Is Joe Anderson The Biggest threat To Liverpools Skyline Since The Lufftwaffe.

"World Heritage Status Is just a badge on the wall in the Town Hall" he says.  How does a city manage to elect a council leader with such a lack of culture?
He said in a published article on the 2nd January that Peel Holdings Liverpool Waters is worth sacrificing the World Heritage Site for. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/01/02/liverpool-council-leader-joe-anderson-says-city-would-sacrifice-world-heritage-status-for-liverpool-waters-scheme-in-new-year-report-100252-30044864/
LIVERPOOL council leader Joe Anderson today used his New Year report to reaffirm his commitment to the £5bn Liverpool Waters transformation of the city’s waterfront, despite it potentially coming at the price of losing the city’s World Heritage Site status.
The Labour councillor highlighted the benefits of north docklands regeneration citing the possible creation of 20,000 jobs and complete transformation of a large deprived area of north Liverpool.
A recent inspection by a UNESCO committee revealed the very real danger that the organisation’s opposition to parts of the project could scupper the city’s heritage status
But Cllr Anderson made clear his priorities for 2012. He said: “Turning Peel Holdings (the developer) away doesn’t say to the world that Liverpool is a thriving modern city. It says we’re a city that is stuck in the past.

“You really do need to see the scale of this project to understand just how much impact it could have.

“This, very simply, would transform our city. It is too big an opportunity to let slip by.
“The city’s leading Lib-Dem, Richard Kemp, says that World Heritage Site status is more important than the Liverpool Waters Scheme.
“The Lib-Dem would turn away 20,000 jobs and £5bn of regeneration, all for the sake of a certificate on the wall in the Town Hall.
“I say that’s madness. Whatever happens in 2012, let me be absolutely clear about one thing: we will back Liverpool Waters.”


 http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/northwest/news/180198-scrap-heritage-site-status-if-waters-is-threatened-says-dlib.html The speech seems reminiscent of a previous outburst by Frank McSpiv. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/11/joe-anderson-sitting-far-too-close-to.html

Are they far too close?
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/frank-mckenna-suckles-at-breast-of-joe.html


Or is it Pearls before swine? http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/03/liverpools-world-heritage-site-pearls.htmls


This is the town that knocked the Cavern Club down lets not forget.
In the name of progress it was claimed.
Send in the Clowns. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2012/01/unesco-warn-liverpool-for-final-time.html Unesco say the scheme would destroy the OUV of the WHS.

Cllr Anderson has quite a lot of business buddies, for sure, his friends at Downtown Liverpool in business seem quite important to him.
DLIB members Peel Holdings seem to have some hold over him.http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2011/11/joe-anderson-and-max-steinberg.html He went to Frank McKenna's Xmas do where another old labour Dinosaur, Derek Hatton turned up.

 This was in Cllr Gary Millars gaff in Parr Street. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/09/councillor-gary-millar-set-to-make.html
Remember Derek Hatton and his power grab, is history repeating itself?.
In the 80's when Hatton and his fellow militant conspirators who hijacked the labour party did more damage to the image of Liverpool than the Toxteth riots did. At least the rioters got the Albert Dock restored when the spotlight turned to those inner cities.
Remember how overnight he, as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, sent in the  bulldozers to destroy the Georgian quarter of Clayton Square, a listed Conservation area with numerous grade II listed buildings of character and of architectural note. Is history repeating itself.
This, it was alleged in the Sunday Times was when he was acting as a "consultant" to the developers.
 It is now a third rate shopping centre that has little character. it needed the Times to investigate the things that everyone in Liverpool knew, right in front of the labour card carrying reporters at the Daily Ghost and the local Echo.
Joe"Your Scum" Anderson http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/12/joe-anderson-youre-scum.html now seems content to assist Peel Holdings in the decimation of the character of what makes Liverpool a Mercantile and Maritime world heritage Site.
Is it because of the huge investment in the destruction of Liverpool's World Heritage Site he has made with them...............that we the ratepayer paid for.
 http://www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk/News-and-Comment/Unesco-tells-city-to-think-again-over-Liverpool-Waters
 Is it because he became quite friendly with Lindsay Ashworth of Peel while over in Shanghai that cost us the ratepayers over a million quid.
Joe Anderson is about to become the latter day Herman Goering and knock the bollox out of the city, or whats left of the soul of the world heritage site, that the last lot of corrupted Fib-Dem balloons didn't get.
Capital of Culture you really are having a laugh.

Peel Holdings Media City-PAID FOR BY THE PUBLIC. Are you reading this Roger Philips

Roger Philips, Liverpool's own BBC commentator tried to steer an argument on air http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/p00n0293/ about Wayne being anti-peel holdings.
He informed him on air that he, Roger had his trip to Shanghai for the Peel Holdings Circus, paid for by the taxpayers and he should make the public aware of his "jolly" trip that cost us the taxpayers 5 Grand. Maybe he should read this. He also says Unesco like the Pier Head he has not obviously read the Unesco report.

HOW THE PUBLIC PAID FOR PEEL HOLDINGS SALFORD MEDIACITYUK

Star date: 18th January 2012
http://www.salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=1256
A Salford Star Exclusive
OUR FRIENDS AT SALFORD STAR KNOW A BIT ABOUT INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM Here is recent argument they put foraward 
HOW PEEL HOLDINGS HAS CASHED IN ON MEDIACITYUK – WITH PUBLIC MONEY
As Peel Holdings records profits of £55million, Salford Star reveals the huge amounts of public money that have been sunk into MediaCityUK, virtually covering all of Peel's £490million costs on the development.
Meanwhile Salford Council has waived its financial contribution policies on the site which remains in private hands, with Peel's private security company ejecting anyone it feels like…
As Peel Holdings submits plans for the huge twenty year expansion of MediaCityUK, featuring five million square feet of offices, apartments, a hotel, retail units and car parks (see here), the Salford Star can reveal that the costs of the first built phase of MediaCityUK will be almost entirely met by public money.
According to the latest set of accounts from Peel Media (Holdings) Ltd - one of the three Peel subsidiary companies that own and run MediaCityUK - the `historical cost' of its properties on the Quays was £490.8million.
Meanwhile, the public sector will pay Peel nearly £487million in rents, grants and hire fees. This breaks down as…
• BBC rent of studios £233million (over 20 yrs)
• BBC rent of offices £170million (over 20 yrs)
• University of Salford campus rent £19.126million (until 2020)
• Salford Council lease on Media Enterprise Centre £3.8million (until 2016*)
• NWDA**/Salford Council (et al) grants for public realm and transport £61million.
The total of £486.9million in public finance for the privately owned MediaCityUK means that Peel have virtually covered all its costs - before raking in profits from its 378 apartments (est value £56million), its car parks, and its office space and studios rented out to private sector companies, including ITV.
NWDA and Salford Council financial contributions for things like the main piazza at MediaCityUK and the Metrolink, have only ever been disclosed as being £30million. But a Salford Council report recently stated that a "total public sector investment of £61m has been committed into Media City for the provision of public realm and transport infrastructure".
Normally when developers build hotels and apartment blocks they have to make payments to Salford Council under Section 106 for things like open space, infrastructure and heritage. In the original application put in by Peel for outline planning permission for Media City, this was calculated to be £5.56million. But Peel never had to pay it…
"…a significant amount of public realm and infrastructure works would be undertaken as part of the proposals, which I consider would outweigh the need for the above contribution" wrote the Salford Council planning officer.
Yet the `public realm and infrastructure works' were paid for by public money from the NWDA and Salford Council! What we now know is £61million's worth of `public realm and infrastructure'. This is the same NWDA that had an ex-Peel Deputy Chairman as its Chairman, and the same Peel Media that had an ex NWDA Chairman as its Chairman (see here)
The Salford Star put in a Freedom of Information request to Salford Council asking what contributions under Section 106 Peel Holdings had made in regard to Media City…"In the case of MediaCityUK the developer committed to providing a series of public areas, including parks and squares, as well as a waterside piazza" the Council responded "...In this case the scale of the provision included within the development itself has been massive, and with the developer's commitment to maintain these areas as well, this meant that Section 106 would not be required in order to achieve the same outcome."
In other words, Peel contributed virtually nothing towards the main piazza***, which was almost entirely paid for by public money - yet its private security `police' have already ejected legal pickets from outside the University of Salford building (see here), while the Salford Star has received many complaints from people who have been stopped from handing out leaflets or filming (!) on the site.
Meanwhile, Salford Council also has in place a policy that any major housing development should make provision for 20% of it to be affordable housing. Peel Holdings has 378 apartments on MediaCityUK – but, again, this policy was waived by Salford Council's planning officer who "concluded that, given the large amount of investment and the level of public realm and infrastructure that would be provided within the site, the applicants are not required to provide affordable housing in this instance."
But the "public realm and infrastructure" was paid for out of public money!
Salford Council also has in place a policy that "encourages developers to provide or contribute to accredited training programmes for construction workers. Where this does not happen, a financial contribution to the Salford Construction Partnership is recommended."
Yet again, this policy was waived... "The applicants have commented that the proposals would result in the creation of in the region of 15,000 jobs in addition to training opportunities" stated the planning officer "Clearly, this would represent a significant economic benefit to the city. In view of this, and the other benefits and investment highlighted above, I do not consider it necessary to require the applicants to make a contribution towards training for construction workers in this instance."
So there you have it. The costs of Peel Holding's investment in the first built phase of MediaCityUK are almost entirely covered by public money. While its commitments under Section 106 were also either waved or covered by public money.
Yet MediaCityUK remains a totally private enterprise even down to the cameras the BBC use, with all profits from car parks, apartments, hotels, rents and other fees going straight to Peel Holdings.
Peel Holdings parent company, Peel Holdings (Land and Property) Ltd posted profits of £55million in its latest accounts. Peel Holdings Isle of Man based svengali, John Whittaker, last year saw his personal wealth double from £1,015million in 2010 to £2,075million in 2011, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.
Peel Holdings gave a paltry £17,000 to charity according to its latest accounts. The Salford Star is still waiting for a response from Peel Media as to whether it has taken on any apprentices from Salford. As reported yesterday (see here), just 16 people from Salford have been given proper jobs at the BBC's new base at MediaCityUK.
As plans for the huge five million square feet, twenty year expansion of MediaCityUK are about to be put before the planning panel, the Salford Star is waiting to see whether Salford Council will again waive all its financial contribution policies for Peel Holdings…
* The Media Enterprise Centre is Salford Council's new £8million office complex at MediaCityUK that will "offer a range of services to help stimulate and support the growth of media companies". Salford Council has contributed £1.7million, with NWDA (£2.5million) and European funding (ERDF £4.2million) contributing the rest.
** NWDA is the North West Development Agency soon to be abolished in March – see here for details of the very close ties between Peel Media and NWDA, starring Peter Mandelson
*** In response to another Salford Star question back in 2009, Salford Council did state that Peel was contributing £1.68million out of the initial £31.68million public realm costs but the Freedom of Info response didn't include this.
See also: How Salford BBC Jobs Cost Over £200,000 Each!

John Whittaker Peel Holdings Chairman-His Profile

Profile: John Whittaker


SECOND-GUESSING John Whittaker is about as clear-cut as reading tea leaves, and would likely yield the same dubious results. http://www.scotsman.com/business/profile_john_whittaker_1_796848
The Lancashire-born billionaire's Peel Holdings empire is currently stalking Forth Ports, the Edinburgh-based dockyard operator. In keeping with Whittaker's notoriously private lifestyle, the Northstream consortium which includes Peel is playing its cards close to its chest, leaving investors to guess whether and when an improved offer for Forth might be lodged.
Whittaker, who celebrated his 68th birthday earlier this month, is known as a man who always gets what he wants. He is credited with patience, tenacity and shrewdness, and has displayed these characteristics throughout his extensive career at the head of Peel.
Though now living in the tax-friendly Isle of Man, Whittaker was born in the mill and textile town of Bury on the outskirts of Manchester.
Educated at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, a mixed Catholic boarding school, he nearly went into the priesthood before deciding to remain within the family business headed at that time by his father, also John.
The Whittaker family acquired Peel Mills, a local textile firm, in 1973, but within four years the company had shifted its focus to the property market. During the decline of the textiles industry, Peel purchased troubled mills for the land on which they sat.
Whittaker's celebrated ability to spot "the next big thing" came to the fore in the 1980s, when Peel became one of the first to move into retail warehouse development. During that decade, the company overhauled an estimated four million square feet of warehouse space.
Peel Holdings joined the London Stock Exchange in 1983, though the Whittaker family retained a majority shareholding in the business. Building from its retail property base in the north-east of England, Whittaker went on to expand Peel's domain into other infrastructure assets such as airports, quarries and industrial estates.
The father of four's tenacity and zeal played a key role in Peel's acquisition of the Manchester Ship Canal Company in 1987. Observers note that he spent three years fighting an acrimonious takeover battle to eventually bring together the canal and its former fierce commercial rival, the Port of Liverpool, which Peel also owns.

This was followed by the epic ten-year struggle to build the massive Trafford Centre near Manchester, a retail behemoth of nearly 1.5 million square feet that attracts an estimated 30 million shoppers every year.
The scale of that battle is perhaps reflected by the fact that on its opening in 1998, the normally media-shy Whittaker chose to mark the occasion by abseiling into the Trafford Centre. In a further mark of respect, the classic Mercedes convertible owned by his late mother, May, was installed as a centrepiece of a display within the centre.
Whittaker took the company back into private ownership in 2004, reportedly claiming that Peel didn't need money from the City, and would prefer to re-invest earnings rather than fork out dividend payments. The deal was financed by the Whittaker family and Olayan, the eponymous investment group of the Saudi Arabian family.
Today, the Whittaker family owns about 68 per cent of the group, which includes four main divisions and more than 100 subsidiary firms. Olayan owns about 25 per cent of the group.
RREEF, the alternative investment business run by Deutsche Bank, purchased a 49.9 per cent stake in the group's Peel Ports division for a rumoured 775 million in 2006. RREEF and Arcus Infrastructure are the other two members of the consortium that is currently pursuing Forth Ports.
Control over the Edinburgh-based group makes strategic sense for Peel, which acquired Scotland's west coast port operations when it completed its purchase of Clydeport in 2003.
Whittaker negotiated that deal with Tom Allison, who was then chief executive of Clydeport, to create what is today the UK's second-largest ports operation. There have been suggestions that Peel would like to form a super-sized Scottish ports business through the addition of Forth, though there's no doubt that Whittaker is equally intent on picking up his rival's property assets at a keen price.
Whittaker is renowned for such shrewd moves, as well as his tenacity. As his longest-serving employees are keen to point out, Peel's motto of "determination, perseverance and patience" is also Whittaker's personal mantra.
Though widely regarded as an arch deal-maker who's not afraid to play hard ball, the youthful-looking grandfather does have a softer side that occasionally comes to public display.
In 2008, Whittaker donated 1m to Manchester's Children's Hospital Appeal. He explained then that his gift was prompted by the birth of his stillborn granddaughter in 2003.
"It was too late for my daughter's baby to be given a lifeline," Whittaker was quoted as saying.
"But if other babies and children can have that opportunity, then it's a wonderful cause for Peel to support. Children cannot help themselves, so we owe it to our future generation to provide the best care we possibly can."
BACKGROUND
BORN on 14 March 1942 in Bury, on the outskirts of Manchester, John Whittaker came into a family business originally focused on the town's traditional mill and textile industries.
Though he considered becoming a priest, Whittaker finally joined Peel Holdings and would lead it through a decades-long expansion that has built him a personal fortune estimated at 1.3 billion.
He is still regarded as one of the UK's leading business players and now lives on the Isle of Man, where the helicopter pad in his garden is said to be the only exception to an otherwise unostentatious lifestyle.
He is described as having a strong Catholic faith that runs through both his business and personal life.
Though separated from his wife, he remains legally married. The couple have four children – Mark, James, Kate and John – as well as a number of grandchildren.

Published on Sunday 28 March 2010 21:15 Courtesy of The Scotsman

Unesco Warn Liverpool For The Final Time!

Wayne was asked by Larry Neild of Liverpool Confidential to put a piece forward for inclusion in a piece about UNESCO. http://www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk/News-and-Comment/Unesco-tells-city-to-think-again-over-Liverpool-Waters Joe Anderson.........tries to reposition himself from his "Cosy" relationship with Peel Holdings.
I see this damning Conclusion to the Unesco report as a major opportunity to withdraw the planning application and get Peel Holdings to go back to the drawing board and to give to the city, what the people of Liverpool deserve. A regeneration scheme fit for the future that we can stand behind, that will create jobs.
If Peel Holdings are serious, and its not a planning permission flip, why wont they give us something we can be proud of. Why do they want to build Milton Keynes-On-Sea, what is the point in that.
It is Amsterdam that we should be looking to for inspiration and how they have developed an urban landscape that interacts with its historic waterways. This report is damning and it insists that Liverpools historic waterways should not be filled in, as that would ruin the Outstandung Universal Value. Despite that, plans for Wellington dock, that will mean no more tall ships for Liverpool were recently passed just ahead of the deliverance of the report.
In 2006 Unesco told the UK Government that Liverpool had to draw up a supplementary planning document that protected it from future administrations and their links with developers.This was ratified by the city council in 2009 and this gives us as a city, all the planning protection we now need. Planning guidance PPG 15 lays down government policies for the historic environment this city council were about to breach every rule in the book. Why?
We are as a city chjarged with managing the WHS not destroying it.
No one wants the regeneration of the historic docks more than I, all my life I have waited for it, but the intelligence of those in charge is sadly lacking the class that befits the qualities required to be a World Heritage City in the 20th Century. We will create more jobs for future generations if we respect that our history is our future. My father was a docker and I ask "Why are Peel Holdings shipping jobs to Port Salford and who is going to fill the glass shoeboxes they want to put in its place"? We need jobs but there is room for regeneration and the right job creation why not just turn Liverpool into a giant Tesco and be done with it.
What is alarming, in my view is the "Cosy" relationship between the developer and the city council.
The people of Liverpool are being denied their right to exercise their views by a compliant council who are sponsoring Peel Holdings and have hijacked the planning procedure.
I recall the last Labour administration bulldozing Clayton square, a historic listed Georgian quarter, in the name of progress.
Remember this is the town ,that knocked the Cavern Club down, then called itself Beatles City.
And gets a world heritage site status and then sets about ruining it.
World Heritage Site status is not a badge on the wall of the town hall, Joe Anderson says it is.
No it is much more than that, it is an honour to be bestowed and if managed will create jobs for our city.
With such a title that puts us up there in the top tier of world class cities. Why risk it, why chance the embarrasment, why drop an architectural timebomb on the city. Trafford Park-On-Sea.
The city council under Joe Andersons leadership now have to understand who they represent and curb the arrogance of Peel Holdings.
The city council need to take note of all the damning recomendations and insist this current backdated planning application is withdrawn and is taken back to the drawing board, whats another couple of months, before it costs the city a million pounds in public inquiry.

Mission’s Conclusion and RecommendationThe mission concludes that if the proposed Liverpool Waters scheme as outlined during the mission would be implemented, the World Heritage property would be irreversibly damaged, due to
 a serious deterioration of its architectural and town-planning coherence, a serious loss of historical authenticity, and an important loss of cultural significance. It strongly recommends that the three principal stakeholders, being Liverpool City Council, Peel Holdings and English Heritage, reconvene around the table and work out an adjusted scheme that includes the observations put forward in this report.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/01/02/liverpool-council-leader-joe-anderson-says-city-would-sacrifice-world-heritage-status-for-liverpool-waters-scheme-in-new-year-report-100252-30044864/
Joe Anderson on the 2nd January on scrapping WHS status.


These are some of the recent press activity on 25.1.12


Unesco

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=unesco-inspectors-attack-liverpool-waters-scheme%26method=full%26objectid=30193588%26siteid=100252-name_page.html

Liverpool Echo

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2012/01/24/unesco-warns-5-5bn-liverpool-waters-scheme-would-irreversibly-damage-city-s-world-heritage-waterfront-100252-30189591/
Liverpool Daily...... err I mean Weekly Ghost
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/24/liverpool-heritage-waterfront-damage?newsfeed=true
Guardian

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00n0293/Roger_Phillips_25_01_2012/
Radio Merseyside today

Unesco
24.1.12

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2012/01/24/unesco-inspectors-urge-compromise-on-5-5bn-liverpool-waters-plan-to-protect-city-s-world-heritage-site-status-99623-30187368/

Daily Post

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-16698234  BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01b4fyt/
BBC unesco

Unesco Report Condems Peel Holdings Liverpool Waters.

Mission’s Conclusion and Recommendation

The mission concludes that if the proposed Liverpool Waters scheme as outlined during the mission would be implemented, the World Heritage property would be irreversibly damaged, due to
a serious deterioration of its architectural and town-planning coherence, a serious loss of historical
authenticity, and an important loss of cultural significance. It strongly recommends that the three principal stakeholders, being Liverpool City Council, Peel Holdings and English Heritage, reconvene around the table and work out an adjusted scheme that includes the observations put forward in this report.

I cant get a full 23 pg report on the page so he is a link to the full document.
http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2012/01/full-report-unesco-inspection.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiverpoolDailyPost-DaleStreetBlues+%28Liverpool+Daily+Post+-+Dale+Street+Blues%29

Peel Holdings plans for, Pinewood Studios Housing Development rejected

From Mike Hafhy at NW Business News


PINEWOOD Shepperton, the film & TV studios business which was bought by Peel Holdings for £96.1m in July, has had its bid to develop a £200m housing scheme rejected by the government.
The company had been planning the development, known as Project Pinewood, for almost five years and has spent around £7.6m in a bid to try and get it through the planning process.
It was to consist of 1,400 homes around streetscapes built to look like various overseas cities - Paris, New York and Amsterdam, for example. These would be sold to homeowners but also used as backdrops to film sets on greenbelt land next to its existing Buckinghamshire studio complex.
However, following a public inquiry, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has refused permission for the scheme.
In a statement, Pinewood Shepperton said that it was "disappointed" by the decision. "The company will now take time to review the decision in detail."
It said that the investment made both in the land and the costs of pursuing the application were "not material".

"The company will continue to implement its master planning consents at Pinewood and Shepperton studios and pursue its international strategy of developing studios overseas."

All Saints Childwall-Gets the Private Eye treatment.

Private Eye the national satirical magazine take an interest in Liverpool again, there is no shortage of work to do. This time it is the mess surrounding All Saints Childwall. 'Piloti' has ago at the Liverpool Church (gravesmashers anonymous) who want to do more damage to bodies of people who probably paid to be buried there.                        Meanwhile reknowned turncoat Rex Makin seems to be critical of Private Eyes 'Pilot' he says in his column this week;

THE late Sir Richard Foster, the first director of Museums, Liverpool, did a wonderful job and enlarged the museum area by taking in the old Polytechnic building in Byrom Street.
The new additional museum at the Pier Head was the subject of a savage attack recently in a leading satirical magazine. Some of its criticisms were felt by others, particularly over the direction, but figures speak louder than words and the museum has enjoyed the same popularity as its predecessor, turning in record numbers to become one of the most popular tourist attractions. However the numbers should not avoid legitimate criticism, of which there is some, but not expressed in the original vicious way it was in the satirical magazine. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/rex-makin/2012/01/20/rex-makin-should-city-housing-association-be-sending-pupils-to-eton-100252-30160669/
How two faced can one be, he, has been one of the biggest critics of the new museum and of the current Director Dr David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming making stinging attacks. Now he appears to swop sides....again.
Who pays the piper plays the tune, unfortunatly. You have to laugh at people like this.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/superlambanana-land.html
Rex Makin was Trevor Jones solicitor. Private Eye have often taken an interest in Liverpool
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/undeclared-interest-of-jones-vote.html Read this article with an edition of the New Statesman and a little slice of history it really does say a lot.


http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/superlambanana-land.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/trevor-jone-steps-down-good-riddance.html

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Liverpool- Is it good architecture, or bad?

After CNN voted it amongst the worst 10 buildings a local debate has raged. The new look "The Post" the new weekly version of the now defunct Daily Ghost asked Wayne to write 400 words for "The Debate" which he duly did, this was to go in the first ever publication
Then after time anda bit of time and effort, it was asked to be cropped to 200. Wayne was aware that he was being lined up to say he did not like the building so he never said what they wanted.
The 400 was cut to 200 and the promise was the whole 400 would be on the website.
They speak with forked tongue there at the new look, old methods, The Post. Just when you think they are getting into serious debate, they then revert to type.
 http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2012/01/19/the-debate-liverpool-catholic-cathedral-is-it-really-an-ugly-building-video-99623-30151571/

So here are the actual 400 words that Wayne submitted;
I love modern architecture, but it’s hard to like this brutalist concrete upturned funnel, though I can’t agree it’s in the world’s worst 10 buildings.

Looking remarkably like The Cathedral of Brasilia, a hyperboloid structure designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1958. It immediately leaked like a giant colander. The architect Frederick Gibberd was sued. Structural problems were not resolved until the 1990’s. The mosaic tiles had to be replaced with glass-reinforced plastic!
Jerry built, was the term, often used to describe its construction. Is it still a structural time bomb?
The outspoken and highly intelligent ecclesiastical sculptor Arthur Dooley coined the term Paddy’s Wigwam.
It sums up the 60’s, as a now outdated architecturally futurist fantasy, that at times went horribly wrong.
When tried and tested methods of construction, bent the given laws of logic to, sometimes, severe and often detrimental effect.
European funding was recently spent on its so-called realignment with Hope Street while next door, the Wellington Rooms, one of our historic gems, is derelict and sadly ignored.
Always meant to compete with the majesty of Giles Gilbert Scott’s Anglican Cathedral, it does so only by being architecturally impertinent and the use of shock effect.
Like a noisy little mongrel, barking at a graceful distinguished pedigree.
It dates from a time of religious conflict when children played football in the streets, Protestants verses Catholics.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who submitted a design for the Anglican Cathedral competition, once said 'There is hope in honest error, but none in the icy cold perfection of the mere stylist.'
The original Lutyens design was meant to be a rival to St Peter’s in Rome. He only managed the building of the Crypt before the outbreak of war, and then in the 60’s the cut-price colander idea came along.
No doubt it was sold to the public as being Iconic.
Liverpudlian’s are often defensive, of their own, but CNN have sparked off a debate that if entered into will give us more understanding of our public realm.
It’s not a good idea to risk your future by disrespecting your architectural inheritance.
Now loved by many who are proud to have two Cathedrals in the City, people now seem to have got used to it. Does that mean it’s good architecture?
Lutyens original design model is in the new Museum of Liverpool, now that is, a building that should be in the world’s worst top 10.

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral "One of the Worlds 10 most ugly buildings" CNN

http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/top-10-ugly-buildings-117820

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/22/ugliest.buildings/

Meanwhile the Echo writes.
LIVERPOOL’S Metropolitan Cathedral has been named one of the ugliest buildings in the world by a major American news network.

Paddy's Wigwam as it is known in the city was described as “monstrous” and placed at number seven in the CNN online travel feature ‘10 of the world’s ugliest buildings’.
It was the only British building to make the list.
The article said: “There are some monstrous examples of civic architecture in the West – this prime example of late-1960s design being an unlovely case in point.“Far from conjuring images of heavenly repose, the church is more akin to a giant concrete tent, hence its local nickname ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’ (Paddy being pejorative for Catholics of Irish descent).”
A photo of the cathedral carries the caption “What you might get if Optimus Prime was your architect.”
Its inclusion alongside bleak communist architecture, an imposing Vietnamese mausoleum, and a North Korean pyramid has ruffled feathers at the 44-year-old cathedral.
Cathedral dean Anthony O’Brien said: “I would guess it’s somebody that’s never been inside.
“Externally a lot of people who have not been see its harsh concrete, but internally there’s a real sense of peace and light and it’s very spiritual.”
He added: “I was there as a youngster at the time that it opened, and the concrete interior was much barer than it is now. I think what we have got is a modern design of its time which I think serves the celebrations and liturgy of our time.”
Dean O’Brien conceded that the cathedral has not always found favour in Liverpool, however.
He said: “It did make people stop in their tracks and think.
“But now I think we have grown. We have come to love it. Ultimately, the cathedral is meant to be a symbol of God’s presence.
“It needs to work. It needs to serve the uses we put it to and it does that very well.”
He added: “We don’t get worked-up by these things because we have had this for 40-odd years now.”
The Roman Catholic Cathedral is the work of British architect Sir Frederick Gibberd.
It is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool Patrick Kelly, spiritual leader of the Northern Province of the Catholic Church in England.
Maintaining the cathedral costs more than £2,000 a day in voluntary donations.
The first building on CNN’s list is the unfinished Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Construction of the 330-metre pyramid began in the 1980s, and is yet to be completed.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/in-the-mix/2012/01/14/liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral-named-one-of-world-s-ugliest-buildings-by-cnn-vote-100252-30121805/

Read the comments

Peel Groups Property Arm Loses £18.3 million in 2011.

By Mike Fahy - Assistant Editor, Business Desk:

PEEL Group's Land & Property arm declared a pre-tax loss of £18.3m in the year to March 31, 2011 as its turnover climbed by 4% to £97.7m.
The business, whose main focus is developing property asserts held at docks in Liverpool and Glasgow, as well as its proposed Atlantic Gateway scheme, declared an operating profit of £55.3m (2010: £58.4m), but higher interests payments of £79.7m (£66m) pushed it into the red as it completed a refinancing of its debts.
A £200m debenture was increased to £250m in April 2010, and at the year end two loans worth a combined £182m were replaced by a new 20-year, £205m facility. The refinancings incurred one-off charges of £12.3m.
The company saw its rent roll drop by £2.6m to £64.3m during the year, which it said was due to the sale of properties in Blackburn and Glasgow. The properties brought in rent of almost £3.8m a year.
In total, it sold off land worth £18.6m during the period and made a profit of £5m on disposals. These included sites at Princes Dock in Liverpool, Speke Leisure Park, Astley Business Park in Wigan and at James Watt Dock at Greenock in Scotland.
The firm said that it currently has around 700,000 sq ft of property standing empty (2010: 893,000 sq ft) which has an estimated rental value of £4m a year (£5.9m).
However, it added that half of this is industrial property around its docklands holdings in Liverpool and Glasgow, which is being held for redevelopment purposes.
In total, the company controls more than 200,000 acres of land and held net assets of £640bn at its year end, down from £666.4bn in the prior year.
Peel's Land & Property division is currently progressing with both its its Wirral Waters and Liverpool Waters schemes, which it described as "the largest private-led regeneration projects in the country". It is also moving forward with plans for its £50bn Ocean Gateway scheme, which will see a series of new developments including new ports between Manchester and Liverpool.
Outline planning approval for Wirral Waters was achieved during the financial year, and since its year end it has also gained the green light for the first phase of investment - a £175m International Trade Centre. The Liverpool Waters element remains mired in in a dispute with heritage organisations, which has seen UNESCO threaten to revoke Liverpool's World Heritage status if plans were developed in their proposed form.
The company's accounts also show that after a period during which the value of its land bank had remained flat, "the market has increasingly shown evidence of the return of residential activity and as the year has progressed housebuilders have begun to emerge and prepare for business.

Since the year end, Peel has agreed a joint venture with housebuilder Barratt to develop 1,000 homes on Peel-owned land. The partnership has already gained planning for a 268-house development close to Liverpool John Lennon Airport in Speke, on which work is due to start on site shortly.

So Where is the money going to come from for all these ambitious projects?

So why cant the Daily Ghost (now deceased, soon to become the weekly Ghost) find this out.............no wonder they have had to close down, if I can find this out why cant they.
Maybe they will now copy this down and think twice before the project Glass Pie In The Sky projects on to the public.

No More Tall Ship Events For Liverpool. Wellington Dock to be filled in.

This is the projection for the plans to go ahead for Wellington Dock Waste Treatment Plant.
courtesy of the Daily Ghost
This is a World Heritage Site. The plans were passed despite a report from Unesco pending.
A separate presentation was made to Ron Van Ours and Patricia Alberth on the recent monitoring mission. The plans were passed and it was said by Mark Loughran the acting planning manager that Ron Van Oers said it was alright. What!!!!!!!!! Why did they not wait for the report then.
What he never said being the council poodle that he is, is, that if these plans were to go ahead we will no facility for the Tall Ships Events of the future as this is the only Dock that will take the depth of the larger ships.
Really clever this, proclaiming your future is in tourism because Peel Holdings want the Docks moved to Salford and you fill in your best asset.
John Sutton of the Daily Ghost is too ill informed as he is only a junior to know the significance of this in his.....errrm, well could you really call it reporting. But the editor should know as Peter Elson has published the fact in the paper. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=new-163-200m-river-mersey-waste-treatment-plant-to-create-350-jobs%26method=full%26objectid=30105478%26siteid=100252-name_page.html
So just when you think you are getting somewhere and creating a debate they throw a red herring in and it will go unnoticed as this is in a restricted zone...by Peel Holdings.
 This story was made into a good news story stating it will create hundreds of jobs. How many will it lose in the long term?
Liverpool The City that knocked down the Cavern Club and then called itself Beatles City then it becomes a Mercantile and Maritime World Heritage Site and fills in the only dock that can take a proper Tall Ships Event. http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2008/07/16/tall_ships_map_feature.shtml



You couldn't make this up.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/10/wellington-dock-to-be-filled-in-is.html

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-work/CABE/Design-Review/1/Liverpool-Waste-Water-Treatment-Extension-at-Wellington-Dock/

Peel Holdings submit a planning application for a Cruise Liner Terminal in the Liverpool Waters Scheme.

So while Joe Anderson the Council leader is supporting the scheme for Liverpool Waters he is also openly supporting a Cruise Liner Terminal that Peel Holdings want to build..........that is a conflict of interests against the City's own Cruise Liner facility that is largely redundant and not fit for purpose.
Joe Anderson is openly supporting, saving the Cruise Liner operation, after the debacle where the Liverpool City Council cocked up the whole legal process of obtaining a going concern, for the city, by not having the ability to start and finish Ocean Cruise's from the Pier Head berthing, because European grant aid was used and this is in contravention to all EU competition laws.

Joe Anderson with his usual playground bully tactics then picked a fight, wrongly blaming Southampton, for blocking it when it is due legal process that stops it not another port. Imagine if European funding was used to build a car plant in North Wales that directly affected car plant assembly workers at Halewood.
This is what European laws are meant to stop from happening. If you have a city council who are dim enough not to understand this then the outcome is "A Cruise Liner Cock up" where it turns into a Navy jetty, instead of a usable facility.
So we put forward an idea to the local press to start a campaign in the Daily Post.
To campaign to Save Our Cruise Capacity, and this was taken up with great gusto by Peter Elson the local shipping correspondent.
Despite some terrible reportage by some at the paper, Peter has done quite well.............but he has not used all the facts. Wayne told him years ago that Peel Holdings who have the baggage handling and Customs facility at Langton Dock are set to undermine it all by building their own Cruise Liner Facility, and potentially making ours, that we paid, for out of public funds, redundant. 

So here is the application and the genie is now well and truly out of the bottle. Not only do they want to build a new cruise liner facility, but a new city centre, no wonder Grosvenor, who own Liverpool One (Grosvenor-pool) are worried.
Building right over Trafalager Dock that was filled in with the rubble from Chavasse Park, ironicly.
 Its about time that the Daily Post and Echo started telling the public as to exactly what is taking place and stopped the smoking mirrors.
One of the people who had great concern, about this matter, above and beyond the call of duty, was of course Peter Elson, who has now been pushed out by a dying regime who we cant trust with the truth.
This is most unfortunate and a detriment to anyone involved with Maritime heritage in the city. They could always rely on Peter to be first on board.
Southampton have requested that the European money is paid back by Peel Holdings the Port Authority..............but they will not do this while planning to build a Cruise Liner facility of their own, and of course they have the customs facility on their land that they wont give up.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/cruising-from-liverpools-langton-dock.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/cruise-from-liverpool.html
This is what we wrote, some time ago.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/cruise-from-liverpool.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/12/liverpools-cruise-liner-cock-up-its.html


This is what we wrote in 2009
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/cruise-wars-scouse-wedding-at-sea.html


Oh and this
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/cruise-control-naval-warfare-breaks-out.html
and this
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/council-cruise-liner-cock-up.html