Letters to the Editor - 25th April 2008

Apr 25 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Replacing an eyesore

RE: “CITY eyesore can be remodelled, say urban experts” (Monday, April 21).

John Egan's suggestion that “no one will shed a tear for the shops in front of Lime Street station” suggests a disregard for the small businesses whose futures are jeopardised by the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) process.

CPOs are a necessary regeneration tool, but the fact is the current system is weighted firmly in favour of the acquiring authorities and developers.

Big business may not be shedding any tears, but for those at the receiving end it’s a very different story.

Affected businesses are forced to relocate and take on the risks of restarting their business before they have received any compensation for the costs involved.

The thrust of the CPO at Lime Street has always been to remove Concourse House from the Liverpool skyline.

If the decision is now taken not to remove the building after all the time and money spent on this project, the whole purpose of the lengthy and disruptive CPO process will be invalidated – a major insult to the businesses whose livelihoods have been risked.

Rather than a campaign to save what is widely regarded as an eyesore, we should be making sure that Liverpool Vision delivers a landmark building to replace it.

Philip Rees-Roberts, principal of Rees-Roberts Solicitors

Obstructing vista

IT MATTERS not how you dress up Concourse House.

You may even build a new concrete cube in its place, even a replica of a beautiful building in the classical style.

However, the obvious fault will remain and that is the obstructive positioning to a wonderful vista of some of Liverpool’s most cherished architecture, St George’s Hall, the Walker Art Gallery and not to mention the obvious advantage of seeing the grand entrance to the station.

J Murphy, L18

Voice of reason

IT IS wonderful to hear such a voice of reason crying out before the law-makers of this country; it is just a shame it took the vile murder of a good man for it to be heard.

Helen Newlove speaks for a nation of fearful individuals who feel we have been abandoned by the police and the courts, who feel there are areas in this city and most others up and down the land where it is simply not safe to go and, even in “safe” areas, people walk warily in the evenings for fear of the cancer that has invaded our streets and preys on decent people.

The cause is manifold. Two generations of parents have brought their children up to believe they can do what they want, when they want and that no one but they themselves matter.

The police have pulled back from their visible presence and tend only to race around in cars – ideal for major incidents but leaving communities under a cloud of fear.

The judiciary appear to take a ludicrous stance on crime, failing to punish adequately. The lawmakers live in their rarified little kingdoms, never having to set foot in the “real” streets of this country and, therefore, never experience the fears that prey on many individuals.

It is time we were listened to and long past time that the minority of individuals who blight the lives of the majority, and the families that created them, were made to pay a heavy penalty for their crimes.

RJM, Allerton

Right and wrong

WELL done to Garry Newlove’s widow, Helen, for standing up to the real problem that is afflicting this country today, that is kids not being taught right and wrong by their parents.

The Labour Government can pass all sorts of PC laws to safeguard the rights of every gender, sexual orientation and race, and it can nanny us about drinking, drugs smoking, but what it can’t seem to do much about is protecting people against its youth.

It is a shame it takes such a tragic situation for politicians to listen.

Stephen Jameson, Prenton

Historical find

I WAS delighted to hear that a hunting knife used to open the North Docks in Bootle, in 1881, is coming to Liverpool, as reported in your paper.

On the recent Time Team programme, which highlighted the 30 foot of wall left from the original Steers dock, now buried under Chavasse car park, we also saw the magnificent find that was made at the Pier Head – the origin- al Manchester Dock, with its intact gates, which had escaped the Blitz.

Wow! What a find its our history, you would think, but the dock gates were smashed off with a JCB. We saw the Time Team parading the shards of pottery found at the Manchester dock site and briefly we saw the dock gates with the JCB hovering over it.

We also saw the Nova Scotia huddle of houses soon to be built over. How ironic to be placing a commemorative souvenir from the opening of one dock in a new museum which in itself amounts to a commemorative souvenir of the sad destruction of Manchester dock, which pre-dated the Albert Dock by 60 years.

Chares Korsham, via email

Slavery issue

IT WAS a superb programme on Channel 4, on Liverpool’s first Dock recently.

However, it was spoilt by them showing a monument to Lord Nelson, of the four prisoners of war in chains which depicts four of his battles, and referencing them to slavery and its Liverpool connection from over 200 years ago. I believe it is time the slavery issue (although this was a disgraceful time in our history), be put into the context of the early 19th century. If we need to talk about slavery, let us talk about the big issue in Africa were slavery is still going on today in the 21st century.

Len J Ellison, Gayton

Symbol of unity

HOW uplifting to see the surge in sales of St George’s Day party kits, which apparently now outsell for the first time St Patrick’s Day party kits.

I’ve never understood why it’s regarded as perfectly satisfactory for the Irish, Scots and Welsh – plus any number of other nations – to make a bally-hoo over their patron saints’ days. Meanwhile, anyone who suggests such a celebration for the English patron saint is branded xenophobic or racist.

Yet surely we’re marking English virtues of bravery, deter- mination and constancy, all of which St George displayed. He should be remembered as a symbol of unity, not hostility.

As many readers know, St George hailed from Asia Minor. And as for my own St George’s Day party, my only kit was a nice, sensible glass of English sherry from which I drank to the memory of the man himself – and good international relations. And very nice it was, too!

E Best (Mrs), West Derby

Who is a terrorist?

WAS IT right that Kingston Crown Court found Abu Izzadeen guilty of inciting terrorism overseas?

What right has a British court got to decide that the Iraqi resistance who oppose our occupation are terrorists? Who decides who is a terrorist?

From what I’ve read, Abu Izzadeen called for support for the Iraqi resistance when they were holed up in Falluja.

During the Second World War, Britain actively supported the resistance movements in France and Yugoslavia who the Nazis called terrorists. Are not the Iraqi resistance simply brave patriots doing exactly what we would do if our country was faced with a brutal occupation that had slaughtered nearly a million of our countrymen?

Mark Holt, Stop the War Coalition

Why the smile?

RECENT pictures of Gordon Brown that I have seen appear to show him smiling as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.

Excuse me, but with the country and the economy in the state they’re in, what does he have to smile about?

The teachers are back out on strike for the first time in 20 years, petrol prices have reached an all-time high and stocks are being rationed in the Prime Minister’s own constituency and the housing market is slowing down as homeowners face the threat of repossession and redundancy?

So, is Mr Brown keeping something from the rest of us that means everything’s going to be all right?

J Hughes, Allerton

The model person

I AGREED with your columnist Emma Johnson that it was unlikely that Coleen McLoughlin was ever really likely to be found wearing Asda clothes.

Equally less likely is the idea that anyone more “up-market” is going to be the figurehead for the brand, like Joanna Lumley, Sienna Miller or Carla Bruni.

Carla Bruni, who went from supermodel and girlfriend of rock legends, to folk guitarist and Jackie O impersonator.

Will her next move really be to become the woman who pats her jeans-clad backside and says “that’s Asda price”? It might pay well, but there are limits.

Claire Evans, Ellesmere Port

At a standstill

JUST when I thought I had seen the worst snarl-ups that The Strand was capable of, it truly reached new heights this week as you reported in your paper on Thursday.

I know we are in the final throes of this development but it has stretched my patience, not to men- tion my petrol budget, sitting in stationary traffic for all this time. And I am with your other letter writer on the subject of the under- ground car park, as surely there’s no way that’s going to work.

JJ Mills, Warrington

Not a disgrace

YOUR correspondent DH Smith, of Frodsham, stated (Letters, April 23) it was a disgrace, after a night at the Echo Arena, not to be able to find anywhere serving coffee.

There are many things that can be truly described as disgraceful, going without coffee for a couple of hours is not one of them!

Andrew Kirby, Seaforth