Save The Futurist-From Neptune Developments. And Liverpool City Council Spivs.

Its that man again Malcolm Kennedy, the property developers friend, and this time its Neptune Developments he is helping. Neptune who trashed the World Heritage Site with the Three Black Coffins on Mann Island. (Did one of Neptune's Directors work at the City Council planning department)? This time Malc has taken time off from his main job working for Peel Holdings to do some part time work for Neptune.

We say; You cant have a city council that are property developers.

There is a conflict of interests.

But this is Liverpool where Mayor Joe Anderson has allowed the line between acceptable development that benefits the city, and down right money making schemes for dodgy property developers to become blurred. Remember the scheme whereby the city council sold St Andrews Church to a convicted fraudster for a quid. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/st-andrews-church-sold-to-convicted.html

Previously we wrote about the Lime Street decay.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/call-this-regeneration-liverpool-lime.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/david-bartlett-takes-city-council-to.html


David Bartlett recently wrote
A PROJECT to revitalise Liverpool’s rundown Lime Street area has taken a major step forward.
Liverpool council is in the process of agreeing a deal to take over a series of properties on the eastern side of the street between The Crown and The Vines.
Liverpool-based Parkmoor Group has agreed to sell its interests to allow the city to create a large single development plot.
And the council is also in talks with Anglo Irish Bank, which controls the historic derelict former Futurist cinema, after its owner Futurist Development Limited went into liquidation.
The scheme is by Regeneration Liverpool, a joint venture between regeneration specialist Sigma Inpartnership, Neptune Developments, and Liverpool council.
Architects Broadway Malyan, who designed the three granite block buildings at Mann Island, were asked to draw up some initial ideas including a series of offices, shops and student flats.
The project is estimated to be worth around £38.7m, with the potential to create 310 jobs.
Cabinet member for regeneration, Cllr Malcolm Kennedy, said: “This is one of the key projects for Liverpool that I want to see happen.”
A campaign is currently running to save the facade of the Futurist, which first opened in 1912, but has sat abandoned since 1982.
But Cllr Kennedy said he was unable to give a firm commitment that the facade could be saved because the exact condition of the building was not yet known. Much of the building behind the facade is in a major state of disrepair.
He said: “I have given a commitment to the campaigners and their architectural advisers to involve them once the proposals are drawn up.”
Regeneration Liverpool’s business plan reveals that an application has been made to the Homes and Communities Agency for funds to acquire the Futurist.
The report also states that a heads of term agreement has been reached with Parkmoor about buying the firm’s properties on the eastern side of Lime Street.
The cost of buying up properties to assemble the site will cost an estimated £6m.
Architects BDP, who devised the blueprint for Liverpool One, have also been asked to draw up a masterplan for the Adelphi Hotel area of Lime Street which leads into Brownlow Hill.
The study will look at potential ideas for developing key sites in the area such as the Mount Pleasant car park.
The business plan estimates that a planning application could be submitted as early as the summer for the first phase, with work possibly starting next year.


http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2013/04/15/progress-in-plan-to-revamp-liverpool-s-run-down-lime-street-100252-33173162/


One commenter says

10:19 PM on 15/4/2013
I was initially delighted to hear of the intended revamp of Lime Street. But, when it became clear that there would be a direct involvement of Neptune Developments, my happiness soon dampened. This company have the knack of gaining access to high profile locations, and blighting them with buildings of banal mediocrity, which detract from what is already there. Their development on Brownlow Hill now means we are denied views of the iconic Victoria Building from across the university campus.. The nondescript clutter around the Catholic Cathedral is theirs. as is the carbuncle at Mann Island, along with the Lego monstrosity at the mouth of the Mersey at New Brighton.. They did Queens Square and now they will do Lime St.. Well and truly

another calling themselves Dubliner says

3:16 PM on 15/4/2013
More sloppy journalism from the Echo. The Anglo Irish Bank hasn't existed since it was wound down in 2011 being one of the major players in Ireland's Banking Crisis. Now either the journalist meant it's successor the IBRC or more likely the Allied Irish Bank (AIB).
Echo please double check your facts before reporting them, your mistakes are becoming far too common place these days.


So why are the City Council buying land for property developers?

Mann Island-Liverpool's World Heritage S*ite

Paul Vickers from Radio 4's Beyond Westminster programme came into my shop to interview me about the Mann Island Development Friday last.

They will have to edit a section when I slipped up and called it Liverpool's World Heritage S*ite. "What have they done he said none of it was there last time I was in Liverpool" he said, "Now I am supposed to be impartial, but"
 "Tell me about it" I said.
The programme is about the governments plans to relax the planning laws, to simplify them.....I had to laugh.
This development was covered by A World Heritage Convention and Liverpool's inclusion to uphold its principles, A conservation area act status, planning guidelines and considering the amount of listed buildings there its consent, oh and the framework for the protection of the Conservation areas. "Only the system is corrupt" I added "When you have spivs such as Fib-Dem leaders Trevor Jones and Mike Storey and their now defunct puppet Warren Bradley running the system you don't have a chance". I hope they leave that part in.  
This is the latest building to go up Y'know they knocked Steers House on Chavasse Park down, one of the most hated buildings in Liverpool, and they built Steers House opposite only 15 storeys higher.
Where is the common sense in that.
Liverpool's planning laws have always been streamlined for Neptune Developments, Rob Mason, a director used to work for the council. Steve Parry may be on the programme it will only be a 10 minute slot at 11.30 am on Saturday morning.
 Lets hope they show the corruption in the Liverpool planning system up for what it is. And lets hope there are a few M.P's listening and one of them thinks to tighten up the planning laws and keep corrupted councillors with sticky fingers and their local PR companies..........the local press out of it.

And let the public have their say, give it an equality of arms to fight the likes of this bad systematic destruction of a once proud assett.
Below is a BBC Merseyside link. This is what we had to say at the time of the planning application passed on a casting vote by the Lady Doreen Jones who was the English Heritage Historic Environment Champion, and Trevor's wife, at the time. http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/03/14/capcult_regen_mann_island_feature.shtml

Oh and remember what it looked like.







We had it all and a hand full of corrupted councillors sold it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/07/25/mann_island_resubmittedplans_feature.shtml

Neptune Developments Caught Employing Illegal Immigrants on Mann Island

David Bartlett writes in the Echo
A TEAM of illegal workers are to be removed from the country after being caught in a raid on Liverpool’s waterfront.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) caught seven Indian nationals working illegally at the Countryside Neptune development on Mann Island, the ECHO can reveal.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/02/08/illegal-workers-seized-at-liverpool-s-mann-island-100252-25784173/

He goes on;
A spokesman for UKBA said: “There was an intelligence-led operation in Liverpool at Mann Island Project Construction Site in Liverpool city centre.

“Seven Indian nationals who were working illegally were found, and appropriate action has been taken.
“We won’t tolerate illegal working in our communities, and we’re working hard to clamp down on this issue to reduce the attractiveness of the UK to illegal immigrants.
“Anyone who takes on a foreign national without permission to work in the UK is breaking the law, undermining law abiding businesses and faces a big fine.
“There are strict rules about which foreign nationals can get a job in the UK and businesses have a clear responsibility to carry out the right checks.”
A spokesman for Neptune Developments said;
It was working with Bam to make sure there was no repeat of the incident.

“We are disappointed and concerned by what has happened, particularly given our strong commitment to delivering local employment and maintaining stringent health and safety standards.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/01/north-west-development-agency-shysters.html
This job is funded by taxpayers money through the North Vested Interest Development Agency (NWDA)and sponsered by Merseytravel.
Local company using illegal labour hang your head in shame Steve Parry of Neptune Development aren;t you making enough money.

This follows on from our breaking news story two weeks ago........better late than never.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/01/border-agency-raid-at-mann-island-five.html

Further more the NWDA are giving them more money. This time to ruin New Brighton with a Morrissons supermarket on the seafront. How many millions of the public purse can one greedy company employing illegals get?.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/02/09/3-9-million-boost-to-major-wirral-development-scheme-92534-25791950/

Mann Island-The Damage Has Been Well and Truly Done

Here is what we had and below what we have now got.
The Daily Post has done a debate today (2 years too late unfortunately) bringing in some big guns, well apart from Peter Brown who as the chairman of the Merseyside Civic Society. Who has let it go down the drain until it is no more than a weak drivel.
He teaches at Liverpool University.
Rob Mason of Neptune Developments trained at Liverpool University as did Matt Brooks the Architect of the "Three Grotesques". How strange that he should then support the scheme after telling me that the development was awful. Pat Moran is a council member of the Civic Society, along with Tony Moscardini the only ones I trust to tell the truth. I resigned as a council member in disgust at the vested interests within the Society, after being invited on the council. They have no presence at all. Unless it affects the individuals directly they dont seem to care. Monthly meetings of three for the Civic Society are not uncommon. What a waste of time.
Big hitters such as Gavin Stamp know what they are talking about he has made at least two programmes and written so much about Liverpool he knows the place better than some who live here.
I prepared a Channel 5 programme for Ptolemy Dean it was called "Britain's Vanishing Views". He sketched the view before it disappeared and was unequivocal in his argument.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/03/14/capcult_regen_mann_island_feature.shtml
So here is the debate...look at the before and after pictures and make up your own mind.
Jury still out on Liverpool Mann Island blocks
Jun 24 2009 by William Leece, Liverpool Daily Post


As Liverpool’s world-famous waterfront undergoes its most radical change in a century, Peter Elson and William Leece report on the debate surrounding the new development
TWO years after work started on the £120m redevelopment of the Mann Island site to the south of Liverpool’s Pier Head, the public are starting to take notice.
And although plans were scrutinised carefully and approved by bodies like English Heritage and the Commission from the Built Environment (CABE), public opinion is still split over the changes they will bring to Liverpool’s cityscape.
The three blocks, designed by Broadway Malyan, make up a mixed commercial and residential development, by Neptune Developments, in Liverpool, and the northern office of Countryside Properties, in Warrington.
The site, in the words of its publicists, “will become a vibrant waterfront destination comprising dockside cafes and restaurants, shops, sheltered public spaces, a new exhibition venue, 376 apartments and a 140,000 square feet of high-quality commercial office space.”
Gavin Stamp, trustee and former chairman of the influential 20th Century Society, is unequivocal about the three blocks.
“They should not be built. Not only is this a World Heritage Site, but there needs to be a break between the great 20th century group of the Pier Head’s Three Graces and the 19th-century group of the Albert Dock.
“It was fine as it was before with low-level buildings between the landmark groups, acting as a buffer zone so that neither of those groups are overwhelmed.
“It’s nothing to do with the World Heritage Site holding back development. This is just a very bad idea visually, as it does not respect the character of the place.
“I don’t understand why new office and apartment blocks have to be built in Liverpool, when the city has so many fine old buildings and newer properties lying empty.
“This last building boom in Liverpool has been a disaster. At best there’s a lot of mediocrity, and there’s got to be a higher quality of architecture.”
Mike McDonough, of 21st Century Liverpool, a pressure group to promote forward-thinking ideas for the city, supports the new Mann Island development, however.
“Based on what I see, it’s a really good scheme,” he says.
“There’s been so much criticism about the new buildings, but people forget that the Pier Head Buildings made bold statements in their day.
“These new granite blocks are doing the same thing. The Three Graces have a mixture of three styles and what Liverpool needs is that same bold sense of direction.
“We should stop designing buildings which are over-contextualised in terms of keeping their style quiet, but which stand out in their own right.
‘THAT was what Liverpool adopted in the 1900s when it wanted to show it was far more than just a port full of warehouses.
“The function of this building is apartments and you could argue that we have enough of those already.
“But there has been no end of planning and tweaking of the finished design to ensure that what is being built is complementary to the nearby buildings.
“In the same way, the new Museum of Liverpool complements the Three Graces with its palette to match their stonework. The new museum is admittedly quite large, but it’s needed to do a specific job.
“Interestingly, the previous Mann Island schemes, like Will Alsop’s Cloud and Richard Rogers’s scheme, were far more bold than the present one, yet more people seemed to like them.”

As Liverpool’s world-famous waterfront undergoes its most radical change in a century, Peter Elson and William Leece report on the debate surrounding the new development
Ptolemy Dean, architect and co-star of BBC 2’s Restoration programme also wrote and presented the Channel 5 series Vanishing Views, including an episode about Mann Island.
“The whole group of original buildings is brilliant. Until recently, by sheer good fortune, the clarity of Liverpool’s greatness as a port and 20th- century commercial centre was preserved,” he says.
“It’s the spaces between the buildings that matter and that’s being taken away, with the wonderful sense of the skyline, so we are losing a vital part of the story.
“You get a sense of how massive these buildings are because of the gaps between them.”
The three new granite block buildings are, he says, “like sitting in an opera and hearing a mobile phone go off. The illusion is shattered by something interrupting it.”
Peter Brown, chairman of Merseyside Civic Society, personally feels that the Mann Island scheme is a good one, although other society members disagree.
“I’ve been quite happy with the way it’s been handled and the final outcome. It would have been better if there was a masterplan, but in its absence this is the best scheme.
“My view is that it complements both the new museum and the Pier Head Three Graces.
“The new Mann Island blocks are square and black, so it’s a stark contrast with the white of the sloping new Museum of Liverpool and the classicism of the Three Graces.
“I think it’s a mistake to keep a ‘fire free’ zone between Albert Dock and the Pier Head. There is a need for financial stimulation in that area and to show entrepreneurial skills.
“The scheme offered the prospect for this and the architects worked it out well. They also managed to exceed their brief and more views of the Three Graces were retained than was proposed. I appreciate that the principal view from the south is obstructed, but none of these buildings were planned as a group, nor was it expected that these views would not be built across.
“We need a modern statement to showcase the aspirations of this city.
“It’s all consistent with what was proposed.”
PATRICK MORAN, the veteran Liverpool conservation campaigner and historian, says: “There’s a magic number and that’s three, which applies to the three Pier Head Buildings, so they should stand alone.
“What upsets me is that the spaces around the building, which are as important the buildings themselves, have been vandalised and lost. They have stolen the sky.
“The new Mann Island development has totally destroyed the iconic view of Liverpool from The Strand by interfering with the space.
“It completely obliterates the classic skyline, known throughout the world, when we were told that it would not be higher than the cornice on the Port of Liverpool Building.
“This is my Liverpool, the part I love most and when people came here they realised it was a place that mattered. It’s now being changed, but not for the better.”
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2009/06/24/jury-still-out-on-mann-island-blocks-92534-23960446/

Neptune Developments-World Heritage Vandals

Neptune are they from another Planet?

Or are they on Uranus?

These are the first looks of what the "stick a brick granite" finish is for the world heritage site. Good eh!!!

The funding for these blocks is paying for the new X-Box, Egg Box Museum.

Clever eh!!

They told us this was a quality building.

Oh alright spin us another one, just like the other one!!

In the News today is the blurb that Neptune are to begin vandalising New Brighton. That's both sides of the Mersey ruined.

http://www.ldpbusiness.co.uk/liverpool-news/liverpool-business-news/2009/05/20/neptune-plans-autumn-start-date-for-new-brighton-redevelopment-96026-23666952/

NEPTUNE DEVELOPMENTS.

They of the "Three Grotesques".

Rob Mason has a lot to say for himself. http://www.neptunedevelopments.co.uk/

After graduating as a Civil Engineer, Rob was employed by an Engineering Consultancy. He returned to university to study for a masters degree in Civil Design. Rob subsequently spent 14 years working on regeneration projects, both with Liverpool City Council and Liverpool Land Development Company prior to joining Neptune in 2004.

It is interesting that Mike"Jackanory" Storey became Lord Mayor yesterday despite having to resign as council leader in disgrace. He was working for the museums when the go-ahead was given for the egg box museum...oh and he was on the committee of the NWDA where the funding came from to build it. He was a director of Liverpool Land Development Company. Funny that so was Rob Mason of Neptune, NOW there's a co-incidence.

Storey was Mentored by Trevor Jones whose wife Lady Doreen was chair of the planning committee passing all plans laid before her for the WHS, Exercising a casting vote for the "Three Grotesques". Storey was in the thick of it pushing the ruination of the WHS ....and he's back like a bad penny he always turns up.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/05/20/former-council-leader-cllr-mike-storey-elected-lord-mayor-of-liverpool-92534-23667070/.

Clever Trevor was an ex Lord Mayor himself.

WHERE ARE UNESCO.