Letters to the Editor - October 04th

Oct 4 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Statues for our famous sons

I WAS very interested in the article in Monday’s Daily Post about Terry McGunigle, the artist who has started a renaissance in Bootle.

Also, I agree that what he does is “proper art”, not the rubbish from the modern con-artists, who usually get all the publicity.

Yet again, it is an example of how much natural talent there is in Liverpool and its surrounds. But how much of this has been recognised by the Capital of Culture people?

One of the greatest ideas to come out over the past few years was the 100 portraits of living Merseysiders done by Tony Brown and exhibited at various venues in the city.

As far as I know, this was a solo effort.

Wouldn’t it be good now to have statues around the city of famous Merseysiders?

This is the sort of thing the Capital of Culture money should have gone on, instead of the fat salaries of administrators.

Tom Murphy has done some grand statues of great people which are already standing.

But numerous other famous people have not been recognised in this way.

What about statues of Alan Bleasdale, Ken Dodd, Noel Chavasse (already done by Tom Murphy, but not on display), Willie Russell, Bessie Braddock, Beryl Bainbridge, some of the great Grand National jockeys, footballers, musicians, more writers, the list goes on and on.

This is what visitors expect from a Capital of Culture – to know why Liverpool is so famous.

R Edwards, Woolton

Lasting legacy

THIS week’s AGM of The Mersey Partnership was uplifting, yet cautionary.

The incoming chief executive Lorraine Rogers spoke down-to- earth common sense which everyone will relate to.

Hopefully, she will be listened to by our city region leaders. She epitomises quality rather than quantity.

The keynote speaker Robin Oakley gave us a wake-up call for 2008. “Accept your great city for what it is, warts and all. Don’t apologise – celebrate! Remove the rawness, the accent and the humour, and you lessen the attraction of the place”.

He’s absolutely right.

But he also noticed flaws – like the taped commentary on a Mersey Ferry referring to a future event in 2004.

It took an outsider to mention that three years after the event. We all need to carry out inspections like he did. We have just three months to rid ourselves of such embarrassments.

2008 is for the city region as much as for visitors. So when the chairman Roy Morris referred to “having been lucky enough” to attend the event in the Anglican cathedral when QE2 was in town, it made me think. Such events should be seen by Merseysiders, too.

Let’s erect more big screens like the one in Clayton Square, then the divisive exclusivity of the great events of 2008 and beyond will be gone, and everyone will be exposed to the great cultural events.

That would give us the lasting legacy we seek from winning the scholarship of European Capital of Culture.

Ian Meadows, Past Chairman, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce

Wonderful play

WHAT a pity Monday’s correspondent, Ms Jennings, left during the interval of King Cotton. She not only missed one of the most effective set changes I have witnessed in a lifetime of theatre-going, but the moral message that love and human decency can survive and even the worst aspects of commercial greed, religious hypocrisy, even the idealism of Thomas Payne or Marxism, imposed on the masses by the powerful.

Those who expected a rip-roaring musical could have been disappointed by the soulful spirituals or sometimes mournful strains of the brass band. Those hoping for a polemic denouncement of the slavery trade should have visited the slavery exhibition instead.

The title was the clue, the flyers and the programme made it obvious this would be no pantomime but an intense reflection of a specific bleak moment in the 1860s, ie, the cotton famine and the role of the Alabama.

The lampooning of Abraham Lincoln, France and God would have got up the noses of those of a strict persuasion; indeed Jimmy McGovern’s writing tends to affront the prejudiced. All my guests from a Lancashire mill town thoroughly appreciated this well-researched, adroit, thought-provoking drama.

E Roberts, Crosby

End the roadworks

I KNOW there’s nothing new in complaining about the roadworks and this may just seem like another whinge, but really – when will they ever end?

This morning (Monday, October 2) part of The Strand was closed, Old Hall Street was closed. There were further roadworks in Wavertree, blocking just about every route into town from that end.

The traffic jams were consistent all the way from Childwall to the city centre.

I accept that this work has to be done, but what I don’t understand is why it has to be all done at once. Nor do I comprehend why everything takes so long to complete.

Take the repaving of Church Street, for example. That has taken at least a year to do and is still ongoing.

It would not take a year to build 50 patios – which is effectively what that strip of pedestrianised street is – with less manpower.

Liverpool’s birthday has come and gone, 2008 is just around the corner. Surely it is time for the roadworks to come to an end.

J Harrison, Childwall

Culture funding

LIVERPOOL City Council have had four years to sort out funding for the Capital of Culture.

Predictably, on the eve of 2008, building projects are not started and £20m still needs to be found.

Of course, it will be the tax-payer who will have to make sacrifices, one way or another, and the city’s chief financial officer is warning of council tax rises, cuts in services and putting money from land sales towards the Capital of Culture budget.

All of the options are bad news. But the last is not only regrettable, it is unlawful. Revenue from the sale of public property has be spent on infrastructure that benefits everyone, rather than a city pet project which still appears to have little to do with ordinary people.

And, if this option is given the green light, does this mean a rush to sell off green spaces to the developer offering the highest bid?

It would be hard to see how that fit in with the theme of culture.

M Bourke, Rock Ferry

Car park disputes

HOW ludicrous is the idea of fining people who park in disabled and mother and child spots in car parks? Supermarket car parks these days seem to have a vast number of disabled bays and endless numbers of ordinary bays. I can’t accept that so many able-bodied people are abusing disabled bays that the only way to stop them is with the threat of a financial reprimand.

As for mother and child spots, I really don’t understand the point of those. How do you actually qualify for one of those? How old is a “child” for the purposes of these bays?

If I go shopping with my mother, for example, do we not then qualify as a mother and child? Supermarkets could be setting themselves up for disaster by trying to enforce that one.

G Swinton, Halewood

Enough spaces

FULL marks to Asda for clamping down on inconsiderate people who park in disabled and family bays in car parks.

There are more than enough spaces, and many people these days could do with the exercise of walking to the store entrance.

L WIlson, Wavertree

Doing their job

IT AMAZES me when people start complaining about parking tickets and talking about traffic wardens as if they are the Devil incarnate.

They are just doing their job, as anyone else would, and only put tickets on cars that are parked illegally.

People who park illegally are parking dangerously and placing at risk the lives of others, including the elderly and children.

They should not be doing this and if they do it is right that they are punished.

P Harvey, West Derby

Tory fight-back

IF GORDON BROWN thought last week that he could just call a snap general election, and then romp home to victory, he must be having second thoughts this week.

The Conservatives have started their fight-back and, just when everyone thought they were history, people are actually starting to pay attention to their policies.

Protecting married couples, helping people get on the housing ladder, not penalising people just because they have worked hard and made some money. These may not be the most fashionable of policies, but they are likely to be popular.

David Cameron has been the brunt of many jokes over the last year or so, but Labour write him off at their peril.

G Lucas, Winstanley

Police briefings

IN REFERENCE to your article about a young 15-year- old girl being allegedly raped. This was appalling news and my thoughts go out to the family.

However, regarding Cllr Moffatt’s comments about not being briefed by police regarding this particular incident, he appears unaware that this was not in Croxteth ward, but West Derby ward.

The “alleyway” in Fordlea Road is nowhere near the vicinity of Croxteth Park housing estate. Councillors are regularly briefed by the police but only about their area committee boundaries, within Lower Lane policing area, and this incident took place in another geographic policing area of Eaton Road.

Cllr Rose Bailey, Spokesperson for Community Safety