Cherie Blair casts vote for her hometown

Dec 15 2007 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

CHERIE BOOTH has joined our Liverpool Map campaign by nominating her hometown for inclusion in the final artwork.

The high-profile barrister and wife of Tony Blair has thrown Waterloo into the ring for representation on the Liverpool Map – a campaign we are running as a contribution to the Capital of Culture year.

We still want your nominations for areas to include and exclude, as well as votes for a symbol to represent Liverpool.

The final outcome of the project will be a commissioned piece of art, which will be donated to the Museum of Liverpool next year.

Your votes and views will shape how the artwork looks and what is included in it.

You have until Monday to nominate the symbol and the front runner is still the Liver Birds, with 53% of your vote. The city’s waterfront lies in second place, with 35%.

During a trip to Liverpool, Ms Booth said: “I wish to nominate Waterloo to be included on the map. It is a great community in the heart of Merseyside and is wonderfully placed halfway between Liverpool and South-port. It is in a beautiful spot, facing the sea.

“I have very many happy memories of growing up there, it is very special and definitely part of Liverpool as a city.”

Her nomination comes a week after the Earl of Derby put forward Knowsley Hall to be represented.

As well as a flood of correspondence to the Daily Post putting forward areas, in the past week we have received several nominations for places to be excluded from the map.

David Cobham said via email: “I nominate the whole of South- port to be excluded from the Liverpool Map, as it has its own unique identity. But good luck to Liverpool!”

In a letter, George Pringle wrote: “I am not writing to you concerning a town inclusion in your Liverpool Map project but to ensure my town of Bootle is not included. Though our town borders on the edge of Liverpool, we have always regarded ourselves as Bootleans and not Scousers.”

The project is part of Open Culture – a platform to enable the people of Liverpool to engage with the celebrations for 2008. It is a collaboration between Radio City, BBC Radio Merseyside, Liverpool Echo and Daily Post, Phil Redmond with the ICDC and Liverpool Culture Company.

lizawilliams