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Over four hundred homes in Liverpool face demolition, as part of the government's plans to raise house prices in the North and Midlands of England. This is another project within the 'Pathfinder' housing market renewal scheme, and is also linked to the preparation for Liverpool's term as 'City of Culture 2008'. To the residents of Liverpool's Edge Lane West, however, the scheme looks very much more like part of a culture of total disrespect for local residents on the part of politicians and corporations.
Edge Lane West has the bad luck to be chosen as part of the so-called 'eastern gateway' into Liverpool -- the council has plans for roads to be widened and new buildings built, in order to give visitors to the city of culture a smooth and pleasant ride to the city centre. As the council describes it 'The improvements planned as part of this scheme will help to give visitors a positive image of the city, which is crucial in the run-up to Liverpool's year as Capital of Culture in 2008' . This task has been undertaken by a range of 'regeneration' qangos, including the Merseyside New Heartlands Pathfinder, Northwest Regional Development Agency, and English partnerships, as well as much-hated local housing association Community 7, and Liverpool City Council. While the authorities state that half the properties have been acquired 'through negotiation' and through being empty, Community 7, as a major local landlord, has been accused by local campaigners of forcing residents out of their homes in order to cash in on the gateway project, 'Over 100 tenants have already been quietly moved out of the area... Most of these tenants will be moved out of the New Deal area altogether and ghettoised in areas which are not important to the city centre regeneration.'
However, over two hundred properties still remain inhabited, and English Partnerships (EP) -- the government's national 'regeneration' qango, has rolled out a stream of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) in January, in order to remove these obstacles to progress. EP's chairman is Margaret Ford, also a director of 'outsourcing' specialist Serco -- which runs prisons and military establishments . Other members of EP's board include James Tuckey, an advisor to BP, and various other Qangocrats. Their local equivalents, the Liverpool Land Development Company (LLDC), likewise has a board made up of the usual 'regeneration' professionals -- consultants, housing managers, and local politicians. They also include Alan James, Finance Manager, Jaguar Cars, and member of the Northwest Automotive Alliance. Lobbyists for the car industry will doubtless be pleased that the government, and Liverpool City Council, have decided that widening the roads into Liverpool is such a high priority. The LLDC part-time directors enjoy 'renumeration' from a pot of almost £160,000 and the company, which employs eleven staff, pays an average salary of £60,000. Not that they are keeping the benefits of 'regeneration' to themselves -- the construction companies Birse Civils Ltd, Mowlem plc and Alfred McAlpine Capital Projects Ltd have all been chosen to receive their share of the £65 million of public money set aside for the Liverpool 'gateway' project.
Ranged against the regeneration industry is an alliance of local residents, many organised under the banner of BEVEL -- 'better environmental vision for edge lane'. While work is not scheduled to start on the gateway project until 2006, the Public Inquiry is scheduled to start in October 2005. BEVEL are facing the regeneration qangos' legal team, and have already had to endure a series of pre-inquiry meetings before proceedings have even started. However, BEVEL have drawn up an alternative plan for Edge Lane West, and are pushing for the authorities to accept it. And BEVEL are not fighting alone -- they have support from a large number of community and heritage groups, as well as from other neighbourhoods scheduled to face the developers' axe as part of this 'regerneration' project. Local campaigners across the UK are all looking at what happens in Liverpool, and hope that the Edge Lane residents manage to face down the corporations and establish control over what happens to their streets.
For more details on the anti-Pathfinder alliance, see
www.fightforourhomes.com
Source:
Corporate Watch
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