Scouse, subversive and immensely proud of it

Sep 17 2007 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

HAVING revealed my “Mersey moonwalk” as second civilian on Liverpool’s new Princes Landing Stage, unsurprisingly, further correspondence has ensued.

As I was reminded, it was due to another great columnar friend, the late Prof Quentin Hughes, aided and abetted by Lorraine Mackerel, Patrick Moran and Canon Nicholas Frayling, Rector of Liverpool, at St Nicholas Parish Church, that the way was kept open for the sparkling new City of Liverpool Cruise Terminal.

This quartet opposed the ludicrous previous scheme, promoted by Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and Liverpool City Council, to requisition public open space alongside the Royal Liver Building and convert it into a car marshalling yard for the Irish Sea ferries. Had this plan gone ahead, the cruise liner landing stage could not have been built as its access by passengers and vehicles would have been blocked.

Our four musketeers were smeared with the usual nonsense about damaging Liverpool’s commercial revival, when they were defending provision given by Liverpool Corporation in the age of laissez-faire capitalism to ensure that “green lungs” for the public benefit existed within intensively used areas.

In an 1874 Act of Parliament, the corporation stopped encroachment by dock activity. Would that such an enlightened attitude prevailed today.

Like her three campaigners, Lorraine Mackerel had nothing to gain commercially by her action: she did it for the greater public good. She contacted the major cruise liner companies to ascertain if visiting Liverpool was of interest to their passengers. The answer was resoundingly yes, but only if they could moor their ships alongside for easy embarkation and disembarkation.

The opposition to the ferry car park plan went to court and Prof Hughes, MC and Bar, a founder member of the Second SAS, expertly and amusingly demolished the Mersey Docks’ QC. Mesmerising the silk with his one remaining eye, Prof Hughes was aided by his combatant (shipped up from London) apparently being rather under-informed.

But this wasn’t a case of the intelligent arm of the Scouse subversive irregulars out on the lam, gleefully upsetting the powers that be for sport. These doughty protagonists were liable to £250,000 of damages had it all gone wrong. There was also a fifth man, Terry O’Neill, who campaigned tirelessly for the new cruise liner landing stage.

“Left to MD&HC and Liverpool Council, all we would have got was a car park. Access to the landing stage would have been impossible,” says Patrick Moran.

“As it is, at £19m, the cruise liner landing stage appears to be very costly, but it is relatively inexpensive because the slot was there. Essentially, all the engineers had to do was to drop it into the place of the previous 1878 Princes Landing Stage vacated 30 years ago when it was demolished.

“If we’d not taken the action 10 years ago, there would not have been any new landing stage. Of course, we can lord it up hosting the QE2’s 40th anniversary and use it as a platform for all sorts of other maritime events.”

Last week, droves of people headed down to the Pier Head Princes Parade to view the two luxury liners, Seven Seas Voyager and Deutschland, tied up yards from the river wall, reviving a regular and much-missed pastime. The river front will look fabulous when the last great shapely ocean liner, QE2, ties up on Friday. Let’s hope that the Navy, frightened off by rumours of installation delays, decide to reinstate HMS Ark Royal’s visit. What a sight that will be.

The great irony is that the cruise liner terminal will create far more money in terms of injecting huge amounts of cash into Liverpool city centre from tens of thousands of passengers and crew annually. You wouldn’t get a fraction of that return from a ferry car park.

For decades, much-put-upon Liverpudlians have tolerated an immense amount of hype and hot air about this or that loony project to guarantee a revival of the city’s fortunes, which would inevitably evaporate like the Mersey mist.

At last something has happened that will deliver one of these promises. And remember it was due to our own SAS: Scouse And Subversive.

peter.elson@dailypost.co.uk