AT Wallasey Town Hall (the HQ of Wirral Council, hereafter referred to as the 'Death Star'), there is always much talk of regeneration.
But that's all it is... talk.
The Death Star itself stands defiant amid scenes of business failure and social deprivation on a massive scale ... all along Brighton Street and King Street.
(No wonder Wirral borough never managed to twin with anywhere... even Bagdhad and Stoke-on-Trent turned them down on quality grounds.)
Where once stood large shops, cinemas and dance halls in Egremont and Seacombe, now we have shabbily boarded-up premises, grotty bed-sitter rooms and mean-spirited public sector housing designed as bug-hutches for the beaten generation of a once proud borough - Wallasey.
All this devastation has been achieved since the monstrous Wirral Council was created in the early 1970s.
Now under the latest Government proposals, there will soon be a chance for local people to win back local political power. Watch this space. Freedom is a-coming.
In the meantime, we all know that in Wallasey it is hard to find ANYONE with nice things to say about the collection of failures and mediocrities which make up Wirral CounciI.
I have even heard Wirral councillors slag off their own council. So hated it has become.
And it has certainly been the great misfortune of New Brighton to have been placed within this unweildy borough.
Any difficulties the resort has faced over its long years of decline have been greatly magnified by the inept political control that emanates from the Death Star.
Don't take my word for it. The Green Party (of which I am neither a member nor a supporter) recently conducted a survey which concluded that negelect and ugly development in New Brighton in recent years has caused great dismay in the hearts of local people.
Tell me about it. Even while I've been living in New Brighton these past two years, two lovely, historic hotels have been reduced to rubble (the Grand and the Victoria) and four neighbourhood pubs and two shops have closed down.
In roughly the same period, this useless council has granted full or outline planning permission for 300 flats. Exactly what the local residents don't want.They want shops and local amenities.
Today I give the final word to Green politician Cyntha Stonall.
She said: "Wirral Council's preoccupation with destroying the old and replacing it with faceless blocks of flats fails utterly to take account of the real needs of local residents while at the same time undermining the historic character of New Brighton.
"All of this shows how desperately we need a new voice to challenge Wirral Council's disastrous and incompetent management."
Nice one Cynthia. I couldn't have put it better myself.
And such fighting talk almost tempts me to support the Green Party.
Except I know your members are overwhelmingly pathetic, pasty-faced, vegetarian, sandals-wearing pacifists, who are as mad as a bag of snakes.
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Annette Kalms wrote...
I agree with your comments, Steve, the one thing I have always thought is it's brilliant to build these flats, but what are the residents supposed to do with their spare time? There is a phrase for what New Brighton is becoming a "dormitory town". People literally go there to sleep. Any enjoyment, such as going to pictures, baths, etc is done elsewhere.
Posted by: Annette Kalms | January 22, 2007 2:13 PM