Letters to the Editor - 10th March 2008

Mar 10 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Concerned for city’s future

IS LIVERPOOL truly re-inventing itself? Amid an array of new development which is all spectacular and long overdue, there is a quiet concern surely about were our city is headed.

I say this not as a dismissal of what Liverpool has achieved and is in the throes of achieving, but with a concern about the long term as there doesn't seem to be any indication of what Liverpool's new role in the world is going to be.

Yes, we have seen major regeneration over the last few years and that is ongoing. We are now visibly breaking down the negative images of the city and the word "new" is used in almost all coverage of Liverpool.

But there are many areas of the city not feeling any of this change. We have to have a city centre that is strong and attractive as, like with the heart of any living thing, if it’s not up to scratch everything else suffers.

But, at the same time, we have to ensure the whole city has a purpose and function again.

A lot of the new development is centring around tourism, leisure and retail.

Should we surely not be focusing the same level of interest on establishing a more concrete base for our economy? More attention on industry and commerce or creating a stronger political presence for Liverpool?

Maybe these comments are premature and the whole process we are seeing today is the piecing together of the new Liverpool, of image and of economy. But there is a niggling worry that we are simply becoming another Manchester or Leeds.

Liverpool has always been different – should we now be looking to go one better and look out to the rest of the world for a new purpose and meaning to Liverpool? Or, in 50 years, will we become another Blackpool? Lots of things to see but a ghost town when the show’s over.

Michael McDonough, 21C Liverpool

Removal of services

I CAN sympathise with B Richardson’s problems (DP Letters, March 5) with trying to buy a road tax licence disc in Birkenhead and the remark about the self-serving behaviour of MPs in the cabinet who are trying to stop individual closures in their particular constituencies.

In fact, the actual number of Labour cabinet ministers fighting to save post offices in their constituencies is 20.

They are really doing this to save their own electoral skins, as opposed to reversing their Government’s policy on the closure of 2,500 post offices nationally.

Therefore, these politicians have received the message that angry voters believe this closure programme will destroy an important part of the structure and convenience of British life.

What is so incredible is that they won’t do anything about it, unless it affects them personally and tips them off the well-cosseted gravy train of Parliamentary life. This is self-serving behaviour by our politicians taken to a new low level.

Soon, all the bulwarks to our communities will be gone. Fading religious belief, even in rural communities where the church used to be such a focus, means many parish churches are in dire straits.

Commercial pressures from cheap supermarket drink and bar chains are seeing traditional pubs sell-up faster than ever.

So what does the Labour government do? Removes business from post offices so they, too, disappear in spite of performing an invaluable service to their communities and visitors.

Now our Prime Minister has been backed by MPs in deciding we don’t need a referendum on the new European Treaty, perhaps we should gratefully hand over running the country to the EU Brussels.

Surely they can’t make a worse mess of it?

S Tomkinson, via email

Health provision

WITH reference to “The Whole Story” (Letters, March 6).

Wirral PCT is committed to ensuring high-quality health services free at the point of use. On occasion, we do use private providers. Over the last year, more than 1,550 people were referred for cataract treatment to Netcare in a mobile unit at St Catherine’s Hospital and for orthopaedic treatment to Interhealth at Runcorn. They were treated more quickly than would have been possible otherwise.

I can confirm there are no plans to force any of our 61 practices into “polyclinics” in Wirral. In agreement with practices, we are developing new centres – eg, in Liscard, Wallasey, where three practices will share a brand new building. When we draw up these plans, we consult with patients of the practices concerned.

We are discussing with practices and patient groups how we can improve access to GPs. We are undertaking a major public consultation exercise. Of 3,000 comments analysed so far, over 1,000 have highlighted problems in GP access.

Your correspondent rightly reports that many people are content with their practices. But we also need to listen to those who are not so happy and see how we can try to meet their needs.

We are pleased that GP leaders have agreed with NHS employers a way forward and will work with our GPs over the coming weeks to reach local agreement. We are also exploring the possibility of bringing new GPs into our walk-in-centre, so patients can access a GP as well as a nurse between 8am and 8pm, 7 days a week. This is in addition to the 61 practices we already have.

For more information, contact our Have Your Say team on 0800 085 1547 or e-mail haveyoursay@wirralpct.nhs.uk.

Kathy Doran, chief executive

Loyalty to city

IN HIS letter published on Friday, Michael Durkin makes an interesting point about how Liverpool has been part of England’s history for 800 years and has perfectly mirrored the state of the nation, rising, falling and regenerating.

There is some truth in this, though the fall of the 1970s and 80s was sharper here than in other British cities, and the regeneration has not yet been so complete.

However, I suspect that he is referring to an article in the paper earlier in the week about the city’s sculptures, in which a young woman said that she didn’t feel English, so much as a person from Liverpool.

She was obviously not denying that Liverpool was English and part of the country’s history, but she was expressing the sentiments that her first love was for city rather than for the country.

This is a loyalty felt by many people in this city and many others. Traditionally, this was understood in the Army, where regiments often drew their support from a geographical locality or city – like the King’s of Manchester and Liverpool.

Less happily, the loyalty for town/city/county over country is often seen in football and other sports.

It is quite possible to feel Liverpudlian first and still be a proud English/British subject.

Arthur Connolly, Bootle

Keep the sculpture

HERE we go again, it's the Iron Men all over again!

Although I wasn't keen on the Superlambanana when it first arrived in the city, I have grown to like it, as have many other people, and I would now be sorry to see it go, especially with all the interest in the smaller versions being put around the city for Culture year.

Surely Liverpool City Council should have thought this through and realised that the SLB was on loan for a specified period and at the end of that time the artist wasn't going to give it to us free of charge.

A plan should have been put in place to either let it go or purchase it – if they planned on purchasing it, money should have been put aside for this purpose.

L Husband, Allerton

Innocent days?

WHAT happened to innocent schooldays in Liverpool?

Thursday's news had three appalling events. In one school, a seven-year-old girl brandished a steak knife, in another an eight-year-old boy found a stash of cocaine and in yet another there were images of a 13-year-old girl having sex being passed around pupils' phones.

All events succinctly demonstrate how debased modern city society has become. A typical day in school then: sex, drugs and violence. There must be some really proud parents out there.

Derek Jackson, Childwall

In public hands

I READ with surprise that The Beatles Story has been purchased by the publicly-funded Merseytravel (Daily Post Page Five, March 7).

No doubt there is a business plan in place and it is good news that one of the city’s biggest visitor attractions is now in public hands.

But we have the right to know how, if at all, this will affect prices at the rail stations, bus stops and the toll booths. Is the income from the 10p toll increase going to pay for this? Are the profits from The Beatles Story going to be used to subsidise bus and rail travel?

Name and address supplied

Biggest event

IT IS fantastic to hear that the budget for this year’s Mathew Street festival has been doubled, but what a shame we had to go through all the pain and embarrassment of last year’s debacle first.

This event is one of the county’s biggest and we should always make the most of it in Capital of Culture year and every other year too.

F Gregson, Wavertree

Stuck in traffic

IS IT just me, or is the traffic congestion situation on The Strand getting worse?

It seems that the gridlock, from 4.30pm onwards, goes from near Costco to the police HQ, barely moving.

It’s bad enough for commuters, but visitors coming to the city and trying to get to either the Albert Dock or the new Echo Arena must despair.

Friends of mine were going to X Factor last Tuesday, and were stuck for almost 40 minutes in traffic.

Mrs D Woods, Aigburth