Letters to the Editor - 16th May 2008

May 16 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Service is improving

I READ Mr Bakalarski's letter in Wednesday’s Daily Post. Contrary to his opinion, Merseyrail is highly experienced in dealing with major events, and has been regularly commended by passengers and organisers alike for our role in making these events into a success from a transport point of view.

A typical example is the annual Grand National Race meeting at Aintree where, over a period of three days in April, our trains took nearly 100,000 passengers to and from the racecourse. We doubled the frequency of trains to eight per hour in each direction.

Similarly, when the Open was held at Hoylake in 2006, spectators enjoyed a great train service to and from Liverpool city centre, and we are planning something similar for this year at Royal Birkdale. For Chester races and similar events, we run a number of additional services made up of six- car trains, particularly at the busiest time in the early evening when the meeting finishes.

I am pleased to say that, although trains were busy last week as you would expect, punctuality and reliability were excellent and race-goers were able to travel comfortably and on time.

As far as the sale of Saveaway tickets at Chester station is concerned, we would very much like our colleagues at Arriva Trains Wales to sell these on our behalf, and we will continue to make the case for this. As Chester is the only station on the Merseyrail network that is not operated by Merseyrail itself, we depend on their co-operation for this.

Your correspondent is right this summer that we are coming up to the fifth anniversary of Serco- NedRailways taking over the Merseyrail concession. Although the service is by no means perfect yet, the partnership between Merseyrail and Merseytravel, the Passenger Transport Executive has seen major improvements over that time and we are determined to carry on improving over the next five years.

Rudi Boersma, Merseyrail

In for a shock

AS WE are all aware, this year marks Liverpool's year as Capital of Culture with the city expecting more visitors than ever.

Those visitors arriving are in for a shock when trying to make their way around the city centre. In fact, the whole area is one very large building site.

It seems that each and every street has pavements undergoing replacement or repair. Traffic lights at junctions are non- operational, and with the various changes that have been made to the vehicular system pedestrians and drivers do not know which way they can and cannot go. In fact, the whole thing is a nightmare, not only for visitors but to those of us that work in the City centre. The whole area is one giant obstacle course.

To add to this, anyone travelling from the Wirral wishing to alight at James Street station is faced with a long walk up a steep incline to enable them to exit onto Water Street. This is due to the refurbishment work currently being undertaken at the James Street entrance.

This work was reported as due for completion in mid-April, and here we are some four weeks later and the work is still ongoing with no decisive date for completion. Anyone wishing to fly into the city cannot, because we have no British Isles air routes other than the Isle of Man and Belfast.

Some Capital of Culture year this is turning out to be.

Vida C Wilson, Bidston

Party politics

I READ with interest some of the contributions to your recent letters page. J Cotting claimed he or she was a current member of the Labour Party. Having checked the Labour Party’s membership list, I can inform you that there is no member of that name in Walton or anywhere else in Liverpool.

Turning to the letter from Ms Knut. She claims that "Labour did not say what they stood for"; she is obviously not an avid reader of your paper, in which you covered at some length the Liverpool Labour Party’s manifesto. Ms Knut’s recollections were also contradicted by another of your correspondents, Derek Marsden, who claimed he "recalled them making all sorts of promises". The one thing all three writers have in common is their defence of the Nadia Stewart/Lib-Dem midnight deal. I would like to draw attention to some facts. At the centre of the Lib-Dem election campaign were two slogans, "Who do you want to run Liverpool?" and "You Decide".

Over 65% of those who cast their vote in the local elections decided they did not want the Lib-Dems to run Liverpool. Despite their clear message, it was Nadia Stewart and Warren Bradley who decided who would run Liverpool.

Perhaps more accurately the Lib-Dems’ slogan should have been: "Nadia Stewart will decide".

Peter Dowling, Chair, Liverpool Labour Local Government Committee

Survival hopes

I COULD not believe my eyes when I saw that the Bluecoat Arts Centre had caught fire, so soon after its costly rebuilding. I do hope that this magnificent building, which is not only one of Liverpool city centre’s finest, but oldest (having been put up between 1717 and 1725) is not too badly damaged.

I know it sounds churlish, but I hope that the damage is confined to the new work and not to the old panelling, fixtures and fittings that make this such a crucial city landmark. Of course, the Bluecoat was going to be demolished until saved by Lord Leverhulme and others in the 1920s, and later suffered severe damage in the Liverpool Blitz.

Each time it has risen phoenix- like from potential disaster, and I hope this is another case of its ability to survive whatever the Fates can throw at it.

Ellen Jones (Mrs), Wavertree

Deserved thrashing

NEW Labour deserved the thrashing it took at the ballot box in the local elections. This is a party that long ago sold its soul to big business, globalisation, corporate agendas and ultimately to Thatcherism.

The current credit crunch and wave of house repossessions which borders on a depression can be clearly traced back to the deregulation of the City of London and Wall Street, in the late 1980s.

Thatcher said the market knows best and, therefore, banks and financial institutions were encouraged to do what they liked. They did and here we are with key financial institutions on both sides of the Atlantic failing, and with the entire international banking system teetering on the brink of collapse.

Unfortunately, Gordon Brown’s faith in this market mantra renders him powerless to do anything about it.

In the past, when New Labour lost elections, they used to blame the party’s left. I wonder who they are going to blame now?

Mark Holt, via email

Inspiring event

MAY I, through your newspaper, congratulate each and every person who had a hand in organising and planning last Sunday’s two-cathedral service.

The civic heads and church leaders led the people of the city slowly along Hope Street, like Moses leading his people to the promised land, stopping half way to pay homage to two great church leaders of the recent past, Archbishop Worlock and Bishop Sheppard, who now have the statue in Hope Street to remind Liverpool of the great work they did in their adopted city.

Finally, may I thank the church leaders who, when asked, posed by the statues for amateur snappers to get their photos.

Many thanks also to the men and women of Merseyside Police who with a smile stopped the traffic in all directions to allow this walk of hope to take place. It was a true event to inspire the city.

A J O’Gorman, Seaforth

Impressive statues

CAN I just say how impressed I am with the statues to the two bishops on Hope Street.

It is only fitting that these two men have something to commemorate the great things they did for this city and this work is more than fitting. Everyone should see them.

S Allan, Waterloo

Lack of imagination

INEVITABLY, on most Bank Holidays, you can almost hear the shovel at Radio Merseyside digging up (once again) stories about The Beatles or other repeats.

Regarding The Beatles, Radio Merseyside have dug up these stories more often than Burke and Hare ever dug up coffins.

I wonder if it is lack of imagination or sheer apathy that Radio Merseyside cannot present more original programming on a Bank Holiday.

C J Sankey, Litherland

Ring returned

MY MUM was critically ill in Fazakerley Hospital recently, and while she was there I put her wedding and engagement rings in my purse to take home with me.

However, when I came to take money out of my purse to pay for the car park, I must have pulled out the engagement ring.

As you can imagine, I was terribly upset, but a domestic cleaner called Lyn Heaney found it and handed it in.

Thank God there are some honest people in the world. My mum has since died and I treasure this ring.

Linda Warburton

Young bomber

I WAS shocked to read about an eight-year-old girl being used in Iraq as a human bomb to blow up a checkpoint, killing seven, including her.

The reason she was used, we are told, was because women weren’t searched as thoroughly as men thanks to "religious sensitivities".

Words fail me. Surely "religious sensitivities" preclude blowing up innocent young girls? This is not an Islam faith that any of my Muslim friends recognise.

JM, Aigburth

Royal visit

I AM delighted to hear that the Queen and Prince Phillip will be coming to Liverpool this month to open the Arena and visit Liverpool One. There’s nothing like a Royal visit to focus the workers’ minds on getting the job done.

H Moore, Allerton