Letters to the Editor - 21st March 2008

Mar 21 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Essential for Liverpool

I ENJOYED reading George Powell’s challenge to Liverpool’s public agencies to justify their presence at the MIPIM property fair in Cannes (Letters, Daily Post, March 19).

Let’s imagine for a moment that we were talking about eggs, not cities. Let’s says that Eggfest is the annual international exhibition for the world’s egg producers, and held annually somewhere glamorous like Cannes.ŠYou run an egg plant and have invested millions in your production capacity – all ethical and RSPB approved, of course – and you know that all the main egg buyers from the world’s food companies will be there.

Where do you think you’d be for that week? On holiday with the kids?ŠPlaying golf?ŠOf course not.ŠEggfest it is, then.

Because if you weren’t there you’d be a bit daft, wouldn’t you?ŠBuyers of eggs wouldn’t be aware of all your new investment that makes for better eggs and the whole egg supply chain would forget that you’re a player in the market.Š

All your investment would be jeopardised and meanwhile your competitors are forging stronger.

And so it is that Liverpool must be at MIPIM.ŠIn my opinion, the organisers work miracles with their £300,000 budget.

Because, if you’ve been to MIPIM, you’d understand just how effective it is at establishing and deepening the vital relationships that lead to investment in Liverpool.

One last point: I’ve been to seven out of the last eight MIPIMs (at my own expense, of course).Š The one I missed resulted in a flurry of emails from people in the property supply chain asking me where I was and why I wasn’t there.ŠYou can be sure I won’t miss another.

Dougal Paver, managing director, Paver Smith & Co

Inappropriate

I READ in Saturday’s Daily Post, the article about the current Edge Lane fiasco and how an eyesore has been allowed to blight one of our main entrances to the city in European Capital of Culture year.

The recent Cabe report is damning of Liverpool City Council and the handling of that area and the council has created most of the past eyesores with a lack of cohesion and disrespect to its inhabitants.

The judge did not rule in favour of the council to clear the particular eyesore he ruled upon.

Berni Turner subsequently said that the judge wants a sound slap.

With this sort of disrespectful tone, I am sure we would not wish to put any case of Liverpool’s back to his court. And may I say this is a very bad attitude from a representative of the city. No matter how upset she is, this sort of language will not be helpful in the future.

Ms Turner should be reprimanded by her party for this sort of comment, it may seem acceptable in the council chamber but it should not be directed to someone who has all the material facts in front of them. And after the Liberal Democrat council mess of boarding up most of the area, I wonder just who it is who needs a slap.

Charles Korsham

Bugged by litter

MARCH is the last month of winter, “Nature’s waiting room”, CS Lewis called it. But while the countryside in general clings to hibernation, the nation’s verges are blooming with perennial colour. The skimpy undergrowth and skeletal trees provide a perfect canvas for that most disgraceful display of modern art… roadside litter.

After the high winds of recent weeks, the plastic bag trees are heavy with their discarded fruit. The roadside margins and central reservations reveal blooming herbaceous borders of multi-coloured crisp bags, ever-yellow burger boxes and brown-rimmed designer coffee cartons.

Councils do their best to preserve the cleanliness of the urban space and individuals will often avoid polluting their own back-yards, but the open road is a landfill free-for-all. Aliens alighting on the A50 between Stoke and Derby would have no difficulty in discovering the life artifacts of our modern civilisation. Even the backwaters are not immune; a short stroll along a quiet Welsh highway reveals not sparrows nesting in the hedgerows but nappies, fag packets and plastic milk bottles.

Nature however, will soon spring into life and wrap this indigestible human compost with long grass, nettles and bramble, leaving consciences quiet in the winter of our litter-bugging discontent.

John Parker, Birkenhead

Fighting back

ECHOING the views of local Labour leader Joe Anderson, Andy Burnham MP has compared Liverpool unfavourably with (Labour-controlled) Manchester (Daily Post, March 15).

This has revealed publicly the government bias which has been apparent for a long time. For example, in allowing Manchester to capitalise some of the costs of the 2002 Commonwealth Games while refusing Liverpool the same facility with our own assets, providing extra funding for additional policing of £4.2m for the week of the 2006 Labour Party conference and £8m for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, yet refusing Merseyside a single extra penny for our year as the UK Government’s nominee as European Capital of Culture.

Our two main stated priorities when we took over the council in 1998 were to reduce Labour’s annual maximum rises in council tax and to sort out the education system. We have undoubtedly succeeded in those priorities. And if we had aped Manchester in the last 10 years, as suggested, council tax would have increased by 42.5% instead of 18.6% and our band D rate would now be £1,515 instead of £1,252 while our 5A*-C GCSE results figures – despite Manchester being much better funded per pupil – would be about 8% worse than they are.

Cllr Paul Clein, executive member for children’s services, Liverpool City Council

Casualty

THE Royal Hospital redevelopment plan trumpeted this week means bed cuts and privatisation. PFI means paying private companies to build, own and profit from the hospital.

The cuts are based on an unproven strategy to reduce demand by promoting community services. It sounds nice but no-one actually knows if it will work nor even have enough community staff to succeed. The Daily Post quotes Liverpool PCT’s Dr Rihani stating “We don’t believe we need more than 650 beds”. What if he’s wrong?

New medicines must be proven effective before they are prescribed by the NHS, but the Royal will cut 200 beds without any published evidence that they will not be needed in 2012.

Large PFI hospital projects cause a debt crisis once they start operating, leading to further cuts in clinical provision, as Edinburgh researchers discovered.

Many NHS Trusts are wallowing in debt directly caused by PFI, from Coventry to Worcestershire, South East London and Manchester. The Royal PFI debt will run for decades, even if the building is replaced again.

Why should we be the next PFI casualty?

Danny McGowan, Secretary, Merseyside Keep Our NHS Public

Left turn

THERE was once a time when those on the right of the political spectrum were known as reactionaries. However, it’s plain to see that the Conservative Party is now the home of progressive, common-sense politics.

This is proven by Alex Black’s knee-jerk reactions every time a Liverpool Conservative writes a letter (letters March 19). Nobody could argue that the arguments in these letters were not well composed or well intentioned, yet Alex maintains that migrant workers should be able to claim money for children living abroad, when there are so many of our own children living below the poverty line, and that military personnel wounded in action should be placed on civilian wards.

The left is now the home of the establishment reactionary.

Alan Davenport, West Derby

Find the funding

MY GRANDSON recently asked me to take him to a football tournament in Norris Green. It was run by Robbie the Bobby, a policeman from Lower Lane, and an associate. He had only arranged this in the afternoon and I was amazed to see how many children were there.

At the end of the tournament, I had a word with Robbie, who told me he was trying to get funding, for this to be done on a permanent basis. With all the troubles in this area, I was amazed he had to ask for funding, surely our council could fund a scheme like this as it can only do good for the community.

If Robbie and his friends can give their time, the matter of funding should be a small price to pay. Those kids really enjoyed themselves, I feel sure this could be the sort of thing that could bring communities together, please don’t let it be lost by a small amount of funding.

J Caddick, Liverpool 11

Morale booster

MEN and women returning from active service in Afghanistan are allowed to wear the General Service medal given to them by the British government and, since they are part of the NATO coalition forces, they are also given a NATO medal but are not allowed to wear it.

The current conflict is often likened to the Korean War, in which British forces were authorised to wear both the British and United Nations medal, with which they were rewarded. Is the situation today so very different?

No extra cost would be involved and the morale of our troops would surely be greatly enhanced if both Afghanistan medals could be authorised to be worn.

G Allt, Maresfield

Reunited

WE ARE hoping to arrange a reunion of old pupils from Mill Road School, Bebington. We are Chris Bennett, Janice Lindley, Gwen Crofton, Gill Thomas and Lindsey Roberts. If you remember any of us and are interested in a get-together, please contact me on 0151 334 1829 or Janice on 0151 608 9720.

C Bennett, via email