Quote Originally Posted by Ged View Post
Someone on another site is also advocating the destruction of a residential area on byrom street because this too is in the city centre. Generations of residents who've lived in this area since the courts are still living here and don't want their homes bulldozed for what... more high rise apartment blocks that won't be for them or office blocks that have never existed in that area in the first place? The Eldonian is built on what was Tate & Lyle - short on that coming back, what else deserves to be there. Since Bootle (and therefore Sefton) is beyond the boundary at Kirkdale to the north, the city is heavily weighted to the south and east of the city centre anyway.
This is a good question. It needs a full answer but I'll be as quick as I can here.

When this city was truly wealthy and prosperous the land at both the 'justly praised' Eldonian Village and the Park Road housing was in the engine room of the city's economy.

Tate and Lyle was a significant contributor to the economic health and wealth of the city but even at that, was just a part of a great port hinterland stretching from the Victorian city centre to (just south of) Seaforth. Similarly in the south, Park Road was at the very start of the commercial success of the port. The previous value of the land as a power house of the city's economy was not incalculable, but it was huge.

Looking at the relative value of the land now and its contribution to the wealth of the city, let's say for the sake of argument, that an acre in the Eldonian Village is worth £1m. So that's an indirect contribution to the city purse, for the good of the area, of rates on a £1m. Permanent jobs created? - a few, painters decorators, plumbers; Shopkeeper jobs? - no, no shops. Teachers? - no, no schools (except a nursery school); so maybe some but not much, let's say it's negligible in a broader context (although significant for the few that work there). The number of people housed in above-average accommodation with gardens and good services - a few hundred? a thousand or so? Value as a source of significant employment and raising the profile of the city as a serious place in which to invest - nil.

Simplistically, it's worth to the well-being of the city is - good homes for a thousand or so and rates on a £1m, give or take.

If we want the city to stay where it is then there'll be more of this (maybe, but without inward investment doubtful) and that's all we can do. Carry on to fill all this former wealth-creating land with low-contribution housing and you might end up with a slightly bigger population on a slow decline to nowhere when the subsidies run out.

If however you want the city to be great and prosperous again you could think about regenerating the area on a more sustainable scale.

Unfortunately and as you imply, we don't refine sugar anymore, so that's not coming back, but there are new economies. Let's say sufficient interest was attracted to develop the same land to create housing for 10 times the number of people and five times the number of jobs in the 'Knowledge Economy' (for one); More good housing? - yes. More jobs? - yes (and spin-offs in new schools, shops, health clinics, libraries, pubs, betting shops, laundrettes, dry cleaners...). Higher profile in an international market for investment? - yes, and a city back on the road (but this time with a better distribution of wealth)

If people want to live in suburban houses, then fine - they will be welcomed in suburbia. Building low-value use on potential high value property is the economy of the madhouse. And we all know who we have to thank for this particular strand of insanity.

The economic centre needs critical mass to be successful. It is no place for noddy boxes. Byrom Street as for Eldonian Village. The underutilisation of this land for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many is selfish.