Liverpool Pathfinders-Left High And Dry

Yesterday I posted about how the Sunday Times journalist Olivier Shah reports on Liverpool without even visiting the city, she googled it. Though she mentioned the Liverpool Preservation Trust, that does not mean we have to have any respect for a pathetic piece of reporting entitled, Born Again Liverpool Dances to a Different Beat, and shows a picture of yesterdays man Paul McCartney, seems like the same old boring recycled shit to me.

As Correspondent points out its not only The Daily Ghost who recycle the same old nonsense.

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/03/oldham-hall-streets-parallel-universe.html

While yesterdays front page at the Daily Ghost said how wonderful it is they are filming an advert for the Range Rover here, now it maybe is good news, but front page?

Its a tale of two cities in Oldham? Hall Street.  http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2011/03/07/liverpool-to-star-in-global-range-rover-launch-92534-28289161/

Yesterday the BBC showed a report on the disastrous Pathfinders scheme on Merseyside where now the least able in society are left high and dry by mismanagement and dare I say Elizebeth Pascoes self effacing campaign to show herself as some sort of champion for the people.

 I have never subscribed to this or to all the complimentary gestures made by architectural mercenaries and bandwagon jumpers such as Trevor Skempton and the rest of them, including Jonathan Brown at the Merseyside Civic Society.

These areas need regeneration, a more careful approach was needed to care for the vulnerable section of society but work needed doing to create areas fit for living in todays age.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12662502

It was always going to be a mess with Warren"war zones" Bradley leading the way.

He drives his fire engine around Toxteth putting out fires.......with blinkers on to the plight of his fellow citizens.

While the middle class upstarts at SAVE Britain's Heritage do all they can to upset as many people as possible, and further their own publicity machine.

Click on the BBC report and SPARE A THOUGHT FOR THOSE TRAPPED IN THE QUAGMIRE OF GOVERNMENT BLUNDERING THAT WAS IMPLEMENTED BY A INEPT COUNCIL LEADER, THROW IN A FEW MIDDLE CLASS TWITS MASQUERADING AS URBAN WARRIORS AND IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE A COCK UP.  

Littlewoods Edge Lane-The Decay Really Sets In Hard.

There was a scheme to relocate a school in the Littlewoods building in Edge Lane. This is now off. This Art Deco building should have been the site for the new museum of Liverpool, instead of ruining the world heritage site. English Heritage said the area should have been made a conservation area but with Mike Storey as Liverpool Land company top dog it was always going to be spivved to a cosy developer such as Urban Splash. They have now abandoned the idea. It was and still may be owned by the North Vested Interest Development Agency which means that we are watching it decay week by week. When will it fall down.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/liverpool-museums-how-much-have-they.html

Now the proposed relocation of a school inside is off with the announcement of huge budget cuts.

Major projects scrapped include the moving of two Church of England secondaries, Sefton Park’s St Hilda’s and city-centre based Archbishop Blanch into the iconic Littlewoods building within Edge Lane’s Innovation Park. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/07/06/black-day-for-liverpool-education-as-tories-and-lib-dems-scrap-350m-school-rebuilding-programme-92534-26792438/ The Daily Ghost reports. Incidently theschools involved said they did not want to move.

Previously they had heraded the idea as wonderful claiming the building had been saved.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/06/17/planners-back-plans-to-build-schools-in-liverpool-littlewoods-building-despite-business-fears-92534-23895959/

We did not quite agree.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/littlewoods-edge-lane-still-in-peril.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/05/littlewoods-building-edge-lane-decay.html

Elizebeth Pascoe had to pack her bags http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/03/pathfinders-edge-lane-road-to-nowhere.html While Joe Anderson stood by http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/05/liverpools-joe-anderson-we-will-scrap.html While he was sucking up to the busessman who owns most of Edge Lane http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/05/littlewoods-building-edge-lane-decay.html

Liverpools Joe Anderson-"We Will Scrap Home Demolitions"

Joe Anderson Liverpools new council leader will make an urgent review of Liverpools HMRI schemes. Warrens War Zones. This is his first pledge in his first interview since wrestling power from the Fib Dem spivs that have been doing more damage than good to Liverpool since siezing power over a decade ago. Cllr Anderson said: “I am hugely proud that we have been given the opportunity to lead this city. But we think the culture of the way this council operates needs to change.”  He said the Labour party would break down bureaucracy and transform the council into an “entrepreneurial organisation”.

“I am hugely proud that we have been given the opportunity to lead this city. I would not change it for any other city in the country.
“It is a massive opportunity to move forward to the next level and build on what has been achieved in the past 12 to 14 years due to the regeneration and investment.
“But we have got to recognise there are huge financial challenges and some difficult decisions to be made.
“I will not shirk from making those decisions.”
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8668630.stm
Of course we heard all this sort of bluster when Warren Bradley was puppeted into the leaders role after Mike Storey was forced to resign in disgrace.
regeneration of the city’s Boot estate.

“We will run this city for the whole of the city. There are too many parts of this city, too many areas that have been totally let down.
“We have to connect the opportunities that will come to this city for everyone – making sure there are apprenticeships created.
“That is going to be something the city council can lead on and encourage businesses to take on young people.”
Ahead of the local elections Lib-Dem leader Warren Bradley admitted failings in HMRI, saying some areas had been left like war zones.
“We don’t disagree on that,” said Cllr Anderson.
“There has been an inertia that has gripped this city in terms of dealing with many, many things.
“In housing in particular it is as if someone has pressed the pause button. We have the desperate plight of 23,000 on the housing waiting list, and 9,000 of those are classed as being in need.
“So Cllr Bradley was admitting to an astounding failure. It is absolutely obscene that there are 13,000 houses boarded up and 600 people leaving the city each year.
“In order to sustain the city, to protect its infrastructure we have to stop the migration.
“And to do that one of the things we have to do is build social housing and affordable housing.
“I will be urgently reviewing HMRI.
“If necessary we will scrap parts of the proposed demolitions.”
Housing associations have been approached about kick starting the building of affordable homes.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/05/10/former-merchant-navy-man-is-new-leader-of-liverpool-council-100252-26411624/

Its all a bit late for Elizebeth Pascoe though.

Meanwhile Warren who created the war-zones is now under pressure to resign.

Pathfinders Edge Lane-The Road to Nowhere.

Images have been released for the revamp of Edge Lane. It is reported that Liverpool’s planning committee is expected to approve plans for 188 homes tomorrow.

Developer Bellway said it wants to start work on the project, which will take three years to build, as soon as demolition work is completed in around six months.

It forms part of the larger scheme which will see Edge Lane widened to make it into a dual carriageway and improve traffic flows between the city centre and the M62.
Divisional regeneration manager Paul Howard said: “This is a momentous moment for the project. It’s been a long process and we are delighted that it is coming to fruition.”
The plans include 42 flats, 73 duplex apartments, 67 houses, six bungalows and a new park called Gladstone Square.
Mr Howard said the buildings facing on to Edge Lane would predominantly be apartments and flats.
Some will feature roof-top terraces with south facing views towards Wavertree.
He added: “The scheme is aspirational, there’s no doubt about it. It’s a real gateway to the city. Quality has not been compromised in any way.”
The site where the homes will be built is bounded by Edge Lane, Marmaduke Street, Gladstone Road and Durning Road – with Royston Street running through the middle.
Trees will be planted in front of the apartments on the southern side of Edge Lane to create a boulevard atmosphere.
David Rudkin, of Halsall Lloyd Partnership architects, said: “It’s a modern interpretation of the architecture that was there before.”
Work on the commercial hub, based off Jubilee Drive, is unlikely to start until the effects of the recession have gone.
It is hoped progress can start being made in early 2011.
http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news/article.php?id=54

Meanwhile Charles Clover gets it a bit right about the plight of the people whose lives have been thrown int turmoil by some half brained idea by some boffin in Whitehall.


CURS sold the idea to John Prescott’s sprawling department. Nevin was brought in as an adviser. Parliament and press were never properly consulted — otherwise there would have been an outcry. The idea was buried in a paragraph in Prescott’s 2002 Communities Plan. Prescott got the money from Ed Balls at the Treasury, whose wife, Yvette Cooper, came to preside over the 12 pathfinders as housing minister.

Nevin is now acting chief executive of NewHeartlands, the pathfinder which is ripping the heart out of Bootle and Edge Hill and is about to start on the lovely “Welsh streets” in Toxteth, where Ringo Starr was born. But his ideas are increasingly under fire. The theory of housing market renewal identifies the cheapest housing as a problem requiring state intervention. It ignores the welfare of the people affected, the quality of their houses or how well they fit into the cityscape, the environmental impact of demolishing them and the blight that the threat of demolition imposes on an area.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7035090.ece
Well worth a read.
Nemisis wrote http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/02/elizabeth-pascoe-is-finally-evicted.html
http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/04/two-heroines-against-pathfinders.html

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/02/01/liverpool-edge-lane-campaigner-forcing-me-to-leave-my-home-is-a-violation-92534-25730351/
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Edge%20Lane%20Liverpool

http://www.edge-lane.info/

Liverpool City Council-Criminals-R-Us

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Steve%20Hurst http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2009/06/have-the-liberal-democrats-cha.html

Liverpool City Council leader Warren Bradley facing Liberal Democrat rebellion.
Jun 26 2009 by Marc Waddington, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL Council leader Warren Bradley was last night facing a rebellion from within his own benches over his continued support for convicted councillor Steve Hurst.
Members privately say they are deeply troubled that the local party rules – which appear to forbid anyone convicted under the Representation of the People Act to seek nomination – could be disregarded in order to let Cllr Hurst stand again.
Wavertree Cllr Hurst was last year convicted of breaking election law under the Act after being caught distributing leaflets smearing a Labour rival and her husband.
The judge said at the end of an appeal that Cllr Hurst had been responsible for “dirty tactics of the worst kind”, but city leader Cllr Bradley has stuck by him throughout, to the dismay of some members.
Now, ahead of a Labour motion on July 8 calling on Cllr Hurst to resign from his seat, several senior Lib-Dem sources say there is a strong chance some will abstain from voting to avoid being whipped into supporting Cllr Hurst.
The issue is gaining importance as the Lib-Dems currently have a wafer-thin majority of one, and just a couple of defections could see the party lose power in Liver-pool for the first time in 11 years.
Cllr Hurst’s term of office comes to an end next year in the safe Wavertree seat.
Some party colleagues fear the ongoing scandal could affect their chances of re-election.
The Daily Post has obtained a copy of a candidate application form sent out ahead of the selection of candidates for the 2010 elections.
The form states that “people who have been guilty of corrupt or illegal practices under the Representation of the People Act are disqualified from being a candidate”.
A spokesman from the party’s national office said: “Cllr Hurst declared his conviction to his local party in line with their standard approval procedures and has been re-approved for selection by his local party.”
This statement appears to contradict the candidate form, but the national office said it could not get further involved unless it received a complaint from a member of the public or a Lib-Dem party member.
Last night Cllr Bradley declined to comment and said it was an internal party matter.
Senior Lib-Dems told the Daily Post Cllr Bradley’s support for Cllr Hurst had “split the party from top to bottom” and it could cost the party control of the council at next year’s local elections.
One member said: “I was going to say in a way I feel sorry for Steve but actually, I don’t. He is no friend of mine. But he was Warren’s best mate and that’s the ticket to power and influence.”
Another said: “He has got a criminal record. It shows a total lack of judgement on the leader’s part.”
The Daily Post understands that prior to an earlier Labour no confidence vote, efforts were made to locate Cllr Stuart Monkcom – on holiday in Guernsey at the time –with a view to even flying him back for the vote.
When asked about his position on the matter, Cllr Monkcom said that it would have been “incongruous” for him to take part in such a vote as he was a member of the city council’s standards committee.
Lib-Dem Cllr Roger Johnston was picked up and returned by taxi to the Royal Hospital to be able to take part in the recent vote.
Cllr Johnson dismissed sugges-tions he had been forced to attend, but said he felt “the rules were quite clear” about whether Cllr Hurst is allowed to stand again.
Last night Cllr Joe Anderson, Labour leader, said: “If a convicted criminal is allowed to get away with it, it will be a slap in the face to the legal system.
“I know there are decent Lib-Dem councillors and I hope they will back our motion.”
In May the Daily Post revea-led how campaigning grand-mother Elizabeth Pascoe is planning to stand in 2010’s elections against Cllr Hurst.
Ms Pascoe, who has battled against Edge Lane regeneration, said she wanted to take a stand against the Lib-Dems’ decision to allow him to remain part of the group and appoint him to a £5,675 position on Merseytravel’s board.
At the time Cllr Bradley said: “I am sure Steve will be re-elected for Wavertree next year.”


WHAT A DICK YOU ARE MR BRADLEY.

http://www.warrenbradley.com/ Check out his website. He has gone mad.

Once after my interview on BBC Northwest talking about my disgust for the proposals at the Pier Head, he, next on said "Liverpool has always had controversy, there was a lot of controversy when they built the Liver Buildings 800 years ago".

I should YouTube it.

Wayne Colquhoun

Vote Elizebeth Pascoe to Flatten Hurst

Well does Hurst know what he is letting himself in for Elizebeth is on the case and here we have an honourable hard fighting woman against a Spiv Fib-Dem shouldnt be much competition.
http://www.edge-lane.com/
Considering it was Hurst as a Executive Council member who pushed the plans through to demolish her house in Edge Lane isnt this a bit ironic that she may flatten him at the next election.
Good luck Elizebeth.
Campaigning Liverpool grandmother to stand against law break councillor
May 27 2009 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

CAMPAIGNING grandmother Elizabeth Pascoe is to stand in next year’s Liverpool Council elections against a Liberal Democrat councillor convicted of breaking election law.
Ms Pascoe, who made her name in Liverpool fighting to save her home in a battle against Edge Lane regeneration, will be running as a direct challenge to Cllr Steve Hurst in his Wavertree ward.
Ms Pascoe said she wanted to take a stand against the Lib-Dems’ decision to allow him to remain part of the group and appoint him to a £5,675 position on Merseytravel’s board.
Last night, Ms Pascoe said: “It is high time to clean up politics. I have decided to stand as a Green Party candidate partly because the Green councillors representing Liverpool have a good record of taking a principled stand in favour of ordinary people, and are neither in pockets of big corporations nor filling their own pockets at Westminster.
“If something so simple as the exposure of MPs’ blatant abuse of expenses issue can so obviously shake things up, then we must take this opportunity for an across-the-board clean-up.
“I am so angry with what is happening to Liverpool and Britain, and the world in the name of ‘progress’ when it is blatantly obvious that it is no such thing.
“I need to do something useful with that anger, even though the last thing I thought I would ever want to do was get into politics.”
It will not be Ms Pascoe’s first foray into the political sphere, having stood in 2006 for the Liberal party in the Kensington and Fairfield ward, which she lost to Labour.Cllr Hurst currently enjoys one of the largest majorities in the city, as Wavertree is probably the Lib-Dems’ safest ward.
Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley said: “Steve works very hard in his community and is well known.
“Anyone is entitled to challenge anyone, but I am sure Steve will be re-elected for Wavertree next year.”
Ms Pascoe is also putting herself forward for selection for the Greens as a Westminster Parliamentary candidate for one of the Liverpool constituencies.
Cllr John Coyne, leader of the Greens on the city council, said: “I am very pleased to welcome Elizabeth Pascoe to the council.
“It will be a tough challenge to get her elected to Wavertree, but we are going to take a crack at it.”
In April, Cllr Hurst was condemned by a judge for “dirty tactics of the worst kind”, after failing to have his conviction overturned.
In December last year, he was convicted of delivering a leaflet entitled “Walton Scab,” attacking sitting Labour councillor Pauline Walton and her firefighter husband in the May, 2007, council elections.
At the time, he stood down from Liverpool’s ruling executive board.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/05/27/campaigning-liverpool-grandmother-to-stand-against-law-break-councillor-92534-23720543/2/