Cairns Street in Bloom

Rip Off!

2007-11-17T08:56:00.000Z

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

2007-07-05T21:52:00.000Z

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

2007-04-13T18:11:00.000Z

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?

2007-03-19T20:49:00.000Z

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

2007-03-17T23:53:00.000Z

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

2007-01-12T18:36:00.000Z

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.

bragging

More houses are tinned up

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!

2006-12-19T17:07:00.000Z

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...

The Da Vinci Clan

2006-12-15T13:36:00.000Z

Things are happening in the street again. Yesterday a red Transit van, with two guys in it turned up and they started work on one of the houses with a dodgy bay window. They are back today and keep working on it. Julian and I have to suffer their constantly rattling generator as they bustle around, cutting pieces of timber, drilling into masonry and busying themselves with other power tools. I got an email forwarded from the 20/20 engineer to my neighbour where he announces this plan of action: He has got two contractors, Vinci (I have seen their corporate logo somewhere, I think in connection with railway maintenance, or maybe roadworks) and Clan. This guy from 20/20 originally said that the only save way to fix the problem is to demolish the bays. Now they will exemplary tie the bay window of house no 63 back into the front facade, then look at the result and if deemed successful use the same method on the other dodgy bay windows. I'd like to think that our persistent objection led to this change of heart, but it might be something else, like cost. Or the council officials could not sleep over the thought that lumps of victorian masonry could fall onto the street and hurt or maybe even kill somebody. In the meantime, a journalist from Manchester who visited us some time ago to write a story about us, has been in touch. Unfortunately so far she has not been able to sell our story, but I am sure she is trying. She published on indymedia for now, you can read her piece here

Edge Lane wins again!

2006-11-25T22:58:00.000Z

Another great victory for the campaigners in Edge Lane! Read about it here. A friend who I know from summer cycling evenings lives in the area and will be very happy. It is a bit worrying that the demolisher lobby still wants to press ahead, and just will try again to get the area CPO'ed. For those who don't know: Edge Lane is one of the main routes into Liverpool, for example coming by car from the M62 and heading for the centre you would drive along Edge Lane. Some fools think that by widening this road, traffic could flow quicker into the city. But you don't have to be a transport scientist to understand that wider roads will just attract more traffic, and you end up with the same problem of clogged up roads after a short time. In Edge Lane the plan was not just to widen the road, but to knock down houses to a far greater extent than widening the road would have required.
Somebody told me that there is a study which says: All you have to do for the traffic problems is to open a left turn lane somehwere along Edge Lane, can't remember where.
Btw, traffic jams always remind me of a hand written sign I used to see cycling to university in Berlin, Germany in the 1980's. The sign was near Potsdamer Platz and it addressed the jam that developed there in the morning rush hour. It said: Du stehst nicht im Stau, Du bist der Stau! - It means: You are not in a traffic jam, you are the traffic jam.

DC8

2006-11-20T20:35:00.000Z

Granby Residents Association where allowed to give a presentation to the DC8(Is that all there is on the web about this committee?) Board meeting this evening. Barbara presented the same very good power point presentation as she did to the 3 parks committee. Quite a few of us were there to show our support, and Cairns Street residents were out in force, four of us. After the presentation we had a lively debate, but nobody took the position of a supporter for Lovell's plans. Elaine Stewart told us that her report is still in a draft stage, and that she would like to use some (or all?) of Barbara's presentation in it. She assured the meeting that her report will fully reflect the resident's views and will give the LCC (Liverpool City Council) a full view of the picture. Some on the meeting then wondered, that when reports to elected councillors done by officers are reflecting the views of local people, why is the will of these people not respected? Are flawed reports responsible? I also think: Lovell's proposals are not popular, to say the least. But what makes Lovell think that these proposals will be approved? The reports, briefs and data they used mostly comes from council officers. If the brief would have said: In the end you got to give local people a realistic opportunity to stay in the area then how do they come up with what is on the table now, which is: local people are bullied to sell up, tennants are evicted, and then vacant houses are demolished or refurbished, then sold on the open market. If local people have the money to buy one of the new houses (and they won't) they can do so. Yeah, right...

Braces won't do says 20/20

2006-11-09T20:58:00.000Z

Last week while I was away on business in Birmingham and then on to London for the Climate Change demo 20/20 put a letter trough the door. (On the demo Stella gave an interview to the BBC (!) in London, here is the article.) 20/20 don't like our structural engineers suggestion to use steel braces to secure the bay windows of 3 houses in my street. The bay windows are slowly peeling away from the houses, and could fall down. 20/20 want to demolish, and at best build plywood pretend bay windows. Our engineer says that it might be better and even safer for the workers to use braces instead of taking the structures apart, bit by bit. 20/20 does the work of the outsourced former department of 'estates' of the council.
Did they really consider our requests? What should we do? We'll have a meeting tomorrow at Eleanor's house and will discuss it.

You and Yours

2006-11-02T23:01:00.000Z

Listen to this BBC Radio 4 programme You and Yours about the Pathfinder scheme.

Long time

2006-11-01T19:39:00.000Z

Haven't written here for a long time, too long. I still have to adapt my routine to write stuff up as, or just after, it happens.
Quick summary of what I missed to write about until now:

Granby Residents association meeting
Evening at Des McConaghy's house
Lantern Parade in the Park
Another house tinned up

Granby Residents Association Meeting
These meetings take place roughly once a month in the office of GRA (Granby Residents Association), on Granby Street. We have an agenda we try to stick to, and go through it. GRA might be interested to set up a website and Edward asked me to give him some prices on how much it would be. I did that from websites of companies I have used in the past, and it works out very affordable in my opinion: you can have a domain, a host and web space that allows CGI scripts in PHP for less than £50 per year. The only thing you have to add then is content.
Unfortunately I failed to get support from the GRA for some events for the following week (which I will blog about here) in which the Welsh Street Home Group were getting involved in. WSHG are fighting a similar fight to us. They are trying to save their houses in the Welsh Street area of Toxteth. Nina Edge is their most prominent campaigner, fighting with amazing efficiency and passion to keep her home. She is an artist in her day job, and also has a piece in the current Liverpool Biennial. It's really good, I like it. I know Nina through my allotment, when I signed the lease I had to go to Nina's house because she was in the committee of our allotment society at the time, and organised the lettings. She said I will also have to sign her petition to save the houses in her area, at the same time. I happily obliged.
Evening at Des McConaghy's house
I met Des first at a meeting Nina had organised to discuss the possibilities to make old houses like the one's we want to save more eco friendly. He has worked in Toxteth way back in the 70s and built up an organisation called SNAP. Not sure what SNAP stands for, but it was an experiment in community driven organisation. They ran an office for people to get their advice on housing and welfare issues, I imagine a bit like Citizen's Advice Bureau and the council's one stop shops rolled into one. I have to get and read the final report on the project from the city library. He used photos in his report that I can only decribe as in the tradition of photographers like Jacob Riis or maybe August Sander. I can't remember the photographer's name fully, only the first name, Derek. I will look it up and update the post.
Des has an encyclopedic knowledge of political history. We talked about more things that I have space to mention here, from the problems with building 'new towns' in the 1960's in Northern Ireland to aspects of the Freedom of Information Act. I liked his phrase, that there should not just be a 'Right to Know' but also a 'Duty to Publish'.
Des has been to Berlin many times. What a surprise to hear that our paths might have crossed on the Alexander Haig visit to West Berlin in 1981. That was my first year in Berlin, where I went to Uni. Berlin was a radical place, and the visit of a US Foreign Secretary and former NATO commander was bringing out the masses, and at the time demonstrations could be quite violent. Des wanted to demonstrate against Haig's vist but somehow got arrested in East Berlin!
I can't remember if I went to that demo or not. But it was one of the occasions West Berlin established it's reputation as the capital of anarchists, or as the press called them 'Chaoten'. Lot's to write about, but that would digress too far from this blog. I also met Des' wife, who is originally from Germany. We chatted a bit about Berlin. I had a nice evening and got lot's of inspiration from Des and his wife.
Lantern Parade
And with this we are arriving at the event yesterday evening, the Lantern Parade through Sefton Park. Why do I write about this, you may ask. Welsh Street people had the really good idea to leaflet this event, or better: To get people to sign a petition against demolition. I wanted to get more involvement from the Granby Residents Association, but could not convince them of the potential of this event to rally support for our cause. Nevertheless I volunteered to help the WSHG in their effort, and also recruited Becka, Julian and Stella to help on the day. Nina and Barbara had a leaflet prepared and we put the finishing touches to it on Sunday evening. Eventually I want to scan the leaflet and give a link for people to download, print it, and get their friends to sign it and send back to us. Save Britain's Heritage (look at my links column) gave us money for the photocopies, and I had 2800 made, which I am proud to tell you I transported back from the copy shop on my bicycle in my panniers. No problem, and why do people use cars? I don't get it. I prepared volunteer's packs, a piece of card board as a surface to write on, a few pencils to be used in the case of rain, a pen, a map of the park with contact phone numbers, and two keys on strings to put round the neck to recognize other volunteers by. And of course a stack of leaflets, but I stuck those in a rush into the packs on Tuesday, in Nina's front room. Then back home where I met Becka, Stella and Julian to go to the meeting point with Barbara and to meet the rest of the volunteers. In the park we tried to get as many signatures as possible. That meant I missed most of the action and could not really admire all the lanterns and side shows. Walking up to people you never met before and starting up a conversation is not everybody's thing, but soon I lost all self respect and managed to get a good number of leaflets filled in. Most people where sympathetic and happily filled the paper in, only one young mother tried to argue that my leafleting had nothing to do with Hallowe'en and that the houses we live in are horrible and should be knocked down. Not sure, I think she wanted to pick a verbal fight, and I just walked off. Becka and I moved with the crowd to the final performance on the south end of the park. There we met Barbara, and all of us were very cold at that stage. We decided to relax and watch at least the grand finale of the firework without worrying about signatures.
Another House tinned up
This house is in my street, on the opposite side to my house. I have a good view of it from my desk. Now this view of a cheerfully painted door, some lovely planters with fuchsias and a neat net curtain in the front bay is destroyed. The council people were never sure in the past if this house was theirs and therefore should be boarded up or if it was still lived in. For a long time I also thought that it was lived in but I had never seen the occupiers. Well, today the gang around the neighbourhood management team decided to find out, and they broke in. Whatever they found in there, it had to be hidden: A white van was summoned from nowhere, appearing miraculously in the street. The tinning up squad, in an unmarked white van, fully equipped with a generator and all sorts of tools to cut the sheets of tin set to work immediately. Tin with a grid of little square holes is the current fashion for empty houses. I could not resist and went out to talk to the house busters, to show that they were noticed. People I have met before: the woman who interviewed me for the consultation, a stage in the process to approve Lovell's plan for world domination; the slightly scared officer who had been send out to assure the residents of their good intentions after the recent visit by a demolition squad in the street we managed to send packing. "All the copper has been taken out, the ceilings have collapsed, and we need to secure the house. Bonfire night is coming up and kids might torch it if we don't do anything." Which year's bonfire night? Maybe we were just lucky last year that the whole street did not go up in smoke? They really care for us, these council people, not. The occasion prompted Julian to start a FOI (Freedom of Information) request for the contract between Liverpool Enterprise and the Council. (Liverpool Enterprise was written on the marked van whose driver we saw effortlessly breaking the lock of the house in presence of the council people.)

In the post

2006-10-24T18:56:00.000Z

Julian, Becka, and I had lunch in town today, as we do so often. We treated ourselves to very nice smoothies afterwards. Smoothie Revolution, a tiny shop on Hardman Street, equipped with a few chiller cabinets and an array of electrical blenders, a take-away just for fruit juices or smoothies, freshly made. Then I cycled home to do some work, and found a letter from the council, individually written to me. It's the answer to a letter I had written some time ago where I outlined my objections and concerns about the proposed demolition, and especially on the consultation process. I thought that the interviews with residents the council had comissioned could never give a true picture about what people here think about the plans. My letter, I requested, should become part of the report councillors are given before they make the decision on Lovell's plans. This request is granted I am informed. I have to go through the points the South Central Neighbourhood Management Team Leader(Interim)(And people think we Germans have long words. How about this on a name's badge?) gives as answers to my letter. By skim reading I have the impression that it picks up some points I made, but does not really answer them. Take point 8 for example:

Lovell's newbuild construction will be required to meet Building Regulations standards of energy efficiency. Due to Government policy these standards have risen sgnificantly in recent years.

Thats the answer to something quoted from my letter:

Not only in the light of recent studies into climate change housing development has to be sustainable: Plans for new houses have to make best use of resources and incorporate measures for energy conservation. The current standards are not sufficient. The building industry simply can't carry on as it has done for decades. Lovell's plans do not reflect any of these requirements: Suggested houses are of conventional build, no measures are proposed to be especially energy saving. Demolition plans have to take into account the amount of build in energy in the existing houses, which would be lost. Imagination from Lovell does not reach far enough to improve the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock, even where they are promising to keep and refurbish houses.

My point is that you have to go beyond current building standards if you are serious about tackling climate change. I might be digging a hole here for myself: the enery efficiency of these terraces with their solid walls, single pane sash windows, probably insufficient loft insulation can hardly compete with a low carbon house. There's an interesting article in Green Futures of March/April 2006 about the apparent conflict between heritage and environment.

"Can't stop our ageing homes from wasting heat? Then replace them as fast as possible, and move Britain on to a lower carbon path. In a nutshell, that's the case for demolition. But it smacks of barbarism to the conservationists, who are even loath to let a major energy makeover spoil our housing heritage. We ask rival protagonists to set out their stalls - and look for common ground."

Certainly Lovell does not fall into any of these categories: They are not conservationists, they want to demolish these houses. Even houses they claim to keep their version of conservation only amounts to keeping the facades, the house behind still has to go. (I hate this kind of pseudo conservation. A house is not just it's face to the street!). Lovell is also not interested in the environmental issues of their new houses: Before an Open Day event this summer where Lovell showed us their maps I had tried to find anything in Lovell's portfolio that would give them environmental credentials. I found very little. Asking about it I was told that "if the client pays for it, we do it. But here the client doesn't want to pay for it." Rubbish.

Sunny afternoon

2006-10-18T21:50:00.000Z

Four of us went to the Town Hall on Dale Street this afternoon to leaflet a council meeting. Eleanor and Hazel had put this leaflet together, in colour. They used photos from the 'Cairns Street in Bloom' competition in the summer, where we had put the mad cap idea of making our street look lovely against all odds into practice. I should really tell you about this event that gave this blog it's name more. Promised... but not in this post. We managed to hand out most of the leaflets Eleanor had colour-copied on her own expenses. I will ask her to scan the leaflet in so I can publish it here as well. The ushers in town hall, one of them looking highly decorated, with a white navy style cap, and decorated with what looked like medals on his immaculate double breasted uniform where friendly and chatty. The admiral of the ushers was interested in our leaflets and accepted a copy.
Most councillors took one. I am pretty sure Marilyn Fielding, responsible for Neighbourhoods and Housing in the executive board of the council was one of them. She's also got a letter from me some weeks ago. This letter went to a number of addresses. The councillor on the executive board I had it addressed to was Peter Millea, responsible for Regeneration and Transport. Little did I know that Renewal as in Neighbourhood Renewal Area does not fall into his department, but it's Neighbourhood that I should have targeted. Peter Millea kindly informed me that he had past the letter on to Marylin Fielding. No reaction from her though. Town Hall in Liverpool has a prominent location; standing in the entrance area I could look down Water Street and see the Mersey glistening in the late afternoon sun and thirty minutes standing there and trying to chat up our local government representatives was made enjoyable that way.
Later in the evening I went to a joint meeting by Duncan Society, Merseyside Environmental Trust and Liverpool Friends of the Earth. The occasion was the launch of their report into sustainability and regeneration, you can download it from their website. (Now I spent 15min to find a link to the download... will have to add it later.)
I was bullied into saying something about Granby street and the campaign to save our homes on that meeting. It somehow fitted into the meeting, so I muttered something about 'demolition' - 'want to keep our homes' - 'developer's profit' - 'council doesn't listen' - 'people are suffering from this' into the microphone. I am not a good public speaker, I can get completely muddled up in my string of words, but Becca, a friend, was appreciative.

Meeting in the street

2006-10-16T18:45:00.000Z

This evening we had a meeting in the street. I think it was initiated by Elaine Stewart, Neighbourhood Manager for South Central Liverpool.
Eleanor, my neighbour, had managed to get a structural engineer to come out just before, and he had very kindly agreed to give us his opinion on how the bay window problem can be solved. Nearly all neighbours in the street came along, we also had a councillor Alan Dean, and an engineer from 20/20, who are contracted for carrying out property maintenance for the council.
The experts, the engineer from 20/20 and our engineer disagreed: 20/20 said that the bays would have to come down, and he suggested to take the stone work (big sand stone lintels and columns) carefully down and store them inside the house for a potential future use for a rebuilt bay. Our engineer said that it would be possible to use steel bands that can keep the structure from falling down. It would be temporary, but can save the bays fow now, and keep the overall look of the street.
The residents prefer the steel band solution, but the 20/20 man was not convinced. He tried to get our man to give him in writing that it is safe, how he would recommend it should be done, and say which contractors would do the work. As if it is suddenly our responsibility to maintain the council's properties. All he could offer was to build a mock bay, maybe from plywood, with windows painted on them. (He said they have done that in Anfield, or was it Aintree?).
'For godsake no...' was Eleanors reaction. The idea of a boarded up house, brick wall where a door was with 'painted on' windows, including curtains, ridiculous!
We managed to talk 20/20 and Elaine Stewart into at least considering the steel band option, and to explain to us in writing whatever decision they are going to take. I asked them if the builders who were here last week, with a JCB, would have tried to keep the sand stone intact. The answer was no, I guess they would have been smashed and probably would now be landfill, or ground up to hard core. That is at least a little victory, that they say they want to save the stone work.
Then we got a little distracted by discussing other options on how you can keep a wall from falling on somebodies head. Steel wires, pulling the whole thing from inside the house with a ratchet? Two metal bands? Three metal bands? "That would be the Rolls Royce job!"
What about cost? All in all not expensive, whatever you do, assured us Mr. 20/20.
It was a good meeting I thought, everybody could join in. The council reps seemed to take our concerns seriously.

Echos

2006-10-11T09:09:00.000Z

The Liverpool Echo had an article yesterday, with a picture! And last night I had a phone call on my mobile from somebody who's name I did not understand. A 'Housing Steering Group', polititcal party I think, but I could not understand through the crackling ether which one. I will find out tomorrow, when I give him a call back. He asked for a briefing from me or somebody in my street on what is going on.

We come in peace! (Mars Attacks, Film by Tim Burton, 1996)

2006-10-09T11:29:00.000Z

We must have alarmed some people with our curiosity into the builders activity this morning. The doorbell rang just after I had finished my breakfast and was packing my bag for the short trip down south.
"We work for the council and we don't know what happened this morning, but some residents must have come out and scared the builders away." - "We want to assure you that the fact that we have to demolish these bay windows has nothing to do with the proposals for the area." Words from council workers I had never met before.
So, lets look at this claim in a little detail:
The bays are peeling away from facades they have been attached to for the best part of last century, we can see that. Gaps and cracks on the houses that are boarded up look especially bad, they are not been lived in for a long time, another fact we can't ignore. Whose houses are they? They used to be social housing, managed by housing associations. Liverpool city council bought them all, and 'secured' them. 'Securing a property' is the wording they use, 'tinning up' is much more evocative: when new, shiny corrugated iron, with time getting grubby, rusty. Like tins without labels and bulging lids; they will explode, no doubt. But who would bet on how much longer it takes for a bulging tin to burst? Same with structural movements in a house. A wall bulges out, foundations subbside, cracks appear. But when does a house finally collapse? The council says: "Now!". What do you do if you get worried about a crack in your house? You get advice, you get it fixed before it is too late. Unless you really want to see your house fall down. Then all you have to worry about is that nobody get's hurt. Isn't that what the council is doing? Yes, they have a duty of care, they would be in deep trouble if a playing kid would be buried under rubble from a house that is in their responsibility. The next best thing to collapse is demolition, a controlled collape.

Can you see my line of argument? The partial demolition has to do with the proposed complete demolition. Look at it the other way: If this corner of Liverpool would be considered as a valuable, important part of the city, as being the home of an exciting mix of people from different cultural backgrounds, people that deserve to be heard, people and houses with more stories to tell than a questionaire can reflect, then the council would be in trouble for letting deterioration on their own houses come that far that demolition is their only option! (Written on the train to London)

"Knockin'em down is deerer..."

2006-10-09T08:08:00.000Z

Yes, that's what the builders who are contracted to knock down the bay windows on some houses in my street just told me. It's Monday morning and I had to go to get some milk for my poridge. (I normally don't have to go out to buy milk, because I get a door step delivery. The service is prompt, but the milk I got in this morning wss off... but that is another story, must not digress.) I walked past a white builder's van outside and two men in builder's attire with the expression on their faces that says "hmm that'll gonna cost you...". I turned back and started chatting to them. So, houses in my street are dangerous, bricks and sand stone lintels might fall, glass shatter. But instead of fixing the problem by repairing and trying to keep what is there, the builders are contracted to demolish and fill the big hole in with concrete blocks. It will look horenduous, and I will post pictures, but no time to do it today. I am going away for a few days, and when I am back the street will proably have changed it's appearance.

A leaning Bay

2006-10-07T14:34:00.000Z

On Friday my neighbour met some official looking guys on the street who said they have to demolish the bay windows of some houses in my street. They are dangerous and could fall on somebody or something. How lucky for the council that this happens just before a meeting where the executive board will decide on the approval of the developer Lovell's plans for my neighbourhood. My street would be eradicated, completely demolished. That some houses have to be propped up will give the developer some credibility in their claim that houses in my street can't be repaired. I spend some of my day in getting phone numbers from structural engineers to give us a second opinion. Is the urgency really required? We can see that there are gaps and cracks, but these are not new, and probably looked the same just a few month ago, and they might look the same in a few month if the houses are left standing (or leaning). Interesting is that my neighbours, including me, are very suspicious of any action the council takes. We don't believe that this is only about protecting us from collapsing bay windows, it will bolster their position. I also managed to speak to a councillor who will put a question to the executive board of the council about this sudden urgency. I will post his question and hopefully any asnwers here in due course.