|
Only
a few months remain before Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is
expected to grant final approval to a massive £750 million
redevelopment project for Liverpool City Centre.
The
Paradise Street Development Area (PDSA) will provide for a mix of
uses including retail, food and drink, leisure, residential apartments,
recording studios, offices, a meeting hall, gallery, two hotels,
a new bus station, 3,000 car parking spaces, open spaces and a new
public park.
Overall
the site will encompass 43 acres, equivalent to 13 football pitches.
The
best bid for the city
 |
| Artist's
impression |
Led
by the Grosvenor Henderson Group the scheme has been at the forefront
of the city's successful 2008 Capital of Culture bid, seeing off
a proposal by rival developers The Walton Group.
The
unsuccessful tender involved a singular, enclosed shopping development
along the lines of Manchester's Trafford Centre, which was not thought
sympathetic to existing street plans and surrounding architecture.
However,
the proposed alternative hasn't met with unconditional approval,
with objections placed by local businesses and even national organisations;
from Liberty to the Open Spaces Society and upon public discussion
portals such as Indymedia UK.
Local
shops for local people
The
legendary shopping experience that is Quiggins has become the focal
point for campaigners; the building itself having been served a
compulsory purchase order although an alternative site has been
offered.
Established
in 1986, Quiggins is renowned throughout the UK as a hub for local
craftsmen, entrepreneurs, creative talent, artists and alternative
lifestyles.
 |
| Quiggins
building |
In
an interview with BBC Liverpool Online, Peter Tierney, co-owner
of Quiggins outlined his views on Grosvenor Henderson's proposed
scheme:
"We're
not objecting to the overall plan. If anyone is willing to invest
in the city, we'll back them all the way.
"But
what they're trying to do is sanitize the way people shop. Grosvenor
want to transform Quiggins into retail and residential. So do we,
only instead of inviting the big, Bluechip companies you can find
anywhere, we want to keep it local. Businesses who plough profits
back into the local community.
"We
don't want to hold the development up in any way. All we ask is
to get on a level playing field."
Walk
this way...
The
majority of objectors agree with the PSDA project in principle but
argue that it can go ahead without their property, or believe they
can revitalize individual sites themselves.
 |
| Timber
frame model |
Liverpool
City Council and Grosvenor Henderson oppose this, believing that
piecemeal redevelopment will not deliver the substantial change
deemed necessary.
Spokesman
Barry Hugill of Liberty, one of the UK's leading human rights organisations,
has also expressed concern regarding the potential abuse of private
management wresting control of public spaces.
"The
potential for abuses of civil rights are enormous on this project,"
Hugill told the Architects' Journal.
"It
is a basic human right to go where you want, when you want."
Private
policing
Should
the scheme prove successful, traditional rights of way are to be
replaced by "public realm arrangements" policed by "quartermasters"
with powers to eject unwelcome persons.
Despite
similar practice by private security companies in shopping centres
it is thought to be the first time in the UK that it is to be extended
to include who walks through a city's streets.
 |
| The
shopping environment will be closely monitored |
Begging
will be banned, alcohol and food only to be consumed in designated
areas, any form of demonstration will require police permission
and skateboarding and rollerblading forbidden.
The
final decision following the public enquiry is expected in April,
with work expected to begin as soon as July 2004.
The
future
Despite
initial doubt and an uneasy sense that somehow this has once again
become a battle of corporate giants versus the common man, all agree
that the city stands on the brink of a new birth.
Finally
shedding associations of poverty and crime, the cranes, bulldozers
and diggers rev their engines in eagerness of a new cityscape in
the making.
As
an emerging centre of cultural and ethnic diversity, Liverpool will
now finally receive the respect it so richly deserves.
A
timber model of the Paradise Street Project forms the centrepiece
of an exhibition at Liverpool Vision, The Observatory, 1 Old Haymarket,
which runs until the end of February 2004.
Click
here for directions.
|
