Jim Hancock: Food for thought

Jul 6 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

ONE of the most powerful people in the North West emerged from the shadows last week.

John Whittaker, chairman of the Peel Group, shuns publicity. Whilst Richard Branson effortlessly combines big business deals with publicity stunts, Whittaker prefers to get on with things privately.

So we were all in anticipatory mood as we arrived for the CBI’s Merseyside dinner at Aintree racecourse. John Whittaker was to be the guest speaker. As I glanced at those famous Aintree fences, I wondered how this shy man would cope with the occasion. Would he fall at the first fence?

Although nervous, Whittaker ran a good race and gave the assembled Merseyside business and local government community plenty to think about.

The Peel Group still has major concerns over the planning process and how it might impact on job creation and the ability of the Liverpool City Region to recover. Last autumn Peel’s development director considered abandoning the £10bn Liverpool and Wirral Waters scheme if it went to public inquiry.

It looks as if the tension between Peel and the councils involved is still there. At Aintree John Whittaker declared: “Wirral Waters is not a Peel scheme. It is a scheme for the whole region. It is a test for local councils. Do they really mean it?” That’s a challenge to Town Halls to make reality of the job-creating rhetoric. Peel’s view is that it is preparing large- scale schemes which can help the Merseyside economy when all the signs are that the public sector is going to be squeezed.