Rip Off!

What would you think of a story like this: A council decides to set fire to a house they bought from tax payers money. They find a 'contractor' who knows how to handle arson, and "A1 Firebirds - Arson to Metal-stripping - Free quotes, ask driver for details" set about it: expertly drousing the house with petrol and, abiding to all health and safety rules, light a blow torch to start the blaze. You come past and ask: Why did you do that? - and the answer is Dont ask me, it's the council, they were worried that some arsonist might set these houses alight. Purely preventative, mate.

Okay, sounds far off. But what about this:
Some roofer firm use a cherry picker and strip lead flashing off roofs and chimney stacks in my street. First I think naively they are repairing the flashing. Just a bit odd that they rip off all the lead instead of just fixing it down again. Surely they will come with new flashing tomorrow. But no! I see them putting inferior roofing felt (roofers call it something else) around one of the chimney stacks next door to my neighbours house opposite.

I have to ask the guys and get as an answer that they do it as contractors for 20/20 and where told to take the lead off so that kids can't do the same and sell it to scrap dealers for some ziggies, or whatever else. And not to put anything else back on the houses that are empty and belong to the council, unless they are next door to a house that is still owned and lived in. Something got to be done about it.

Looking for volunteers

Eleanor entered us again for the Britain in Bloom competition. We are looking for volunteers who have some time at the weekend (7.7/8.7.) or beginning of next week to help us with planting, or painting or other things that need doing in the street. Please email me on zabaione (here goes the AT) uk2 DOT net. (Sorry to write it so garbled, but that makes it difficult for any spam bots to find my email address). Alternatively leave a comment, and I'll be in touch. Thanks.

LCC Executive board rubberstamps proposals

The Echo reports it: Today the Executive Board approved Lovell's proposals for Granby triangle. I was too late for the meeting, got up too late. The public is allowed to listen in these meetings from an ante room, with the occasional glimpse of our democratically elected representatives. I remember from other occasions that the public address system in use was hopelessly inaudible, and that is still the case, as a neighbour who was less sleepy in the morning confirmed.
They had a little discussion before voting the whole proposal through and in the end the councillors hinted to the listening audience of residents that they will keep us informed.
So, what does this mean for my house, my street? On the cards is outright demolition. We will fight this, and on a meeting we (Granby Resident's Association) had some days ago a council officer confirmed that further consultation with the residents is written into the report the executive board voted on. Can we really influence the proposal so much that the outright demolition plan will be overturned? We will certainly try to find out.

Ever wondered what Rachmanism is?

Simon Jenkins titled his column Once they called it Rachmanism. Now it's being done with taxpayers' money. What is Rachmanism. I found this story from the good old past after a short google search:
Peter Rachman was a slum landlord in London, who forced sitting tenants with violence and intimidation out of run down houses he bought and then rented the flats to immigrants at extortionate rates. Because of the racist housing regulation that prevented black people from renting in other areas, the immigrants had no other choice. The famous Kray brothers of the London East End also tried to mob the mobster, and apparently succeeded.
Who is the Rachman of today? Is it Lovells who want to take over our houses, or is it New Heartlands who want to buy our houses to give them to Lovells? Who is playing the immigrant's role in this play?
The German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder made a play about a character with some parallels to Peter Rachman: Ignaz Bubis, who lived in Frankfurt of the 1960s and 1970s. Fassbinder's play is titled Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod (Garbage, the City and Death). It is in short about the interaction between property speculators and local authorities. Because the main character, based on the real person Ignaz Bubis was a Jew, the play was attacked as being antisemitic and never made it to the stage during Fassbinder's lifetime.
Now having told you about Fassbinder, I should try and find this play and read it... I know Frankfurt a little, from going there regularly to a big trade show in December each year. Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany, all the banks have their headquarters there, in huge sky scrapers. I wonder if there is a connection between the play about property speculation and the rise of the bank palaces somewhere?

Promised Lands

A friend texted me last week to buy the Guardian on Wednesday, it would have a supplement on the Pathfinder schemes. Of course, disorganised as I am, I forgot. Then during the following couple of days a lot of emails landed in my inbox about this Guardian supplement. What is the fuss about? I found out from the Guardian website: Read Simon Jenkin's reaction to this supplement. So, the Guardian published in their 'Society' section 6 pages sponsored by the Housing Market Renewal people about Pathfinder, but did not make clear enough that it was entirely the view of the government, and no critic was cited. My friend, who knows a thing or two about the pathfinder was fopped off when she tried to give her view prior to the publication over the phone. Now it is clear why: The HMRI had paid for the show and would decide what was published. Not good, but Simon Jenkins column attacked the paper for this error of judgement, and they saw it necessay to issue a statement to justify this kind of 'journalism'. Thinking about the title of this supplement, 'Promised Lands': I can not help but interpret this cynically. The Patfinders promise profit for the developers, if they get their way these promises can become real. The people living round here have been promised that they can have their say, but the consultation of last year has still not been presented to our council, many months later.

Big Issue

This weeks Big Issue had an article about regeneration in Liverpool, and Cairns Street features in it. Sorry, I should have blogged it earlier, because now it is Friday and next week there'll be a new Big Issue. The author, Ciara Leeming gives a good account of what goes on in the Pathfinder areas of Liverpool. Apparently there will be more features on regeneration in the coming weeks, covering other areas here in the north of England, so keep an eye out for it. In the meantime, it looks as if all bay windows have been fixed following the method of pinning them to the upstairs bedroom floor. There are some telltale signs: Little strips cut into the mortar in the brick work on both sides of the bay and filled again, metal plates and bolts sticking out of the front lintels. Other council contractors have also been busy:

• My back alley is now gated.
This scheme was introduced some years ago, to reduce crime. The Liberal Democrats like bragging about it, as if they invented it. We'll see what different it makes. I don't think this will keep out anybody who is intend to come into the alley: You can still just climb over the wall at the Kingsley Road end. No idea if it will deter the odd squatter we noticed by the bags of rubbish and bottles of booze carefully hidden in back yards of empty houses.
• More houses are tinned up
A few (I think two) houses have been tinned up using the council's prefered method of sheet metal with little square holes. These houses were unoccupied as far as I know, and they might have been council property already, or whoever owned them sold them to the council.

But, a house further up from mine is now treated to some repair work and improvements. It was occupied until some time last autumn. There was a fire, and the guys who lived there had to move. Then the house was boarded up. For some days after the burglar alarm was faintly audible, until it ran out of battery power or somebody had mercy and switched off the annoying beeping. Now a few guys are working on it: plastering, new windows, probably some decorating. That's good, the house will be lived in again soon I hope.

Bay window bolted to bedroom floor!

Now, the 20/20 engineer came to our street yesterday, assessing the job workers from the special contractor Clan had finished on house number 63. I could not resist and come out to talk to him and find out what he thought. He said, that they've done a good job. It works, they will give Clan the job to fix the other houses the council owns in the street and have failing bay windows. He told me that Clan have tied the leaning bay window to the front top floor bedroom, and actually pulled the whole construction back to the front wall. Impressive, I thought. And Mr 20/20 was the man who did not believe this method could work, he wanted to demolish and then build some film set ply wood & paint bay windows to please our aesthetic feelings.
Uncertainty remains: There are some houses with the same problem that allegedly don't belong to the council. I had a go to find out for a few quid from the land registry online service who's they are, but unfortunately there's a computer problem on their site. It would not give me the paid for and promised link. After complaining land registry refunded £3 and blamed my internet browser; this is rubbish, I use Firefox, latest model, and it's good.
Cairns Street is now dressed in Xmas attire: A few of us have put twinkly lights out and you can see xmas trees, baubles, twigs of holly, tinsel... Why not give the Xmas lights in Blackpool a miss this year and head for Toxteth's Cairns Street to see the real thing? ...Only joking...