I see that St Cyprian’s Church on Edge Lane, having received Listed Building Consent in June, is proposed for conversion to 118 student apartments including an adjacent five storey annex. Back when proposals for the recently completed redevelopment and dual carriageway extension of Edge Lane were under consideration, changes were made to the original scheme to ensure preservation of the Church, which had been unused for some time due to significant physical deterioration. While I concede it is better for it to be brought back into use with its shell retained rather than just being demolished, I can’t help feeling the city fathers must have envisaged and hoped for a more imaginative outcome than yet more student flats when they agreed their compromise on the road plans.
JOHN Brodie was a man of many talents, fortunate to live in an age when civic engineers were not merely allowed but actively encouraged to innovate, and on more than just roadways. Born in Shropshire, he was Liverpool’s city engineer for more than 30 years, leading the planning and building of Queens Drive, the initial proposals for the East Lancashire Road, instituting the city’s first tram system, as well as being an early pioneer in prefabricated housing. In his spare time, he was an associate professor at Liverpool University and invented football goa nets, ironically the thing he is probably best remembered for. Closely involved right from the start with Sir Edwin Lutyens in planning the layout and infrastructure for India’s capital, New Delhi, he subsequently supervised construction of the first Mersey tunnel which opened in July 1934, a few months before he died. He is, of course, commemorated in having Brodie Avenue named after him and by a blue plaque at 28 Ullet Road, where he lived for many years.
LIVERPOOL’S homes for a quid strategy may be good for publicity. In these days of high property prices being able to buy anything for the price of a bar of chocolate seems incredible. And while there will be delight on the faces of the 20 lucky house hunters being chosen to receive the keys of their homes for £1, it will leave a much larger trail of bitterly disappointed people. You have to wonder whether what some may view as a gimmick is worth the many thousands of losers. It goes to show life in Liverpool really can be a lottery for many.
THE great parks of Liverpool – Sefton, Calderstones and Princes among them – have been seen for many generations as a green oasis amidst a forest of terraced streets and concrete towers. People flock to these green acres to enjoy the open spaces, just as their parents, grandparents and great grandparents did. In a busy, working city, these man-made nature reserves are essential. So many view with dismay the proposal by the council to build a permanent stage in Sefton Park to attract events capable of attracting crowds of up to 40,000. Many of those event-goers will head to the park in their cars, causing traffic mayhem, diversions and gridlock around the park’s perimeter road. How very tranquil!