EVERY so often, I like to take a stroll down to the Pier Head and bask in the glory of the Three Graces.

It’s easy to take the city you live in for granted, forgetting the glory of a World Heritage waterfront that lies just a short stroll from the city’s commercial quarter.

The central Grace, of course, is the Cunard Building.

We all hope that the building will be one of Liverpool’s eternal landmarks – and, for as long as it stands proud, it will bear the name Cunard.

And it’s easy to imagine that the grand panjandrums of Cunard who erected the building earnestly believed that their business would also be a permanent mainstay of Liverpool’s business scene.

But the Cunard business, of course, is long gone, shipped to Southampton in the 1960s.

And, soon, the Cunard Building’s next-door neighbour will soon also boast a name redolent of business past, rather than business present.

For the Royal Liver Group has now been taken over by rival Royal London. Some of the 220 remaining Royal Liver staff will lose their jobs, while the remainder will move to Royal London’s Cheshire base.

By early next year, just months after the Royal Liver Building’s 100th birthday, there will be no more Royal Liver left inside. Just the name will remain as a memorial to past glories.

So Liverpool’s majestic waterfront is a monument to the impermanence of business. The employers who are today the economic cornerstones of your community may tomorrow be just memories.

It’s surprising how quickly things can change. When I left the Hull Daily Mail in 2007 to come to Liverpool, East Yorkshire’s biggest private sector employer was BAE Systems, with more than 2,000 staff.

But this week BAE said it was cutting 900 jobs from the site – reducing it to just 400 staff.

WE COULD accept this kind of change as inevitable – particularly during a downturn when jobs are being shed across the globe.

Royal Liver was too small to survive. Cunard moved to Southampton because the transatlantic trade moved there. And BAE has been hit hard by the downturn.

But jobs are worth fighting for.

The idea that MBNA’s Chester site could close would once have seemed as unthinkable as the closure of Royal Liver – but now, with the division put up for sale by parent Bank of America, all options are on the table.

I was pleased, however, to hear such optimistic words from Steve Broomhead about the future of the site.

Broomhead, no stranger to negotiations of this type, is upbeat about the prospects for a sale of Chester and for the retention of thousands of jobs.

As the results we reveal today show (Page 1-2), this is a strong business that has returned to profit in the downturn. Bank of America is looking to exit the UK market, but that is no fault of Chester, and is instead a reflection of the problems the bank faces in the US.

MBNA is strongly committed to Chester and the wider community, sponsoring all manner of projects and striving to be a good neighbour. The bank is also, along with M&S Money, a cornerstone of Chester’s financial services economy.

So, for the sake of its 3,500 staff, let’s hope MBNA can agree a speedy sale.

The name on MBNA’s building may change. But the heart of the business must beat on – which will be great news for Chester, and for the thousands of families who depend upon its success.