I’M LOOKING forward to receiving my copy of the Merseyside Economic Review.

Published today, the MER takes an overview of the state of the local economy. It is therefore an important document.

Previous years’ editions have provided a vast array of data and statistics about the region’s economic performance.

One word of warning, though. The MER is published by The Mersey Partnership, the body responsible for promoting the region, so you have to be wary of the spin that comes with it.

For example, TMP proudly claims that Merseyside is one of the lowest carbon-emitting regions in Britain. It could be that we have transformed ourselves into a dynamic, low-carbon economy, but I suspect the truth is that our green credentials are a function of low economic activity.

Yet, scepticism aside, Merseyside has very obviously made some progress in its bid to close the productivity gap with the rest of the UK. The thing is, we still have a very long way to go to actually eliminate the gap altogether.

A big problem with the MER is that the data is inevitably old. That’s because government statisticians take the best part of two years to produce sub-regional data for the counties and local authorities of Britain.

As a result, none of the bragging that TMP does today will take account of the credit crunch or recession. This has hurt the region every bit as much as it has hurt the rest of the country. But this last sentence, though, contains a nugget of good news. That’s because previous recessions have hurt the sub-region more than the rest of the country.

However TMP try to spin it, the recession has meant fewer shoppers at Liverpool One, fewer visitors to the Echo Arena, fewer passengers using Liverpool John Lennon Airport. Fewer cars have been manufactured and fewer hours worked at Halewood. Fewer tourists have visited our attractions than would have been the case in previous years, and our hotels are not as busy as they might have been. Some of our residents’ homes will have been repossessed, and many thousands have been added to the unemployment statistics..

So, maybe TMP shouldn’t try to pretend everything is so hunky-dory. Hopefully, a note of realism will be heard amid all the spin.

MERSEYRAIL has spent £860,000 on “upgrading” what it calls the “runaway success” of Liverpool South Parkway.

For those that don’t know yet, Liverpool South Parkway is the suburban railway station that used to be called West Allerton until it received tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash to turn it into something that would befit a busy Intercity line.

Many observers feel that this was money poorly spent, with the facilities looking far too grand for the relative trickle of about 4,000 local commuters that use it each day. Given many of these people will be making a return journey during the peak hours, there must be some parts of the day when the station has the appearance of a deserted white elephant.

Merseyrail tells us that the station’s car park is full by 10am most days, and therefore 60 new spaces are needed.

Surely, though, 10am is not all that convincing. Do south Liverpool residents get to work late most mornings?

Sadly, Liverpool South Parkway still seems far too extravagant for the market it serves.