mess.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/liverpool-based-beethams-future-secured.html

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/03/27/liverpool-based-beetham-s-future-secured-with-go-ahead-for-london-tower-92534-23243999/


I wrote over a year ago about a strange comment Nigel Lee Liverpools Chief Planning disaster made, just how well did they know each other and why were they allowed to get away with this.

At a recent Architects Journal sponsored conference at Liverpools Crown Plaza hotel chaired by the obnoxious Paul Finch who was the editor of the Architectural Review and has far too much say for such a bad mouth attitude.
Nigel Lee Liverpool's modern day answer to the Luftwaffe speaking during a power-point presentation showing the mess his troops have deployed said and I quote
"Beetham have the biggest tower in Liverpool at 37 storeys high they also have a massive tower in Manchester and are planning one in London...the guys got a problem with erections, and all this because he has a little willy"
Not sure how he knows but this was in front of a packed room full of £435 fee paying delegates from all over the country.
I looked round as the room cringed. Can he really get away with this.

What about Liverpool Vision, or lack of its, roll in all this that Joe Anderson was on the board of at the time.
Oh and all this happened right next to the Daily Post and Echos headquarters....didn't anyone there look out the window.

AND SHOULDNT THERE BE A FULL INVESTIGATION INTO THIS TAWDRY AFFAIR.