Welsh Presbyterian Chapel, Heathfield Road-Another One Bite The Dust.

Bethel Chapel will not be listed by English Heretics. It sits facing Penny Lane. Remember this is the city that incredibly knocked down the Cavern Club in Mathew Street, and then renamed itself Beatles City. English Heretics used the previous application to list as an assessment without visiting. The listing was supported by the c20 Society, The old Twentieth Century Society, thanks to the local North West Group, and Florence Gerstens SAVE OUR CITY campaign. 

A FOURTH attempt is being made to demolish one of the few remaining Welsh churches in Liverpool.

The Bethel Chapel, in Allerton, has been too big for its congregation for years – with space for 750, it is the largest remaining free church in the city.
But previous plans to create a smaller purpose-built place of worship on the same site have stalled on three occasions.
The last set of plans, including building 48 one and two-bedroom apartments, won planning permission but did not go ahead after a dispute with developers.
The Rev Dr David Ben Rees said the hard decision to demolish the main church, which dates back to 1926, had been taken because it could seat 750 people, but the congregation now only numbered 150. Demolishing the building would also avoid the need to spend between £60,000 and £70,000 repairing the church.
He said the church was still pondering what to do with the site once the church was demolished.
He said: “There will be a big gap for some time once the church is demolished. A lot of people have suggested flats for the elderly, but there is nothing certain at this moment in time. I will be very sorry to see it go. I have been preaching for 40 years in that church.”
He said attempts to get another institution to take over the church as a performance venue had proved fruitless.
If permission is granted to bulldoze the church, it will be pulled down in the summer.
The new chapel will cost around £500,000 and will see the congregation move away from the site temporarily for 18 months.

IF IT WAS ALL THAT SIMPLE http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3076478

Church sued for £600k

3 November, 2006
Property developers take a church in Wales to court after it pulls out of scheme
A church in Wales is involved in an unholy row with two property developers after being accused of reneging on a building scheme.
Property developers Samuel Beilin and William Kearns say they have lost more than £600,000 after the Welsh church encouraged them to spend money on a scheme to develop the Bethel Chapel.
It is alleged that after spending four years funding planning permissions and development schemes, encouraged by the Properties Board of the Calvanistic Methodist Church of Wales, they received a letter pulling out of the scheme.
The church, also known as the Presbyterian Church of Wales, plans to sell the site to another developer and is likely to win planning permission after the work put in by the developers.
Mr Beilin, Mr Kearns, and TRB Estates (Liverpool) say they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on the scheme, and that the church pulled out of the project knowing it was likely the planning application would be granted.
Now the three are suing for “proprietary estoppel”, and are claiming damages for the loss of opportunity to develop the chapel, loss of profit, and for the expenses they have incurred.
They value their claim at more than £600,000, and are also suing Dr Benjamin Rees, of Bethel Chapel in Heathfield Road, Liverpool.
They had originally entered into arrangements with the church in April 2002, when the church asked them to develop the site. As a result they say they expected to be the developers of the scheme, and that the church encouraged them in this expectation.
Read more: http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3076478#ixzz0ntrc72K4

Liverpool Waters-English Heritage Object.

This is the news that is being buried by Liverpools local press while they use the front page to declare that Chinese Investors want to come on board the Peel Holdings gravy train.
Stinky Ink Bartlett only arrived in Shanghai yesterday and already the Daily Peel takes up residence.
http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/05/sci-fi-shanghai-a-giant-city.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiverpoolDailyPost-DaleStreetBlues+%28Liverpool+Daily+Post+-+Dale+Street+Blues%29
Development director Lindsay Ashworth said the company was hopeful of finding a solution to the concerns of English Heritage so a planning submission will be filed in June.
 It was told to me at a SAVE exhibition where he was present that the ex historic Buildings Advisor of English Heritage,  Peter de Figeurido, is employed by Peel Holdings. How convenient. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/04/who-polices-heritage-police.html

This now paves the way for a full public inquiry and we will be writing to the new Secretary of State requesting one. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/liverpool-waters-glass-pie-in-sky-we.html
Lyndsay Ashworth said "We wanted to put in the planning request before we came here, but we have not agreed with English Heritage where all the buildings should be.

"It was not the right thing to do to submit the planning application when English Heritage are not happy with it.”
He said he was hopeful a solution could be found.
"English Heritage want it to happen, but not at the disturbance and loss of heritage.
"They are concerned that we do not do anything that will steal the glory of the Three Graces."
He said a historical study of the northern dock system had identified 80 separate pieces of heritage that should be preserved in the development.
Mr Ashworth added: "A strong objection would concern me and would mean that the Government Office North West would have to refer it to the Government.”

Meanwhile I recieved a copy of an internal e-mail that is very interesting.

Dear All

I wonder if anyone can help with this query.
A contact of mine is dealing with two immense regeneration schemes in the Liverpool and Birkenhead Docks.
The Regional office of EH is keen that the scheme should deliver conservation benefits but the nearest appropriate area to receive such benefits(a square containing several Grade I buildings)is in reasonably good condition and the problem is more one of under-usage and the prospect of long-tem decline.
Is anyone aware of any major schemes where planning conditions or obligations have required the establishment of a Joint Venture Company or other entity to deliver conservation benefits? It would be done through an agreed Management Plan with the company being led by the local authority and involving the developer, local business organisations and property owners.

I would be grateful for any examples.
Many thanks

Historic Buildings & Areas Adviser
Westminster and West London
English Heritage
1 Waterhouse Square
138-142 Holborn
London
EC1N 2ST

I telephoned the sender of this e-mail entitled IHBC_LONDON Joint Venture Companies and asked why they are touting this scheme on behalf of the developers, or so it seems.
The person in question was taken aback and asked how I got a copy of it.
Well it is a public body after all and doing business behind closed doors should be above them.

That said it looks like English Heritage will be taking a great interest in this scheme and of course they should have to involve Icomos and UNESCO, for what thats worth.

THIS IS THE SAME ENGLISH HERITAGE THAT GAVE US THE BLACK COFFINS ON MANN ISLAND AND A NEW MUSEUM While Neil Cossons the Chairman was working for Liverpool Museums. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/05/sir-neil-cossons.html
While a previous Chairman Loyd Grossman was the Chairman of NML http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/loyd-grossman-lectures-us-on-heritage.html

You know some investment is needed but for one tax exile owner of Peel Holdings to make a packet we sjhould not sacrifice our heritage.
The proposals in their current form would destroy the Overall Universal Value of Liverpools World Heritage Site.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liver-peel-conflicts-of-interest-begin.html Meanwhile the conflicts of interest continue the NWDA chairman is a ex Chief Executive of Peel Holdings.
We have found the North Vested Interest Development Agency to be wanting.
Do you care? Are you interested? Write to the Secretary of State at your earliest convenience.

Liverpool World Heritage Site-Before It Was Butchered

Forgot what it looked like before Liverpools Fib-Dems sanctioned its destruction. Liverpools World Heritage Site. Why couldnt they just leave it alone.

This is a letter in todays Daily Ghost
Black behemoths have no merit

SO GLIMPSE is the new view? Well, it is according to a spokesman for Liverpool City Council defending the flouting of development guidelines for the Mann Island site. It’s now OK, apparently, to block out all serious views of the “Three Graces” from the Liverpool side of the river with three black behemoths that have absolutely no architectural worth whatsoever.
If my memory serves me correctly, and it does, wasn’t it the question of views that scuppered The Cloud?
This had two slender, and architecturally distinguished towers that would have been constructed on The Strand, but, according to English Heritage and CABE would damage views of the Three Graces from The Strand, so that scheme was spectacularly abandoned. Now, instead of two slender towers and a Cloud, we have this development that blocks out everything – sorry, provides brief glimpses.
Oh, and yes, I nearly forgot, we also have a museum, built on top of some of Liverpool’s oldest history, almost on the river’s edge, which has attracted a substantial financial penalty because it flouts a “covenant” associated with views from one of the graces.
Could it possibly have been the same spokesman who, when there was an application to build an iconic 52-storey building at Brunswick, justified the rejection of the application by stating that the building would partially obscure the view – yes, view – of the Anglican Cathedral from a tiny conservation area in Birkenhead?
What I can’t understand is where are all these “experts” from the likes of English Heritage and CABE when this sort of thing happens; aren’t they supposed to be protecting our heritage or are they only concerned with preventing the construction of tall building as seems the case?
LDC, Sefton Park
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/letters-to-editor/2010/05/10/letters-to-the-editor-may-10-92534-26411124/

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.

Bye, Bye, Bradley. Liverpools Liberal Democrats Ousted

Its all too late though. The world Heritage Site has been destroyed. Whole swathes of the city have been left as Warrens, War-Zones and maybe people had just about had enough of the way the Liverpool FIB-DEMS had turned into property developers spivs. They were allowed to behave like Cards by the local press. 47 listed buildings downed while a thousand more buildings await the wreckers ball. Liverpool can only be better off. £950,000,000 of European Objective One funding and where has it all gone. And what of Labour most of those War Zones that I am familiar with lie in the Dame of Derelictions constituancy, who is back in with a 51% turnout. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/council/html/3714.stm
It was last local elections with a hung vote that a labour councillor defected to the Fib-Dems that held them in for a further term. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/warren-bradley-talking-about-liverpools.html
Here he is talking from One Park Worst, telling "Presser" his proudest achievement was Grosvenor-Pool.
And you know in the picture you cant even see the strings.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/council/html/3714.stm
He should not have carried on his job as a fireman it was a ridiculous situation every time you saw him it looked like he had just come off the nightshift. Lets hope we dont see him in local politics again. Mike & Trevors puppet.
Bye, Bye.

Liverpools Liberal Democrats-Destroyed the World Heritage Site

Get them out. 47 listed buildings destroyed while the FIB-DEMS have been in power, with so many others awaiting a similar fate. Hundreds more properties are in a perilous situation while the carpet-baggers pick over the carcasses of those that succumb to the neglect. The whole of Liverpool including its WHS will turn into a giant high tensile flat. Whole areas are now blighted with inapropriate developments that make the old look out of place.

Parts of the town centre still look as bad as they did while we have rebranded vthe city as Grosvenor-pool in the eyes of the world.
Parts of Toxteth still look as bad 30 years after the riots as they did during them. And all we hear is spin about how the city has been transformed how wonderful the FIB-DEMS are.
A Busted flush is really what they are and we will have to live with World Heritage disaster while all those "Cosy" developers are in some tax haven with the loot aquired during the binge build years that was Liverpool during the Fib-Dems. And I am not saying Labour would have been better.

Warren Bradley was put there by his mentors Mike Storey http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Mike%20Storey and Sir Trevor Jones http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Sir%20Trevor%20Jones as a puppet to facilitate the ongoing property developers free for all started by, in my opinion, the Property Developing Spiv, Clever Trevor in the 80s, who was bypassed by Hesseltine who set up the Merseyside Development Authority, that gave us the International Garden Festival,  to bypass the corrupted planning system of the time. I was advised by the regional editor, at the time, of the New Statesman, that his solicitor in the 80s was Rex Makin, who, in my opinion,  seems to have a power in this city that is unwaranted. It was alleged the other day by a learned legal friend of mine that Rex has shares in the Trinity "Smoking" Mirror Group. How very convenient.

Warren even said publicly that the Dame of Dereliction, Doreen Jones who was the chair of the planning committee. She who, by casting votes sent us into world heritage disaster by passing the Mann Island Monsters, amongst many other disasters. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Lady%20Doreen%20Jones Doreen, was little Warrens mentor, he declared it publicly.  He brought back in, Mike Storey who had to resign in disgrace. Where is the culpibility. Warren has far too much power for such little brains. Or am I mistaken, is it the Oligarchs of Liverpool, the ones we dont hear too much about who are the clever ones because they have manipulated this city for decades. Cleaned up. Moved to Chester.
While Louise Ellman http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Louise%20Ellman and her friends and aqaintances http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Frank%20McKenna do what they like without effective forces to stop them, or do they want to. Warren Bradley was bezzies with Steve Hurst. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Steve%20Hurst

All this while Trintity "Smoking" Mirrors stand by, oh hang on editor Alistair Macrazy says vote labour http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//2010/05/05/liverpool-echo-editor-alastair-machray-better-the-devil-you-know-vote-labour-100252-26379886/ better the devil you know. Thats the Devil saying vote for the Devil. You just cant win.

Further Reading

http://liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/

Dale Street-Another One Bites The Dust.

 In the World Heritage Site. This piece of, Liverpool Georgiana has laid empty for decades falling down slowly. It is right in front of Municipal Buildings where all the councillors go in and out of. Where Colin "Cover Up" Hilton works. Ignored by many .  It has recently been listed, by the city council with the full weight of Mastermind, Bernie Turner the joke of a Historic Buildings Champion for English Heretics who replaced Doreen Jones, yes you heard it right, the Dame of Disaster. For what reason you may ask was it listed?  Maybe this was to divert attention in 2008 from the impending doom that was awaiting its fate, to pull the wool over the eyes of Unesco and the huge publicity that was attacking Liverpools lack of respect for its culture during http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/berni-turner-liverpools-so-called.html

NOW ITS FATE IS THE WRECKING BALL.

HOW MANY MORE LISTED BUILDINGS CAN WE LOSE?

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/dave-bartlett-blues-he-should-have-gone.html

In 2008 they promised Unesco that 60 were to be listed yes 60.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/02/05/liverpool-georgian-terraces-given-listed-status-64375-20435418/  So why was this awaiting its fate, and how come the engineers now go in over a Bank Holiday Weekend, very convenient you may think, away from prying eyes with this part of the town deserted. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/lets-take-sentimental-journey-with.html ENGINEERS were last night working on a listed building in Dale Street found to be in danger of collapse.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/05/01/liverpool-s-dale-street-listed-building-to-be-partially-demolished-over-collapse-fears-100252-26353950/
The property, directly across from the council’s municipal buildings, is Grade II-listed.After several plans to bring the building back into use failed, the building was left empty and concealed in part with colourful hoardings.
But engineers have now found the building to have rapidly deteriorated.
They will now remove the roof of the building in the hope of relieving the strain and preventing collapse.
Other parts of the structure will also be removed, and safety barriers are in place to stop the public gaining access.
A recent survey of the building found the interior was in a “perilous condition and a risk to public safety as well as a major health and safety hazard”
A city council spokesman said: “A number of options are being considered about the future of the building, including discussing with prospective partners to find a long term solution.”
The Georgian building, from 1819, was included in the Castle Street Conservation Area in 1976. It was listed in February 2008.
Since it became vacant the council and a developer planned to renovate it as part of a scheme which would include the magistrates’ court and the bridewell jail behind it.
But delays in relocating the courts, coupled with the impact of the recession, put paid to the plans.
So it is going the same way that Jamaica House went and to become a hole in the facade of a WHS. , another Georgian Terrace destroyed by stealth.

This is what Big Gob Bernie said at the time in early 2008.

 Liverpool Georgian terraces given listed status

Feb 5 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post
TWO rare Georgian terraces have been given listed status in Liverpool’s World Heritage Site.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has given Grade II listed status to the sites on Dale Street and York Street following a review of historic buildings.
Numbers 86-95 Dale Street/ 2 Cheapside, opposite the city’s Municipal Buildings, were listed as “an unusual survival of the shop house, a building type that is nationally rare, especially outside London and shows the development of new forms of retail premises in late Georgian England.”
The terrace dates from around 1819 and has ground floor shops with living accommodation above.

It still has its original floor plans with some features still intact and along with other listed buildings in the area “epitomises the changes in the physical fabric of the city during the 18th and 19th centuries.”
The York Street buildings are a pair of 18th century townhouses, converted into tenements in the 19th century.
In the listing designation it says: “The buildings highlight the development and changing face of the internationally important port of Liverpool through the 18th century to 20th century from a wealthy residential area to an industrial and commercial area with poorer inhabitants as the port expanded and the wealthy moved out for the city centre.” It adds that the building provides special historic interest by its continual use by those connected with the port “from the wealthy merchant in the 18th century to the sea captains, seafarers and Irish immigrants who lived in the tenements during the 19th and 20th centuries.”

Cllr Berni Turner, Liverpool’s executive member for environment and historic environment champion, said: “We have identified some 60 buildings for potential listing and these are the first of those.

“It shows the efforts we are making to safeguard our Georgian heritage and buildings within the World Heritage site and that we are starting to get results in providing additional protection for these historic buildings.”

This make 47 Listed Buildings to be destroyed under the Liverpool FIB-DEMS.