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.