Car ban to create city’s ‘gay village’ a step nearer
Aug 16 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post
Car ban to create city’s ‘gay village’ a step nearer
Cllr Steve Radford, Liberal Party leader, said his party encouraged people to respond to the consultation, and that “96%” of the signatures they collected were in favour of installing bollards.
Cllr Radford, who is also co-chair of Liverpool’s Gay Business Association, supports an early closure of the roads.
He said: “We want to create a café culture like Canal Street in Manchester, 10pm would defeat the point. Some businesses will want to see it no later than 7pm or 8pm.
“We want to diversify the usage of the city centre and a 10pm start would not attract that kind of business.”
City centre councillorNick Small, who represents the area, said: “I think this is a really important moment. This is the start of moving things forward on the gay quarter.
“The deal is going to be on the hours of operation. I think there’s going to be a deal between 8pm and 10pm.
“When I’ve met with daytime businesses, they are all completely behind the gay village proposals.”
Cllr Small said he is hoping a stakeholder group will be set up to share the views of both day and night-time businesses and local residents.
