"Professor" Redmond's off on his holidays. Well, I suppose he's earned it. After all, playing the fawning sychophant for "Dave" Cameron must be tiring. It means that we're denied his pearls of wisdom in the Daily Ghost for a few weeks. However, there's no need to fret, David Bartlett has stepped in to fill the void, as he informs us on his, erm, blog (http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/07/daily-post-column-walking-the.html ).
The result? A seamless continuation of the exceptional prose & insight which normally graces that column.
Bartlett looks at the Liverpool Waters debacle & tries to maintain a distinctly neutral stance on the issue (the piece, after all, is titled, "Walking the World Heritage Site tight rope"). Alas, Bartlett's high wire act comes to grief when, in attempting not to upset Peel Holdings, he goes so far as to plug its case:
"Peel, one of the biggest landowners in the North West, is seen by many as the great hope for regenerating north Liverpool -- long identified as not having benefited as much as it could or should have from the city's wider renaissance."
So Peel is "seen by many" as the catalyst for north Liverpool's regeneration, is it? If "by many", Bartlett is referring to a small clump of self-important, self-appointed experts around the vicinity of Oldham Hall Street, I suppose that's fair comment. It is, however, a distortion of the reality. The risible notion that Kirkdale, Walton & other blighted areas of the north end can be transformed by a wave of Peel's magic wand should be shoved off Bartlett's tight rope immediately. In addition, "the city's wider renaissance" is a phenomenon largely confined to the city centre itself; the leafier parts of the city's south end have always been more affluent than the north end.
As Redmond recovers from his self-promoting exertions, he can be pleased to know that Bartlett's high wire act is morphing into a clown routine.
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Can I agree with you and Bartlett on this occassion. Yes huge swathes of the world heritage site have been ransacked and Noth Liverpool is at risk here with developments that could render parts of Walton a ghost town.
Numerous secret meetings have taken place with deals being done under the table. Joe Anderson has backed Peels Wirral Waters today (huh!). I briefed David Bartlett this week and he did listen to the first stage of, what will be a long journey. Peel have all the power, they own the land but they dont own common sense. All I want is the world heritage to be afforded the protection it deserves, or as in the case of The Pier Head (now disfigured)deserved. He was no-where to be seen then while they were doing the damage and the Ghost will continue to get things badly wrong.
But I for one am glad that world heritage is on the adgenda.
Now we await to see if a goodwill Peel Holdings Story comes out from the Ghost to balance out the future press releases, I hope not.
Wayne Colquhoun
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