Response to Daily Post Article on battle of Edge Hill

Cllr Steve Radford
Leader Liberal Party Group
41 Sutton Street Tuebrook
Liverpool
l13 7EG
0151 259 5935
07920090322
 
Dear Editor
 
Further to your recent report on the Battle of Edge Hill may I clarify two important points
 
Firstly that there is no guarantee that the new homes built will be bought for owner occupation.
 
Right across the city new build flats are being left vacant or sub rented. Therefore it is a flight of fantasy to suggest the council by demolishing hundreds of homes is in any way increasing home ownership, not a single current tenant would be able to afford the new build for sale homes
 
Lastly, I was speaking as Leader of the Liberal Party Group ,I would be grateful for the same courtesy afforded to Cllrs Warren Bradley and Joe Anderson who would be titled as Leaders of their groups.

It is we in The Liberal Party who have supported communities being destroyed by demolition right across the city
 
Unlike the Lib Dems, we in the genuine Liberal Party do believe in every citizen shall have property ,security and liberty.

Nothing can be a greater affront to these values than a Liberal Democrat Council forcing people out of their homes by managed dereliction, followed by CPO ,all to hand the land over to an effective monopoly house builder in that sector of the city. The road improvements on Edge Lane do little to increase road access but are being used as an excuse to destroy more Victorian and terraced homes
 
Cllr Steve Radford
Leader of The Liberal Party Group

Letter to Liverpool Echo : Response to Homophobia in Schools Report

Cllr Steve Radford
Leader Liberal Party Group
 
Dear Editor
 
May I add a few comments fiollowing your article about tackling Homophobia in Schools
 
This initiative is only after a sustained campaign by my Liberal Party colleagues and myself to get the Stombreak Report brought to Council Committees uncensored and out in the public domain
 
It is disgraceful that I had to place a complaint with the Information Commissioner before I was given a full copy of a report received by the City Council 6 or so months earlier
 
The effort by Liverpool of recent ,does not hide the decades of indifference by this City Council ,which has lagged behind other equivalent cities
 
Lastly I was not commenting as an individual Councillor but as Leader of The Liberal Party Group, I would be grateful if titled with the same coutesy as Councillors Bradley and Anderson would be as Leader of their parties
 
 
The fact is on all issues with respect to tackling Homophobia ,I have had solid support from my fellow Liberal Party Councillors , who are in fact "straight".
 
This is in sharp contrast to the significant number of closeted gay Councillors in the Lib Dem Group who have persistently voted against even debating any issue relating to LGBT equality
 
As the genuine Liberal Party we are committed to fighting against discrimination on all fronts, not just stick a few slogans on election adverts to target communities opportunistically at election time
 
Cllr Steve Radford
Leader Liberal Party Group

Schools to tackle homophobia fears

Jan 23 2008 by Ben Turner, Liverpool Echo

LIVERPOOL teachers are being trained to challenge homophobic bullying amid fears it has become an “epidemic” in city schools.

Education chiefs today revealed an anti-bullying expert had been drafted in.

City council bosses have commissioned Jonathan Charlsworth, director of support group EACH, to deliver two days of workshops next month.

The move followed a report from pressure group Stonewall which found half of teachers fail to respond to homophobic language directed at pupils.

Stuart Smith, executive director of children’s services, told the council’s community safety scrutiny panel: “I do agree that this type of bullying is probably of epidemic proportions.

“I also accept the point that even those teachers who might frown upon racist and sexist bullying would allow ‘gay’ name calling and worse to go unchallenged.”

Liberal councillor Steve Radford, who is also the co-chairman of Liverpool’s Gay Business Association, said the workshops were long overdue.

He said: “This is something that I have been pushing for and is a profound step in the right direction.”

 

Edge Lane Battle Report in

Daily Post by Laura Sharpe

A TEARFUL pensioner who is fighting to save houses from the bulldozer told a public inquiry yesterday of the heartache of some residents who had already been forced to leave their homes.

Elizabeth Pascoe said she had taken up the battle to save people’s homes in Liverpool’s Edge Lane and recounted the moving stories of residents affected by the demolition plans.

Mrs Pascoe, a member of Better Environmental Vision for Edge Lane (Bevel) which is opposed to the land acquisition, said many of her friends and neighbours had felt forced to hand over their homes.

She said: “Lily was told by her husband he wanted her to be happy and safe. After he died she felt she’d betrayed him by leaving their home, but she had no choice. She’s now a council tenant.

“Another neighbour who’s a single parent struggles to pay her mortgage. She’ll have to become a tenant because she won’t be able to afford to buy. The best years of her life have gone into running her own home, now that’s down the drain.”

The inquiry is being held to decide if a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on almost 70 properties should be granted.

If approved, the CPO would allow a total of 370 houses to be knocked down as part of the Edge Lane West development plan. Developers want to widen Edge Lane, build shops and 280 houses.

Mrs Pascoe also spoke of an unhappy elderly man who moved possessions out of his home just days before he died.

She referred to CPOs as a “mass evacuation” forcing family-run corner shops to shut and leave the area.

Her view was supported in a passionate argument by Tuebrook ward councillor Steve Radford, who sits on the housing market renewal committee.

Cllr Radford said he believed demolition destroyed the fabric of a community, stripping it of people, workers and businesses.

He argued home ownership and home occupancy were key to regeneration but not encouraged by the council “grabbing land”.

He added: “CPOs make residents desperate and are socially destructive. It will dislocate people, dislocate business and dislocate employ-ment leading to a net loss of people and skills out of the city and possibly out of Liverpool.”

Neil Cameron, on behalf of the proposer English Partnerships, later suggested that Cllr Radford’s comments about a lack of consultation were unfounded and argued home ownership stood at only 21% in area, according to research in 2001.

Mr Cameron added that home ownership would increase under the scheme.

 We in the Liberal Party wonder what has become of the sense of priority in this country.

In the week that a gang of youths were convicted of the senseless murder of a family man outside his home in Warrington officials from Hackney Council have chosen to prosecute a pensioner for the grave and weighty crime of selling fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces.

The murder of Garry Newlove has shocked the nation and sparked an overdue debate about gang culture, teenage drinking and how to police this yob culture which appears to rule the streets.

 In response to this Hackney Council have chosen to bring a prosecution against Janet Devers for using imperial weights on her market stall in response to requests from her customers.

 We wonder how much of the council's time and money has been spent on this pointless legal action. We can only assume that Hackey is a utopia where there are no problems with unrulely youths or anti-social behaviour to the extent that council officials have nothing better to do than take the high handed descision to persecute Ms Devers through the Courts.

The council officials have defended their actions, stating that they were 'only doing their duty'. Such a statement is not far removed from the traditional defence of 'only obeying orders'.

The prosecution will doubtless come as a surprise to Gunter Verheugen, the EU Commissioner, who recently stated that there was no such law which prevented the use of imperial weights and measures in this way. He stated that such laws were the invention of the British tabloid press. Ms Devers now knows better. Perhaps Mr Verheugen will will give evidence in her defence.

Yours faithfully,

Daniel Wood

Chair of the Policy Committee The Liberal Party

Praise for Frank Field and Bob Wareing MP

Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party
 
Dear Editor
 
It is too often seen that political rivals will "knock" each other.
 
May I start this new year by praising the integrity and courage of both Bob Wareing and Frank Field MP in respect of their support for a vote on the EU Constitution
 
Both Members of Parliament have reiterated that the Lisbon Treaty represents a fundamental shift of powers from Westminster to the EU central institutions
 
They have spoken out that the Labour Party, as did the Lib Dems, promised the British people a vote in their last General Election Manifesto
 
Therefore it is not a question if MP's  are pro or anti further integration.
 
The call for a vote on this EU Constitution is a matter of political integrity- keeping a pledge made to thew electorate.
 
In the next few months we will be working with the Democracy Movement , a cross party organisation, to urge every MP here in the North West support our right to vote on this vital issue
 
If more MP's ,like Frank Field and Bob Wareing, stood by their commitments ,politics would be better respected  by the public
 
Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party
 

Queens Drive - Stoneycroft Petrol Station gets final go-ahead despite planners trying to impose unwanted road closure

Cllrs Steve Radford, Hazel Williams and Chris Lenton
Liberal Party
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
0151 259 5935
07920090322
dear Editor
 
Residents throughout Stoneycroft, Old Swan and West Derby have been truely puzzled why the former Esso Petrol station site has been left barren for so long.
 
The application for a replacement petrol station and  shop did need some amendments to protect adjoining households.
 
this could have been resolved last year had it not been the counterproductive intervention of the planning officers and Committee who imposed the need to close the central reservation on Queens Drive
 
This condition was overwhelmingly opposed by local residents and us as ward councillors for Tuebrook and Stoneycoft
The representatives of Tesco made it clear this was a condition they had not sought nor wanted in light of residents objections
 
however the Planning Committee led by Lady Doreen Jones and its officers tried to impose this road closure regardless
 
After an expensive and needless consultation by the council, the clear of objections of residents against a road closure was re-iterated.
 
The unwanted conditional road closure has now been dropped, the consequence has been the needless delay in building an important facility on the site and a wasteful consultation
 
No wonder residents and businesses despair of council consultations which are often no more than officers/councillors seeking to overturn the clear views of residents the already made known
 
Cllrs Steve Radford, Hazel William and Chris Lenton
Liberal Party Councillors for Tuebrook and Stoneycroft