Carers Rights Day 2007 Event

Do you Care for someone? A relative, friend or neighbour in Liverpool? If so, you are invited to the ‘Liverpool Carers Forum’.

The ‘Carers Rights Day event will give you the chance to get advice on benefits entitlement, welfare rights and ‘carers’ support.

If you are interested in attending, the event takes place at: Liverpool Carers Centre, Local Solutions, Mount Vernon Green, Hall Lane, Liverpool L7 8TF on Friday 7th December 2007 from 10.30am until 2.30pm

 The Freedom Programme on issues relating Domestioc Violence

Free 12-week programme for all women especially with children aged 0-5 years who wish to learn more about the reality of domestic violence and abuse.

It aims to help women:

- To make sense of traumatic experiences
- Build self-esteem and confidence
- Improve the quality of their lives
- Avoid harmful relationships in the future

www.freedomprogramme.co.uk

Failure to target Anti Social Behaviour in Tuebrook and Clubmoor

Cllr Steve Radford
Leader Liberal Party Group
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
07920090322
 
Dennis Gaskell
Clubmoor Liberal Party
37 Breckside Park
Liverpool  L6
07787507185
 
Dear Editor
 
An analysis of reports of anti social behaviour, from June 2006 to May 2007,show the 5 wards with highest incidence are in the order:
 
Central Ward, Riverside Ward, Tuebrook and Stoneycroft Ward, Clubmoor ward and then Everton
 
Whilst the central ward has a strong presence of street wardens , in the whole of Tuebrook and over half of the Clubmoor ward, there is an absence of  street wardens
 
We hope recent efforts to extend and complete alleygating schemes and increase youth activities may assist bring these figures down
 
We call upon the council and police to make sure objective criteria are used to target resources into communities like ours where the evidence of need is clear.
 
Cllr Steve Radford
Leader Liberal Party Group
 
Dennis Gaskell
Clubmoor Liberal Party
 
 
 

3rd Dec Public Meeting  : Should Britain have a referendum on the new EU Constitution (Lisbon Treaty) ?

 

Speakers include Cllr Steve Radford - President of The Liberal Party

                                  Simon Richards - Freedom Today Editor

                                  Paul Nuttall - UKIP Bootle Spokesperson

Sefton Labour and Lib Dem representatives have been invited

From 7.30    Bootle Cricket Club,   Wadham Road ,  Bootle

Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
0151 259 5935
 
07920090322
 
Dear Editor
 
The recent HMRC data scandal clearly shows government contempt for personal privacy and security, they simply cannot be
trusted with all the information that the National Identity Register will demand.
 
Fingerprints and a detailed record of all your ID-verified transactions is data that has NEVER been collected before, counter to some
MPs' claims that "we have it all already".

This scandal clearly demonstrates the fallacy of "nothing to hide, nothing to fear".
 
It is bad enough that the government can't look after families' financial details - if allowed to proceed, in a few short years the Home
Office will be leaking or losing people's complete identity records.
 
The more data it has, the worse it will get.

Contrary to government assertion, biometrics WILL NOT secure your official record - but they will make it more valuable to fraudsters and organised
crime.
 
With a quarter of a million civil servants having unrestricted access to all our personal information, the avenues for crime and abuse are limitless
 
The loss of financial information into millions of families, putting their personal banking details at risk ,was an accident that was bound to happen, sooner or later.
 
We in the No2ID campaign have been proven right.
 
ID cards and the Data  control /surveillance society must be stopped now, please write to your MP''s now before your data is sold to the highest bidder
 
Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party
 

 

BRUGES GROUP CONFERENCE The threat of the revived and renamed EU ConstitutionSaturday, 17th November 2007

Cllr Steve Radford, Hazel Williams and Chris Lenton
Liberal Party Group
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
 
0151 259 5935
07920090322
 
Dear Editor
 
It is not for us to comment upon the specific sales of assets that Cllr Storey appears to be in disagreement with officers advise
 
However, without doubt Liverpool City Council has held onto derelict land and properties for years, often acting to hold back investment in those communities
 
In the Tuebrook,Anfield and Clubmoor area our campaign to encourage sale of long term derelict council houses
has already brought real improvements and given the council money to improve their own stock
 
For many years at Budget meetings we ,in The Liberal Party Group, have moved amendments to increase the target of land and asset sales .
 We always argued that this would bring the council much needed cash and help regenerate run down areas
 
Every year Cllr Storey and his Lib Democrats voted against us.
So his conversion to the cause of disposing council assets to assist regeneration came as quite a shock and welcome change
 
Cllrs Steve Radford, Hazel Williams and Chris Lenton
Liberal Party Group

Support from Welsh Street Residents over Demolition

Dear Editor,

 We read David Bartlett’s excellent coverage of the recent NAO report on the Pathfinder scheme (Daily Post, Tuesday, Nov.13^th). We strongly disagree with Cllr. Munby’s view that because Liverpool’s 45% of the housing stock is (mostly 2 bed) terraces, it should be demolished and new homes built instead to suit people’s needs. Well, we are bringing up a young family in the Welsh Streets Pathfinder area, and are very content to continue to do so in the future. Instead of condemning 2 bedroom terraces to the bulldozers, why not knock two into one and transform them into big family homes, with no extra cost to the environment? Is it because the VAT on demolition is 17,5% (thus not good news for the developers), while new build is zero rated? Or is it because Liverpool City Council, according to the NAO report (p.40), believed prior to the so-called ‘extensive public consultation’ that ‘radical intervention [i.e. demolition] was necessary to address the issues that were found in the Welsh Streets, and that investment in the housing stock [i.e. refurbishment] would not be sufficient to reverse the market failure that existed’? However, in late 2002, 73% of Welsh Streets’ residents were “either satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of their home, while 50% were either satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of housing in the area”. So much for unwanted 2 bedroom houses then! To demolish houses is merely to deal with outward appearances. The heart of so-called ‘housing decline’ in the Welsh Streets, as the NAO says (p.41), is more to do with the lack of cleanliness of the area, the lack of services for young people, ect. The Merseyside Pathfinder should therefore address such issues and leave demolition as a last resort.

We believe the Pathfinder does not deserve the extra £1 billion it was given last month by the government. That decision should be cancelled, and the whole program called in immediately. The Pathfinder desperately needs to take the NAO report’s heavy criticisms seriously before it is too late.

 

Yours sincerely,

Welsh Streets’ residents         

Millbank Playing Fields sacrificed for new School

Despite overwhelming community opposition and the exposure that council officials failed to seriously explore alternative sites, the Lib Dem and Labour Councillors agreed to build on Bankfield/Millbank playing fields. This was approved after the 4th attempt to push the matter through the planning committee.

Residents are meeting at the Hope Centre this Thursday at 7 to plan to appeal  to government minisetrs -"we all want a new school but on a site wiothout congestion and without the loss of our playing fields" Cllr Steve Radford

The hearing for an alleygate between Letchworth Street and Sedley Street, Anfield has been postponed till 10th January , Liberal Party Councillors have been supporting residents seeking a night time closure here and are bitterley disappointed at the delay

The Newsham Park Working Party is meeting on Monday 19th Nov at 6.30 in the Adult Education Centre, residents are encouraged to attend

Working for Peace in Middle East

Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
0151 259 5935
 
Dear Editor
 
After remembering of the tragic loss of life in wars ,which is an integral part of remembrance day ,we all should focus more on efforts to avoid future conflict
 
One of the global hot spots without doubt is the Middle East and the real sense of grievance by Palestinian people
 
I find it disturbing that any one critical of the Israeli states actions is immediately cast as anti-semitic - nothing can be further from the truth
 
Over the next week a remarkable coalition of Jews, Muslims and Christians are holding presentations of their joint work entitled
 ' We refuse to be enemies' ,where they describe the work of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions'
 
The first presentation will be at the Hope University, Hope Park, Liverpool on Friday 23rd November at 6.
 
A second meeting will be on Saturday 24th November 1.30 in the Students Union, Steve Biko Building Oxford Road, Manchester
 
The last in the series will be in Leeds Civic Quarter Campus on Sunday 25th November at 5.
 
Let us all reach out to support those working across religious and political divisions to work for lasting peace
 
Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party

Spring start for Liverpool FC stadium - to be completed by 2011

Nov 7 2007 Larry Neild and Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

WORK is expected to start on Liverpool FC’s iconic £400m new home at Stanley Park as early as spring next year, after the scheme was approved by councillors.

The city’s planning committee unanimously approved the ambitious 60,000 seater stadium, which the club’s US owners vow will be “one of the world’s greatest”.

Last night Liverpool FC chief executive Rick Parry said the approval would allow the club to remain competitive in the Premiership.

Speaking before last night’s Champions League clash against Turkish team Besiktas, Mr Parry praised the club’s American owners: “All the credit is down to Tom and George, it is their initiative’’, he said, adding: “Fans and city leaders have been excited.

“We’re setting our sights high. At the end of the day, we want a great team and a great stadium.

“The message for the fans is that it will give us the revenues to make sure we can continue to compete on the pitch.

“That’s the whole purpose of the exercise, its not about building monuments, it’s about generating revenues to make sure we are competitive.”

It comes after it emerged costs of the new stadium had risen to £400m; however no-one was available last night to discuss its detailed financing.

Mr Parry said building work was likely to start as early as next spring, provided Communities Secretary Hazel Blears does not intervene to force a judicial review. But he admitted the facility was not likely to be open until a year after initially projected. “The realistic likelihood is that it will now be ready for 2011.”

The revised plans were ordered by Tom Hicks and George Gillett after their takeover of the club earlier this year.

The designs include a single tier new Kop with a capacity of almost 19,000, at an angle of less than 34 degrees to prevent any ‘cliff edge’ seating.

The stadium will also have the ability to eventually be expanded to 76,000 seats, for which a second planning application will have to be submitted in the future.

Mr Parry described the unanimous approval as “gratifying”, adding: “Another hurdle’s been overcome. It’s good news, we’re very pleased.”

But he said: “We still have a period of waiting. We have to see whether the Secretary of State will call the application in. We hope that isn’t the case, the last one wasn’t.

“There is a period where there can be a legal challenge. We believe that, as last time, any objection would be overcome. But we have to let that run its course.

“All told, the judicial review can be around four months. The earliest work could start would be in the spring of next year.

“We’ve let George and Tom know and it’s fair to say they are very pleased. We haven’t had the chance for lengthy discussions just yet. We were always hopeful because the key point is we have an existing planning consent for a 60,000 stadium.

“This was really just to place the amended design in front of the committee. As it is an exciting and innovative design, we would have been disappointed not to get permission but clearly you cannot take anything for granted. It’s clearly good news. What this will give us the ability to do is to build the structure that is capable of taking significantly more than 60,000.

“All this does is give us the capability of opening the stadium with 60,000, so there will be a fol- low-up application for whatever we decide the capacity to be.

“That doesn’t affect the build or design. The impact will be on the transportation and environ- mental assessment which is a lengthy process and a lot of work.”

Objectors' paean to Victorian splendours of Stanley Park fall on deaf ears

PLANNING committee members took four and a half hours to reach their decision after a site visit to Stanley Park yesterday.

The afternoon was spent hearing a stream of objections from more than 20 Anfield residents, who told of the impact of living in the shadow of one of the world’s biggest clubs.

Fears of match day chaos led councillors to recommend a minimum £100 parking fine for those who flout restrictions.

Among the objectors was Florence Gersten of the Save Our Cities campaign. She described the plan as “fundamentally wrong” for a prized Victorian park, saying the stadium would be catastrophic.

“I believe this is a lamentable attitude towards North Liverpool. It would be a different story if Liverpool FC wanted to build in Sefton Park,” she said.

Dr Alastair Walker, chairman of Stanley Park Preservation Society, said a third of the green space would be destroyed.

“This scheme does not enhance the park, it degrades it. It is hideous, gross barbaric vandalism which must be rejected,” he said.

George McLelland of the Friends group feared that once the stadium was built it would eventually mean to the loss of even more parkland in future years.

Mike Butler, secretary of Anfield Regeneration Action Committee said the real motive for the new application was because LFC wanted an even bigger stadium than before, accusing officials of obscuring the truth.

“This plan is totally unacceptable,” he said, adding that as there were acceptable brownfield sites, such as one in Speke/Garston, they should be considered.

Jean Hill said it was ironic that plans to build on the Garden Festival site were being examined by a current public inquiry, yet there was no suggestion that the Anfield plan should face such scrutiny. Local artist Frank Green, an Anfield resident for 45 years, told how elderly people had ben forced out of the area to meet the club’s expansion plans.

And Brian Woodbridge, who played football as a boy in Stanley Park, accused the council of handing the park to “Yankee speculators”.

“I would say to them “would you build a stadium in Central Park – of course you wouldn’t, you have more sense,” he said.

Objectors say they will bid to have the plans called in by the Government to force a public inquiry. Cllr Steve Radford, leader of the minority Liberal group on the council attacked the scheme. He said if Everton had wanted to build in Stanley Park the council would have said “No deal”, but officers acted like agents of Liverpool FC when they applied for permission.

Kop was inspiration

GEORGE Gillett and Tom Hicks hired the world’s sixth largest firm of architects to redraw a previously approved stadium plan, for what they want to be the “finest stadium in the world”.

Paul Hyett, chairman of London and Dallas firm Ryder HKS, headed a team of professionals at yesterday’s meeting seeking to win over the hearts and minds of Anfield people.

Rick Parry, chief executive of Liverpool FC, reaffirmed the club’s commitment to the regeneration of the Anfield area, as well as building a new stadium.

He told the meeting at the Oakmere Conference Centre, near the present Anfield ground, how the club was working alongside the city council, the Northwest Regional Development Agency and Government Office NW, to restore Stanley Park and improve the area.

Mr Hyett told how a Liverpool FC game against Barcelona was the inspiration for the new design when the Kop Choir was in full flow.

He said: “My colleagues said they had never seen anything like it.”

He said he immediately had pulled out an envelope containing his wage slip and drew a simple design with a new Kop as a huge ‘theatre’ at one end of the ground.

“I told my colleagues ‘ you could hang this whole design off the Kop’,” added Mr Hyett, former president of RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects.

“The new owners said their mission was to create for Liverpool the greatest football stadium in the world, and what we have designed is truly iconic.”

Decision welcomed

BUSINESS and tourism leaders joined fans last night in welcoming the decision.

Jack Stopforth, chief executive of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, said: “It’s obviously the right decision.

“What’s exciting from the community and business perspective is that it’s a trigger for so much badly needed investment.

“We welcome it and look forward to working with the club.”

Martin King, Director of Tourism at The Mersey Partnership said:

“We know the club has a huge impact on the visitor economy of the Liverpool City Region by attracting a very significant number of staying visitors. The Tourist Board recognised this enormous input by presenting them with a special award for contribution to the visitor economy.

“The new stadium, with its increased capacity, will only add to these numbers.”

But Steve Kelly, founder editor of fanzine Through the Wind and the Rain said: “I am not really sure how positive it is, or if they will be able to fill it – the costs seem to be creeping up too.”

Cllr Steve Radford, leader of the minority Liberal group on the council attacked the scheme. He said if Everton had wanted to build in Stanley Park the council would have said “No deal”, but officers had acted like agents of Liverpool FC when they applied for permission.

Cllr Steve Radford writes for Daily Post: Scrap HMRI

Housing Market Renewal is a deliberately misleading title.
It does the very opposite of the basics of a free market, the state through Councils and Housing Association uses vast public funds to purchase up properties and lands to take them off the market
 
These public sector agencies then deliberately move people out and board up the area ,creating a blight of dereliction
 
The remaining owner occupiers are bought out at depressed prices and the few are forced out up by the abuse of Compulsory Purchase Powers.
 
In areas designated for degradation and demolition the land is then handed over to a combination of Housing Associations and one of four national Housing Builders .who have been give a monopoly over the purchase of all significant land sites in their quarter of the inner city. This  deliberate restriction working against local builders and consumer choice
 
Outside the inner city ,Planners  obstruct the redevelopment of areas for housing, Thus we have vast areas of blight outside the city being deliberately withheld from Private Housing Development.
 
In the current three years the council intends to demolish 4000 homes forcing 3000 families onto the ever growing Housing waiting lists. This policy we are told has community support but when discussed at the Housing committee press and public were excluded as it was "confidential"
 
The demolition coalition of Lib Dem and Labour Councillors were afraid to debate this municipal vandalism in public
 
The claim is made this policy leads to home owership rising
Buying hoses at £70,000 to £120,000 to then demolish then seems a pretty expensive way of doing it. For the new houses built ,who in these working class communities can afford smaller homes starting at £120,00. In the words of Jane Kennedy MP it is "social cleansing"
 
 I challenged for evidence that home ownership rises were not more likely due to private landlords selling their houses to capitalise on rising house prices , our officers could not bring forward any statistical evidence.Their policies might as well be driven by reading tea leaves
 
In pathfinder areas pweople are paid compensation but the Joseh Rowntree Trust has shown that the average owner occupier will be worse off by £30,00 after the enforced move.
 
This policy is destructive, divides communities and creates a sinister cartel of council, Housing associations and national house builders profiteering by forcing thousands out of their homes abusing hundreds of millions of pounds of our taxes!

 

Jonathan Brown MA (Oxon.), MCD, MRTPI 

LIB-DEM HYPOCRISY      :    Printed Western Morning News

- 06 November 2007

At the last General Election both New Labour and the Lib-Dems pledged to vote for a referendum on a new EU Constitution. To quote a current Lib-Dem contender, Nick Clegg: "Nothing will damage the pro-European movement more than appearing to have something to hide." (Guardian, October 15).Today every continental leader recognises that the new treaty is only presentationally different from the constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters. So, as I did at the pro-referendum rally outside Westminster on October 27, I challenge my Lib-Dem rivals: How can you on one hand rightly support the case of Palestinian statehood and self-determination and in the same breath vote against the British people having a vote on whether to maintain their rights to self-determination or surrender our democracy to the primacy of EU Law?

At the last election every Lib-Dem MP pledged in their manifesto to vote for a referendum, so why are you subservient to New Labour's manipulation to avoid our right to vote on our country' future?

That's not Liberalism or democracy but deceit and hypocrisy

Coun Steve Radford

President of The Liberal Party Liverpool

LISTER DRIVE LIBRARY

Whilst not being a member of the Culture Media Committee I turned up to day to listen to a presentation over the city library service
 
I challenged the officers to explain what steps they had taken to repair and reopen Lister Drive Library
 
I got an evasion stating there were 7 libraries which each needed approx £1m to upgrade
 
When asked, Alan Metcalf failed to clarify any stephe had taken to raise the monies
 
He then said no decision had been made to close the library
 
I responded that the council was acting underhandedly in closure by stealth
 
At the committee I alsohit out that it was no acceptable that playing fields were being built upon under schools for future and that it was farcical and dishonest to suggest new playing fields were to be created on Newsham Park when infact those fields are already being used for informal pitches
 
Steve Radord
Liberal Party Councillor
 

Cllr Steve Radford
Leader Liberal Party Group
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
0151 259 5935
07920090322
 
Dear Editor,
 
Mr A Hammond, last years Tuebrook Labour candidate, said he was campaigning to save Bankfield Playing Fields and Larkhill Lister Drive Libraries, during the election week that is!
 
Immediately after the election, at the two Planning meetings ,he failed to show up and the feeble Tuebrook Labour Party did not even bother send a letter in
 
Now in last weeks Merseymart he is trying to attack the Liberal Party for doing the job he promised to do ,but walked away from.
 
That is so two faced, its as cynical and two faced as the Lib Dems pledge to save open spaces and parks
 
The Liberal Party working with the Save Bankfield Playing Fields group are fighting to get the new school built on a brownfield site, with room for expansion, with adequate parking, with proper road access and retain the playing fields needed in our densely populated area.
 
If Mr Hammond wants to  carry on bitching he is only bringing himself and the Labour Party into disrepute. In contrast the Labour Parliamentary Candidate , Steven Twigg has given us positive support.
 
Cllr Steve Radford
Leader Liberal Party Group