Olympic swimmer backs south for city’s new map

Jan 18 2008 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

AN OLYMPIC swimmer says south Liverpool is just as Scouse as the rest of the city – and it gave him the opportunity to excel in his chosen sport.

Steve Parry, who won a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, has nominated his birthplace of Allerton to be included in the Liverpool Map, as he says the area adds an important dimension to the city.

Steve learnt to swim in south Liverpool, and thinks the area’s open spaces give budding sportsmen and women a place to hone their skills.

He said: “I would definitely like to see Allerton on the map.

“I do not think people from south Liverpool see themselves as any less Scouse than our friends in the north of the city.

“It adds an important dimension to the city; whenever you drive through Allerton, you see children and young people playing football, basketball, cricket – all sports and this is important in such a sporty city.

“It is also very picturesque and offers people a bit of greenery, compared to the city centre.

The Liverpool Map project is aiming to define the city’s boundaries geographically, historically and culturally to celebrate 2008.

The new map will show where the people of Merseyside think Liverpool’s borders are and it will also highlight Liverpool’s local, national and global influences.

Not everybody wants to be included in our Liverpool Map, however. Al Wills rejects the nomination for Wirral by Brick Up the Mersey Tunnels actress Suzanne Collins on Tuesday.

He said: “Wirral has never em- braced Merseyside as our region; we were undemocratically dumped in it by bureaucrats who did not realise the Mersey was a much wider boundary river than it appeared on the map.

“The attempt to create a cross-river Parliamentary seat with Wallasey and Everton illustrated the strength of opposition against Wirral merging with Liverpool, a view shared on both sides of the Mersey.”

lizawilliams