Has Widnes lost its soul?

Recent regeneration and development has ensured that life here is convenient, but rarely interesting or meaningful

Dear members – We hope everyone’s staying warm and cosy on yet another blustery December day. For today’s edition, the writer, political strategist and frequent Post contributor Jon Egan takes us on a whirlwind tour of Widnes, his hometown, to demonstrate how – like so many similar places across the country – its regeneration has forever changed the area’s physical layout as well as its spirit, and not always for the better.

“Widnes possesses, or at least once possessed, something precious, ineffable and rare,” Jon writes. “It had character.” He argues that the town was once blessed, also, with characters: larger-than-life eccentrics who achieved the hallowed status of being "well-known in the town." Meet some of those fascinating personalities, and what they represented, in Jon’s essay below. But first, your Post briefing.