The price of art

Jan 29 2008 by Mr Brocklebank, Liverpool Daily Post

NEW city centre residents desperate for green space for dog walking await with bated breath to see if they will be allowed to exercise pooches on Chavasse Park. After all, posters lining The Strand advertising Grosvenor’s Liverpool One development show a larger than life dog-walker striding over said green space. Evidence, surely, that dogs will be allowed? This is in contrast to Albert Dock’s total ban on dogs, although the riverside walk is legally a public right of way. Clearly, we need a dogs of war campaign, not a dog blanket ban.

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FURTHER to Mr Brocklebank’s query over covering up graffiti artist Banksy’s wall painting (attributed) of a giant rat on Liverpool’s derelict White House pub, in Berry Street, an art-lover reveals another such Banksy made £218,100 at the internet auction site eBay. Casually scrawled on a wall in Portobello Road, London, the building’s owner sold the wall with the painting.

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MANCHESTER take-over No 1: A smarting reader writes: “With many Liverpool retailers having a rough time in the pot hole-strewn town centre before and after Christmas, I noticed while driving to work an advert on the back of a bus stating ‘Watch 10,000 cars vanish in space’. This wasn’t about parking up in Toxteth, but added ‘Visit the Trafford Centre’. As we struggle here with public transport, Merseytravel advertises our main North West rival by telling the public how accessible its free car parking is.”

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MANCHESTER take-over No 2: Manchester Airport is blitzing Liverpool with adverts for its airline services. In the usual time-honoured diplomatic tit-for -tat response, will we see a few posters for Liverpool John Lennon Airport in Wilmslow and Heald Green?

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WIRRAL Council’s proposed £300,000 Viking Magic Boat “gateway sculpture” has been scuppered by the Highways Agency, which stated safety issues and potential vandalism at the M53/A41 Eastham roundabout site. Question: How come £300,000 was available for this gormless erection, looking like a melon slice and cocktail sticks, when real maritime heritage, namely Birkenhead Historic Warships, was thrown no such lifeline?

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IN THE on-going dispute over whether Northern Trains coped with crowds attending the Capital of Culture opening event in Liverpool Lime Street, readers queried Mr Brocklebank’s views. He can confirm that he was there and, yes, Northern Trains’ response homeward bound was abysmal, with practically no communication to passengers about altered services.

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FURTHER delays: Merseytravel’s New Year Racquet Club knees-up was held on January 23, three weeks later than tradition dictates. Let’s wish new Dutch managing director Bart Schmeink better luck in tightening up the rest of the timetable.