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Thread: Liverpool Garden Festival Site

  1. #46
    Senior Member Paul D's Avatar
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    It's funny how one minute we're awash with empty appartments and then this comes up and they're bulldozing the site even before they've had planning permission,it seems they use that arguement when it suits them i.e to reject a tower on the Waterfront.I'd love too see a huge baths built, complete with wave pools,slides maybe an indoor beach surrounded by palm trees is that too much to ask? they can build things like this in other countries and they don't have rain 24/7 like us,this is the reason why we have out of control teens in this country it's because there's nothing to do.

    Rant Over.


  2. #47
    Geek GingerTheCat's Avatar
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    The only thing that annoyed me was the news there would be CCTV cameras in Priory Wood.

    Stop spying on me! Please!

    Hope you don't mind me plugging my website Kev and all.

    www.riversidegardens.org.uk

    It's suffering a bit from a slow start really. Probably doesn't help with me spending most of my time on Yo! (curse that arcade!)

    Mike

  3. #48
    theninesisters
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    The city council at their best - i.e After a brown envelope stuffed full of money.

    A few years ago, the Council would not talk to the land owners of Pleasure Island and were told by an independant bod to 'bloody well stop arsing around and play ball' - I'm trying to find the link as I had it on my cobblers site at one time.

    So we have a lovely enviroment in which it is one of the ways in to Liverpool for 2008 and what are people going to see? A bloody building site.

    The amount of land it holds and what do we 'need'? More bloody houses when you only have to go down Edge Lane to see deraliction everywhere.

    My god the council annoy me!

  4. #49
    theninesisters
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    Ha, found it!

    When Liverpool won the battle to be Europe's Capital of Culture in 2008, to bold promises of two million extra visitors and a flood of inward investment, its residents could have been excused for thinking they had been here before.
    On the southern outskirts of the city, stretched along the Mersey, is a decaying monument to another grand cultural project that was meant to bring economic regeneration in its wake: Liverpool's spectacular International Garden Festival.

    These days seagulls and vandals are the only visitors to the dilapidated 100-acre site, but in the six months the festival ran, in 1984, 3.6 million visitors came to see the grand Japanese and Chinese gardens, the Blue Peter ship, the Yellow Submarine, and the water features.

    Launched by Michael Heseltine, whose close involvement with projects to kick-start the area's economy while secretary of state for the environment had earned him the nickname "minister for Merseyside", the festival was meant to usher in an era of hope, after the Toxteth riots of 1981 had opened the Thatcher govern ment's eyes to the potential costs of economic deprivation.

    Fast-forward almost 20 years, though, and a stand-off between Liverpool city council and Wiggins, the developers who hold the lease for the land, means that most of it is still standing empty and overgrown. "They have let the site deteriorate appallingly," said Mike Storey, Liberal Democrat leader of the council, which took over the freehold of the land from the defunct Merseyside Development Corporation.

    After a dispute about the suitability of Wiggins' various plans for the site, which Mr Storey dismissed last week as "pie in the sky", the council has slapped a "dilapidation order" on the firm, insisting it tidy up the former landfill site, and restore the Chinese and Japanese gardens to their former glory, or risk being taken to court.

    The council is also planning to strip the site of its "fixtures and fittings", including the crumbling dome which formed the heart of the festival and is now expected to be shipped off to nearby Southport to be used for its own garden festival.

    If the planners of the Millennium Dome had wanted a cautionary tale to show them what happens when politicians fail to think beyond the brief shelf-life of an ambitious project, they only needed to look here, at the dome of the north. Everyone agrees that this prime site ought to be brought back into use before the Capital of Culture throws itself open to visitors from all over Europe.

    "You can't have a major route into the city where you look to your left, and see turnstiles from the 70s and a smashed-up dome," said Mr Storey. "We would like to see a mixture: one-third of the site would become housing, with some appropriate retail, and we would like the rest of the site to become a coastal park."

    As the history of the garden festival site makes clear, though, the problem with regeneration is that everyone involved has a different idea of how to make a success of it. And in this case, none of the parties is even speaking to the other.

    "Out of the blue, in October 2002, the council wrote to us to say, 'We're not going to talk to you any more'," said Tony Freudmann, Wiggins' senior vice-president. "I am left speechless by their attitude. The council is now wearing two hats, as landlord and planning authority."

    Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, which includes the garden festival site, would like to bang heads together. "Suddenly there was a total breakdown in communications," she said. "The council has to swallow their pride, get a grip, and get back talking."

    Mr Storey and his colleagues may, though, be awaiting the outcome of Wiggins' financial travails, and hoping the council may be given the chance to get its hands on the site again. The firm suspended trading in its shares earlier in the year, and announced it was in talks over a "reverse takeover" bid by the Scottish property group LNC.

    As the stand-off goes on, local activists continue their wait of almost 20 years for the land to be given back to them.

    Jean Hill, from the Garden Festival Campaign, who lives around the corner from the site, said: "I don't think we need to fill every piece of riverside with housing. We've started to think about things like the Eden Project. Those things are more money-making than anyone thought 10 years ago. But all we can do is wait."

    Dome of the North

    1984 Liverpool International Garden Festival attracts 3.6 million visitors

    1986 600 homes built on north side of festival site

    1993 Merseyside Development Corporation leases land to a company which opens an amusement park called Pleasure Island

    1997 Pleasure Island fails to make money. Developers Wiggins buy the business and lock up the site

    1998 Merseyside Development Corporation, which is about to be wound up, hands lease to Liverpool city council. Wiggins submits second unsuccessful plan for site involving a marina, and 'vertical theme park' in tower on the waterfront

    2002 Relations between Wiggins and council break down completely after third set of plans are rejected

    2003 Liverpool wins bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2008

  5. #50
    MissInformed
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    ooohhhhh this all infuriates me!!!

  6. #51
    Senior Member shytalk's Avatar
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    I moved from Liverpool to Florida in 1981, my first visit back to Liverpool was in '84. I visited the Garden Festival and it was spectacular. My sister told me it would be closing soon after. My comment at the time was that they should sent to Disney to borrow some managers, it could have been a permanent attraction. Sadly it was just wasted.
    You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
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  7. #52
    Senior Member AK1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul D View Post
    It's funny how one minute we're awash with empty appartments and then this comes up and they're bulldozing the site even before they've had planning permission,it seems they use that arguement when it suits them i.e to reject a tower on the Waterfront.I'd love too see a huge baths built, complete with wave pools,slides maybe an indoor beach surrounded by palm trees is that too much to ask? they can build things like this in other countries and they don't have rain 24/7 like us,this is the reason why we have out of control teens in this country it's because there's nothing to do.
    Rant Over.
    Dont agree with that at all!!! There is no excuse for kids to be running around vandalising property and beating people up. There are plenty of things for them to do and alot of them aren't even kids. Some of them are 18+ and should be out getting a job. They say that they're bored, but I get bored and I don't hang around on the streets vandalising property. Comments like yours just give them fuel for commiting more crime!!!!

  8. #53
    Senior Member AK1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shytalk View Post
    I moved from Liverpool to Florida in 1981, my first visit back to Liverpool was in '84. I visited the Garden Festival and it was spectacular. My sister told me it would be closing soon after. My comment at the time was that they should sent to Disney to borrow some managers, it could have been a permanent attraction. Sadly it was just wasted.
    I don't think asking Disney Managers now would do any good. They are only in it for the money now and this is one of the reasons why Disney is losing custom every year.

  9. #54
    Senior Member shytalk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AK1 View Post
    I don't think asking Disney Managers now would do any good. They are only in it for the money now and this is one of the reasons why Disney is losing custom every year.
    I wasn't suggesting it should be done now, it would have worked years ago. I don't know about the other Disney parks but the ones in the USA are continually busy, even though they have priced themselves out of the local market. I lived near the Florida parks for 25 years so I know first hand how busy they are.
    You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
    Winston Churchill

  10. #55
    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AK1 View Post
    Dont agree with that at all!!! There is no excuse for kids to be running around vandalising property and beating people up. There are plenty of things for them to do and alot of them aren't even kids. Some of them are 18+ and should be out getting a job. They say that they're bored, but I get bored and I don't hang around on the streets vandalising property. Comments like yours just give them fuel for commiting more crime!!!!
    yes, and some of them are old enough to father children too, which is often happening.

  11. #56
    Senior Member Paul D's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AK1 View Post
    Dont agree with that at all!!! There is no excuse for kids to be running around vandalising property and beating people up. There are plenty of things for them to do and alot of them aren't even kids. Some of them are 18+ and should be out getting a job. They say that they're bored, but I get bored and I don't hang around on the streets vandalising property. Comments like yours just give them fuel for commiting more crime!!!!
    Of course there's more to it but say you live in the middle of Norris Green there's the baths and que tumbleweed nothing.It's the biggest council estate in Western Europe and money's scarce and you can only kick a ball around for so long there's simply nothing to do.We need things to entertain our people not another few thousand appartments,this is a prime site being sold for profiit at the expense of us.It's better than nothing but not good enough it's a wasted opportunity,as Roger Daltry said recently Liverpool with it's Worldwide musical heritage and here we are playing a f'in tent,only in England,that's says it all really.

  12. #57
    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    I agree with you about not needing yet more apartments.

    There are far too many now.

  13. #58
    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    By the way Paul, did you read in the Echo this week about our Anfield youth club football floodlit pitches being trashed YET again - and the footie coach attacked. Also the ref was beaten up

    A huge amount has recently been spent refurbishing the youth centre (as I already said a while back on this same subject) - and the local thugs are determined to destroy it. It was covered in vile graffit just weeks after it was completed - in fact the builders were often under attack.
    A car was left burning on the site just this week.
    My son used to be in the team and they had to have police there for protection while they played football ... have you ever heard anything like that !! police protection while you play football ??

    It doesn't matter what is spent, they are determined to smash anything they can get their slimey hands on.

  14. #59
    Senior Member Paul D's Avatar
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    The thing is the rot's already set in and this country will continually deteriorate due to the toothless laws of the land,if you think it's bad now wait another 10 years,thug culture has took over now. now back to the Garden Festival site.

  15. #60
    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul D View Post
    Of course there's more to it but say you live in the middle of Norris Green there's the baths and que tumbleweed nothing.It's the biggest council estate in Western Europe and money's scarce and you can only kick a ball around for so long there's simply nothing to do.We need things to entertain our people not another few thousand appartments,this is a prime site being sold for profiit at the expense of us.It's better than nothing but not good enough it's a wasted opportunity,as Roger Daltry said recently Liverpool with it's Worldwide musical heritage and here we are playing a f'in tent,only in England,that's says it all really.

    Hello Paul

    It seems to me it's a matter of incentives, and at present being part of the pack and being a destructive lout rules for these kids. Somehow they will have to be reached to show them a better way. Whether the parents or the local authorities can do it, I don't know. But if something isn't done you won't have a city that's worth living in.

    Chris
    Christopher T. George
    Editor, Ripperologist
    Editor, Loch Raven Review
    http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
    Chris on Flickr and on MySpace

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