Ed Vulliamy: How dare they do this to my Liverpool | Comment is free | The Observer

[Ged]

At the end of the day Grosvenor was outside private investment money. The application was put in for what was built. Had it been refused, we would still have had the moat house, paradise st multi storey car park and a bit of grass with two park benches on it and a tarmac path running diagonally through it going under the name Chavasse park but was really a blitzed bomb site grassed over. Another investor would have walked away to elsewhere, shaking their heads, like the proposed Brunswick Tower scheme that was kb'd. If anyone thinks what's there now is any worse than before and yet costed no public money, then heaven help us. Georgian buildings lying rotting in Hanover street and School Lane have been brought back into use.

Bringing London Road and Lime street and any premises vacated for L1 is a totally seperate matter and indeed should be and I think will be addressed. M&S is being done out right now and expanded at the rear replacing small outlets fronting Williamson Square. The Woolworth/Top Shop building is now a through arcade but not yet finished. St John's precinct is getting a face lift. The Met Quarter and the new city centre pubs/restaurants are only relatively recent, the City centre is thriving like never before.

[Waterways]

At the end of the day Grosvenor was outside private investment money. The application was put in for what was built. Had it been refused, we would still have had the moat house, paradise st multi storey car park and a bit of grass with two park benches on it

Ged, that is nonsense. No one would propose building on Sefton Park, because they know their envelope would not be opened by the planners. The city did not have a cast-iron framework in place for developers to be guided by - they still do not have, otherwise Peel would not propose Liverpool Waters on a World Heritage Site.

The framework dictates much of a developers outcome - the tighter the constraints the more the city gets what it wants. If it was stated the park is permanent then Westminster would not have proposed that scheme obliterating the park - he would have proposed another keeping the park. Maybe a scheme running around the park into the Baltic triangle.

Many make out the city had no option but to accept that shopping mall they way Westminster proposed. It would have been built, however different to what we ended up with.

Here is what naked lilac said when revising from the USA:
I just wish they still had Chevis Park and the green area in the City to enjoy still.. It used to be lovely just to sit on the grass .

The element of open-air, and views of the Mersey are being blocked, was sad to me..

http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/sho...72&postcount=7

[wsteve55]

Nah, I ain't missed it Waterways!
I agree,fast-buck merchants take the money and run, but there's been little sign of them ,or anyone else for that matter,willing to invest in Liverpool,from the late 60's on! Ged, put the matter well,it might not be everything we want, but it's got to be better than what we had, and the future lies before us! And by the way,boundaries aside,Liverpool ,lost thousands of it's citizen's in those years,it's official

[Waterways]

Ged, put the matter well,it might not be everything we want, but it's got to be better than what we had,

So we accept 2nd rate. What the pair of you have failed to grasp is that developers would have come in anyhow, and at the city's dictates. The city gave them too much of a free hand. It could have been so much better and that is the case of every large scale project: Liverpool 1, Kings Dock with a glorified IKEA shed, Princes Dock with a car park on the quays and barge depth docks, and now Liverpool Waters and a massive IKEA like shed maybe on Kings Dock too.

The city is screwing up prime site. If these sites are done properly then investment will follow.

Unless it is done properly it is not worth doing. Someone will come in and do it right.

[ItsaZappathing]

The city is screwing up prime site. If these sites are done properly then investment will follow.

Unless it is done properly it is not worth doing. Someone will come in and do it right.

We can only hope!!

[redjed1]

The city is screwing up prime site. If these sites are done properly then investment will follow.

Unless it is done properly it is not worth doing. Someone will come in and do it right.

Perhaps if we screw it up really well (like the millennium dome in london) we'll get the olympics in liverpool in 2020?

[Waterways]

Perhaps if we screw it up really well (like the millennium dome in london) we'll get the olympics in liverpool in 2020?

The dome is a success I believe. Liverpool, the Olympics? Nah!!! 3020 maybe.