Originally Posted by
gary_arry
Bit of a mystery, is Mrs Pascoe - where is all the money coming from to fund her appeals? Where is the advice coming from? I mean, what regular resident would think to appeal to the EC claiming 'unfair state aid' for a housing project, which is Mrs Pascoe's latest wheeze? The vast majority of Edge Hill residents want this scheme and the wider regeneration scheme to go ahead.
How can one person can wield such power and potentially affect the lives of so many other residents, including my parents, who are desperate for an improvement in their living conditions and want the new regeneration plans to go ahead. Mrs Pascoe is in the minority in her objections. We live in a democracy and Mrs Pascoe should accept this.
I know for a fact that my parents and their neighbours would be devastated if the regeneration is delayed further. Local councilor Louise Baldock, who represents Kensington and Fairfield, has also said the situation around Edge Lane was 'desperate' due to the huge number of empty homes.
My parents are now in their mid 60s and surrounded by half derelict and bricked up buildings. Unlike Ms Pascoe, they and their neighbours have lived in Edge Hill all of their lives so at least have have deep roots in the area. They have witnessed the decline for the past 30 years and see that the plans now are the only way forward. They are entitled to their views as much as Mrs Pascoe but unfortunately don't have the time or the money or the expert backing to push their campaign for a new Edge Hill, including Edge Lane.
I feel that while Mrs Pascoe seems to have the media on her side, who misguidedly see her as a local hero, no one apart from local councillors, seems to be sticking up for my parents or the other residents who fully support regeneration and always have done. They are upset that she is pursuing this crusade to the bitter end when she knows that she is in a minority - of one.
As someone who is directly involved in the BEVEL affair, I thought I would speak out. I was asked a good while ago if I could construct something to highlight the Edge Lane plan and after seeing what heritage we could lose, I contacted Elizabeth and offered her a free website which you can find at http://www.edge-lane.com/
Elizabeth has ploughed in lots of her personal money in to this over the years - she does not get a handout, nor does she get any funding either. Everything she does comes out of her own pocket, or the pockets of those around to help her. She rents out rooms to students to help pay for her costs and has done for every year for the last few years.
In my personal opinion, the side roads around Edge Lane are not pretty at all, are plighted by narrow streets and therefore should be pulled down. But I got involved in this project (at my expense) to help try and save the victorian houses that run alongside Edge Lane. To spend millions on new pavements and then stick some prefabs up at the end of the road, really would be an insult.
Having never met Elizabeth before this, she came across as a very honest person, drives an old car and has worked silly hours (as the rest of the team has) on this project. This isn't about one person creating problems, it is one person trying to give a sensible and alternative plan to Edge Lane with carefully thought out and planned traffic routes as shown on my website.
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At her time of life, she does not need to be forced out of her house, to be paid a pittance and forced to 'up shop' and move in to a flat somewhere. Put simply, why would anyone want to take the ?30,000 on offer for a house so they can knock it down and construct a prefab for ?125,000 on the same plot - probably much smaller than the houses there at the moment.
She is quite within her right to campaign to have this stopped, and I feel very sorry that this last attempt failed. Her advice is from people like Save Britain's Heritage, local solicitors and campaigners who work for the government in their day job, then give up considerable time to help on this project.
But as the local rag have never once published her website, the people of liverpool are still in the dark about her plans for the whole area - view it and you may see why she has worked so hard to do this.
The bottom line is, is that no matter what is cleared around Edge Lane, there is one building that they can't move - the church on the corner, and thus, this junction will be no better off for traffic with burnt out properties than it will with new prefabs.
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