Duke of Westminister taking over the city

In the city of culture, the real culture is excluded.

THE Duke of Westminster, Britain’s richest man, with the support of Liverpool City Council, The Stores Committee (the business elite – i.e. owners of city centre big business) and the police and private security firms intend to privatise a large part of Liverpool city centre. They intend to create what they describe as ’a new urban village’ with its own social laws and police force. The plan, which will see 35 streets in the heart of the city sealed off and redeveloped, has sparked anger among locals and civil liberty groups.

While the duke’s company, Grosvenor Estates, claims that the £750m redevelopment will transform the area for the better, before Liverpool becomes European Capital of Culture in 2008, his critics say the plans are an attempt to escalate the gentrification of the city centre, exclude those the wealthy define as ‘undesirable’ and make even more money for those who have been stealing off the city for years. And with the area having its own private police force this raises further issues, even for liberal organisations like Liberty. “This is a very disturbing development,” said Barry Hugill, a spokesman for the civil liberties group. “It raises concerns as to whether a private police force is going to decide who can and cannot come into a public place.”

Despite such objections, the duke’s plans are already well advanced. Grosvenor Estates recently secured from the city council a 250-year lease on an area that stretches from Paradise street to the Pier Head. The company intends to spend £100m on the compulsory purchase of all the buildings in the area. It will then create in their place a swish new shopping centre and a village of 350 yuppie flats, penthouses and town houses, all well beyond the economic reach of local people.

Among the places facing destruction are the Quaker owned ‘Friends meeting house’ and ‘Quiggins’ a rich culture haven for the young of the city, as well as second hand bookshops, cafes and other small businesses. One of the most sickening elements, however, is the duke’s plan to ring-fence the new community and police it using US-style “quartermasters” or sheriffs. Who will have the power to exclude local people from the area. The city council, already lapdogs to previous ‘developments’ that have feathered the pockets of developers and done nothing for the local population, agree with the aims of the project saying only that the regular police and other emergency services will be allowed access but the duke’s sheriffs will “maintain standards”. They will have the power to block off roads and prevent undesirables using facilities such as ‘pubs and shops in the area. Vagrants, skateboarders, unruly gangs of youths and demonstrators can all expect to be turned away at its entrances’.

A two-month public inquiry which ended last month heard that Grosvenor’s streets would have traditional rights of way replaced by “public realm arrangements” policed by “quartermasters” with powers to eject people. Private security companies have similar powers in shopping centres but it is thought this is the first time that they have been given the right to decide who walks through a city’s streets. Donald Lee, an Open Spaces Society spokesman, said: “When I asked city council officials why the new routes could not be dedicated as public rights of way, it was explained to me that the council and the developers needed to be in a position to ‘control and exclude the riffraff element’.”

Liberty is outraged and has instructed lawyers to find a way to mount a legal challenge. A petition of 150,000 has also been collected calling for Quiggins, to be protected from demolition. Even Mike McCartney, the brother of Paul and a former member of the Liverpool band the Scaffold, warned that if the developers got rid of Quiggins they risked losing the “soul and individuality” of the city.

Grosvenor Estates, which already owns swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia in London, claims that the development will bring big benefits to Liverpool. Rodney Holmes, Grosvenor’s project director, said: “People tell us they don’t come shopping in Liverpool because it’s dirty, there is chewing gum all over the place and pavements are cracked. We are developing a series of quarters for the area which will have security staff making sure that people maintain reasonable standards of behaviour.”

The city council is also a firm supporter of the project, which it describes as the biggest of its type in Europe. It sees it as a vital component of the city’s regeneration and says it could create 4,000 crap jobs for locals. While big multinational retailers have already committed to the scheme, it has meant the end for small locally run business. Planning permission has already been granted for the project but John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, is expected to make a final decision early next year.
It seems they are calling us to battle.