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LIVERPOOL’S newly-elected council leader, Joe Anderson, last night set out his new vision for the city at the first meeting of the authority since Labour swept to power.

Cllr Anderson said he looked forward to all the challenges of leading the city, but took the opportunity to tear into Cllr Warren Bradley’s outgoing Liberal Democrat administration.

Cllr Anderson, in his first official speech as leader of the council, said: “I said on election night I came into politics not to be someone but to do something, and I believe there is still a lot to be done in Liverpool.

“We have had unprecedented investment from the Government and Europe, millions of pounds on hospitals, schools, roads, teachers, doctors and nurses.

“It has been a huge opportunity lost, because it has been squandered by a council following a narrow, blinkered policy that has let Liverpool down.

“The mantra of investing the bulk of this cash in our city centre – in new homes, swanky million-pound apartments, offices, new public buildings – with the hope this new prosperity would trickle down to the suburbs was not only flawed, but wholly unjust.