RARELY can there have been such a worthwhile investment anywhere as the £164m ploughed into the Echo Arena Liverpool and BT Convention Centre.

When the idea for the new venue was first mooted, it was believed it would bring benefits to Liverpool. But it has succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

The roll-call of pop acts who have performed at the Arena is a veritable Who’s Who from the top ranks of the rock star firmament. And now the litany of organisations that is making use of the Convention Centre is reaching similarly stratospheric levels.

The Lib-Dems’ autumn conference is coming to the city this year, the Labour Party are coming here next year, and the Conservatives, too, have taken a good look around with the aim of adding Liverpool to their list of possible conference venues.

Today we have revealed in addition that the National Union of Teachers will convene in the city for five days this April, bringing in 1,500 delegates and roughly the same number again in family and friends. Experts estimate the event will be worth around £1m to the city.

The wonder of the Arena and Convention Centre, of course, is that it has become a self-perpetuating success story. Every time a major conference goes there, the TV cameras go along, too, to broadcast news coverage, and some other organisation might be prompted to observe admiringly “that looks interesting”.

Some have gone so far as to say that Liverpool has now reinvented itself as a conference city. Who could indeed have imagined a few years ago that all three main political parties would contemplate abandoning the delights of Blackpool, Brighton and Bournemouth to come to Liverpool instead?

We may not have the beaches – but we undoubtedly have much, much more besides.