Letters to the Editor - 29th April 2008

Apr 29 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Chaos spoils Arena concert

OUR first visit to the magnificent Echo Arena on Saturday, April 19, 2008, was contemplated with eager anticipation.

The journey by car from Columbus Quay, which would normally take five minutes, was extended to one hour 40mins. As a consequence, in common with hundreds of others, we arrived just before the interval of the concert.

As a perfect example of organised chaos, it is an indictment of management rather than any reflection on the competence or commitment of the venue staff.

The symptoms of a lack of staff training and the complete absence of any executive direction or control were evident from the vision of attendants in high- visibility clothing dashing around like headless chickens.

That is with the exception of the sight of a posse of attendants directed to the adjacent surface car park to issue fixed penalty notices with obvious zeal.

Requesting assistance from three attendants inside the Arena to locate our seats, not one was either able, or apparently willing, to fulfil the task.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed what remained of the concert and prepared for our journey home. Again, along with hundreds of others, we were trapped on the seventh level of the car park until our eventual evacuation 65 minutes later.

It requires little imagination to visualise the potential consequences of an emergency, and it is impossible to resist the comparison of the resources deployed for matches at the local football stadiums.

This hard-won opportunity to showcase the renaissance of Liverpool is in serious danger of deteriorating from a celebration as European Capital of Culture into an embarrassing European Capital of Calamity.

Alfred Lennon, via email

Amber gamblers

IT WAS interesting to read the letters in Thursday's edition (Daily Post, April 24) about the traffic and the confusion for the concert at the new Liverpool Arena, as my family and I were also caught up in all the traffic, way before even reaching the Arena.

We were heading for the end-of-term production at LIPA, so don't know what happened after the turn-off into the Arena, but any traffic problems in there were only part of the problem.

We were heading along The Strand, eventually to Upper Parliament Street, and the hold-ups started at the dock exit from the Birkenhead Tunnel.

This is supposedly controlled by traffic lights, but they may as well have been Christmas fairy lights for all the notice that drivers were taking of what colour they were. I have never, in 39 years of driving, seen so many consecutive red-light violations in my life.

I am particularly annoyed that there is no traffic light camera installed there, as I have recently avoided prosecution for going through a red light myself, just 1.16 seconds after it changed – and you are allowed one second!

Now I have had to agree to do a 4-hour driving class in St Helens to avoid prosecution.

It also strikes me that, at £60 a time, it would, of course, be a great little earner for someone.

Jim O'Neil, Hoylake

Do you know Alice?

I AM looking for information on Sydney and Alice Saunders or their family.

Sydney was born in Watford in 1897, and was a merchant seaman during the 1920s and 1930s and probably later.

Most of his voyages were with the Cunard and Canadian Pacific Lines to New York and St John or Montreal.

His address in the early 1920s was 55, Schubert Street, Seaforth. He died in the early 1950s, and it is known that he was still living in, or close to, the city then.

Admittedly, this is only the sketchiest of information, but I am hoping that perhaps one or more of your readers will recognise the names and, if so, I would very much appreciate hearing from them and, of course, if any member of the family sees this letter, it will be an additional bonus.

Sydney was an uncle I never knew and his children would be my cousins.

My family history searches have traced the families of all but two, Sydney being one of these, and I am anxious to fill this gap.

If anyone can provide even the smallest piece of information, I would be pleased to hear from them by letter to 7 Consort Mews, Whitton Dene, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 7NA, or e-mail to derek@wheatley1421.fsnet.co.uk

Derek Wheatley, Middlesex

Anti-German riots

READING Lusitania survivor Barbara McDermott’s obituary (Daily Post, April 22) reminded me of my father telling me about anti-German riots in Liverpool when he was a boy.

One such incident was directed against a blameless German butcher named Deubler, in Picton Road, Wavertree, close to where my father lived at the time.

What we now call mindless vandals trashed his shop (I don’t know if he went out of business). Regarding America’s delayed entry into the war after the Lusitania tragedy, some years ago I had a letter published in the paper, in which I pondered about this tardiness.

This prompted several replies and I think all or most of them stated that the reason was German interference in American affairs, especially concerning New Mexico.

Unfortunately, I did not keep this correspondence.

Perhaps other readers can throw some light on this particular point.

Rosalind McArt, L15

Don’t forget the rest

I READ with interest Jenny Frost’s article published last Tuesday in the Daily Post, but there are other musical genres that have been of interest to a lot of people in the Liverpool area.

There have been a lot of heavy rock bands and prog/rock bands that have hit the area. These are bands that concentrate on music ability rather than image, and commerciality.

Heavy Rock bands that come to mind are Nutz, Strife, Export, and Marseille. Prog/rock bands that come to mind are Body, and Red. Body have sold several thousand albums (mainly abroad) but never get much attention, because they don't perform hit singles music.

The great thing about this is Liverpool creates the best and most creative music in the UK.

John Bleasdale, West Kirby

Protect our pensions

I FIND it disgraceful and absurd that one of the most profitable businesses in the UK, Ineos, can be allowed to even contemplate withdrawing its company pension scheme to new employees.

I find it equally disgraceful that the Government, who has said it wishes to enforce employers to provide adequate pension schemes for employees, and thus ensure working people enjoy a reasonable retirement and non-reliance on the state, have not stepped in to stop this fiasco.

It is a total disgrace to the country that this Government is too weak-willed to do anything.

This is the ideal scenario for Mr Gordon Brown to tackle head-on, and force Ineos and any other companies to continue their pension schemes as a matter of government policy.

I wrote recently about the latest Budget and how we have a weak- willed government. May I now suggest we also have a cowering knock-kneed government.

George Gibbons, Bootle

Caution over crime

THE Chief Constable's claim that crime on Merseyside is falling should be viewed with caution.

It has only recently been published in the Daily Post that our police now issue warnings for some crimes, rather than bring charges.

If this is so, it makes a mockery of crime statistics.

Police performance should be assessed for, firstly, the “clear-up” rate for crime, and, secondly, the average number of arrests per officer per year.

The last time these figures were available, they were distressingly low.

BW Hale, Upton

Time to celebrate

THE English moan about other nationalities coming here, but do nothing to celebrate England’s St George.

People fly flags for football – it’s the same one they could have shown on April 23.

I saw one car, one taxi, one pub (well done, Mount Vernon, on your painted window) and two public buildings in the city – no shops, stalls, hotels – with red and white in sight. St George’s Hall also had its flag flying.

My all red and white outfit was out of place and many folk who visited were, like me, totally disgusted – no flags, no music.

Yes, red roses were for sale and although the main hall was being dressed for an evening function, the rest of the place was just like any other day.

Other nations on their day do much more. We must do better (in my dreams).

Name and address withheld

Proud to be English

WHERE were the red and white flags last Wednesday? Many people were aware it was Shakespeare’s birthday, but none of them seemed to remember it was St George’s Day.

Other countries celebrate the day of their patron saint, so why don’t we?

Are we not proud to be English? Do we not like what the St George cross has come to stand for?

And then we learn that Jerusalem has been banned in some churches because it doesn’t count as a hymn.

It’s ridiculous – you wouldn’t catch the French being ashamed of the Marseillaise.

It is time to reclaim the flag and to reclaim our national songs. Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory should be sung on a regular basis in all schools – both by children who were born in England and by those lucky enough to come to live here from elsewhere.

Mrs P Harper, West Kirby