Monday 15 March 2010

Pathfinders Edge Lane-The Road to Nowhere.

Images have been released for the revamp of Edge Lane. It is reported that Liverpool’s planning committee is expected to approve plans for 188 homes tomorrow.

Developer Bellway said it wants to start work on the project, which will take three years to build, as soon as demolition work is completed in around six months.
It forms part of the larger scheme which will see Edge Lane widened to make it into a dual carriageway and improve traffic flows between the city centre and the M62.
Divisional regeneration manager Paul Howard said: “This is a momentous moment for the project. It’s been a long process and we are delighted that it is coming to fruition.”
The plans include 42 flats, 73 duplex apartments, 67 houses, six bungalows and a new park called Gladstone Square.
Mr Howard said the buildings facing on to Edge Lane would predominantly be apartments and flats.
Some will feature roof-top terraces with south facing views towards Wavertree.
He added: “The scheme is aspirational, there’s no doubt about it. It’s a real gateway to the city. Quality has not been compromised in any way.”
The site where the homes will be built is bounded by Edge Lane, Marmaduke Street, Gladstone Road and Durning Road – with Royston Street running through the middle.
Trees will be planted in front of the apartments on the southern side of Edge Lane to create a boulevard atmosphere.
David Rudkin, of Halsall Lloyd Partnership architects, said: “It’s a modern interpretation of the architecture that was there before.”
Work on the commercial hub, based off Jubilee Drive, is unlikely to start until the effects of the recession have gone.
It is hoped progress can start being made in early 2011.
http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news/article.php?id=54

Meanwhile Charles Clover gets it a bit right about the plight of the people whose lives have been thrown int turmoil by some half brained idea by some boffin in Whitehall.


CURS sold the idea to John Prescott’s sprawling department. Nevin was brought in as an adviser. Parliament and press were never properly consulted — otherwise there would have been an outcry. The idea was buried in a paragraph in Prescott’s 2002 Communities Plan. Prescott got the money from Ed Balls at the Treasury, whose wife, Yvette Cooper, came to preside over the 12 pathfinders as housing minister.

Nevin is now acting chief executive of NewHeartlands, the pathfinder which is ripping the heart out of Bootle and Edge Hill and is about to start on the lovely “Welsh streets” in Toxteth, where Ringo Starr was born. But his ideas are increasingly under fire. The theory of housing market renewal identifies the cheapest housing as a problem requiring state intervention. It ignores the welfare of the people affected, the quality of their houses or how well they fit into the cityscape, the environmental impact of demolishing them and the blight that the threat of demolition imposes on an area.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7035090.ece
Well worth a read.
Nemisis wrote http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/02/elizabeth-pascoe-is-finally-evicted.html
http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/04/two-heroines-against-pathfinders.html

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/02/01/liverpool-edge-lane-campaigner-forcing-me-to-leave-my-home-is-a-violation-92534-25730351/
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Edge%20Lane%20Liverpool

http://www.edge-lane.info/

4 comments:

  1. Vulnerable people evicted from their own homes to realise a planner's dream of a "Gateway", whatever that is meant to be. Someone else likened this to what is going on in Zimbabwe. Of course, it isn't as severe as that (nobody is going to be killed) but apparently in the same way it's completely legal to disposess someone of their home and memories. So much for natural justice and going through the proper channels.

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  2. Yes Dave, It reminds me of the slum clearances of the 60s.....only to be sent to what where council slums a few years later.
    Wayne

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  3. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/03/17/edge-lane-west-scheme-approved-by-liverpool-council-s-planning-committee-92534-26047284/

    It was reported that these plans have now been passed

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  4. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/letters-to-editor/2010/03/17/letter-to-the-editor-new-edge-lane-looks-worse-than-before-92534-26047832/

    ReplyDelete