Is a 584ft tall skyscraper coming to Southport?
Plus: a report from Liverpool's anti-vaccine protest, and the rest of the weekly briefing
Dear readers — today’s briefing looks at plans for a 584ft skyscraper in Southport town centre. If built, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the North. We also have a report from the anti-vaccine protests in the city centre on Saturday, a stunning Edwardian home of the week and some great recommended reads.
Our weekend read was about the lives of mothers in Walton and Woolton. Mollie visited the two areas to understand the challenges facing families, and what they hope for their children’s futures. A warm welcome our new subscribers who joined us after reading the piece.
Last week we published an interview with the urban regeneration expert Michael Parkinson, who talked about why the Caller report was “sexed up”, and a historical long read about the anti-German riots that swept through 1915 Liverpool after the sinking of the Lusitania. Those stories are members-only — sign up below to read them and get our members-only stories this week in your inbox.
‘The city of the future’
Last weekend, we published a piece about plans for a new mega-warehouse in Bold Village and how it’s rekindling old fears about urban sprawl. John Belchem, emeritus professor of history, wrote in to say:
Further to Larry Neild’s splendid piece on urban sprawl between Liverpool and Manchester, could I add an historical note going back far beyond the Silver report to the aspirations about the Manchester Ship Canal. Here is The Liverpool Magazine May 1890:
From Liverpool to Manchester will run continuous quays, on which will be discharged and loaded merchandise from all parts of the world. Around these quays will spring up streets, squares, manufactories, mills, offices — all that goes to make a great city … This vast city will be the greatest and richest ever known to the world … London, compared to it, is out of the way … London will be our historic city — the city of culture, fashion and intellect. But whoever lives long enough will find the great city on the banks of the Mersey will be the commercial city of the future.
☁️ This week’s weather
Get in touch: If you want to tell us about a story or pass on some information, please email mollie@livpost.co.uk or robin@livpost.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.
The big story: Is a skyscraper coming to Southport?
The top line: Controversy surrounds speculative plans for a 584ft tall skyscraper in Southport, which would build on the Grade II listed Grand Casino in the town centre. If built, it will be taller than Manchester’s Beetham Tower and one of the tallest buildings outside of London.
The details:
It will house 140 apartments, 109 five-star hotel rooms, a wedding venue, a bar and a car park.
Profits from the apartments will go directly to charity.
‘The Tower of Hope’ is being built as a symbol of thanks to the NHS workers who worked during the pandemic.
The context: Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group have already invested millions in Sefton, creating a small hub of restaurants in the ‘Northern Quarter’ on Lord Street, including Bold Hotel and an Irish pub. They say they hope more investment will flood into the town now that Southport has been awarded £38.5m from the government’s Town Deal.
The inspiration came after Andrew Mikhail, chair of the group, spent four months in intensive care with Covid. He said he wanted people to “look up, see the Tower of Hope and realise anything is possible,” adding:
I understand if we all get this off the ground it will be the single biggest project that will have come to Southport since anyone can remember. New York City started with a single brick once upon a time as did London and every major city and town, we need to cherish our past and we should be building our own future so other generations can bask in our glory rather than keep talking and referring to our past continuously. A great philosopher once said, ‘The secret of change is to focus all your energy on not fighting the old but on building the new’.
But there’s doubt the project will go ahead and a planning application is yet to be made. A spokesperson for the authority told the Independent:
We always welcome investors who share our passion and commitment to maintaining and improving our town centres. Sefton Council will continue to work with investors and stakeholders for the ultimate long-term benefit of the resort.
The bottom line: One local Labour councillor told The Post: “To be honest I’d rather see investment in things we need like affordable housing rather than mad vanity projects.” An event in Bold Hotel will unveil plans and further details on a date to be announced.
Local news in brief
New court documents show Liverpool bomber Emad Al Swealmeen claimed to be fleeing from his native Syria, which was in the grip of civil war, when applying for asylum in 2014. The asylum judgement found this claim to be untrue and he lost the case, before applying again under a different name in 2017. The Home Office declined to comment but said it was “fixing the broken asylum system”. Read more.
Over a thousand people gathered in St John’s Garden on Saturday to protest the government’s plans to make Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for NHS workers. Anyone who doesn’t have their first jab by next Thursday can expect to lose their job. A Liverpool paramedic told Granada: “You shouldn’t be forced into taking the vaccine.” Our reporter Harry Shukman writes:
I met people who are vaccine hesitant, (who believe that jabs are not yet safe) and die-hard anti-vaxers (who think that Covid inoculations are deliberately filled with lethal chemicals). The mix of families, professional types, traditional hippies, and New World Order conspiracy theorists suggests that the anti-vaccine movement isn’t going anywhere.
House prices in the Wirral rose by 3.5% in November, above the North West average and the UK as a whole, new figures show. Property prices in the Wirral area achieve around 11% annual growth. The average house price in the Wirral in November was £194,491. Read more.
The decision to close the HM Revenue & Tax customs office in Bootle has seen footfall drop in the town centre, the Financial Times reports. More than 1,000 jobs have been shifted into Liverpool city centre, and the town’s application for a £17m regeneration grant from the government’s Levelling Up fund was also rejected. Nadeem Patel, owner of a local newsagent said: “We’ve stopped selling sandwiches because no one comes in for their lunch any more or to pick up ciggies.” Read more.
Go deeper: Overlooked by the government, Bootle retains its optimistic air: We speak to the businesses working hard to give Bootle a better future.
📉 Covid-19 update
Cases: The case rate for the Liverpool City Region is 828.6, down 25.7% from the previous week, compared to England’s, which is 991.7, down 4.6%. Cases are highest in Halton, at 1,037.3, and lowest in Liverpool and Sefton, around 700.
Hospitalisations: The number of Covid-19 patients in critical care was 9 last week, down from 20 the previous week. The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 also fell, at 678, down from 777. Remember, this number includes hospital patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 but may be in hospital for something else.
Vaccinations: 72.5% of eligible people in the Liverpool City Region have now had two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 53.9% of people have had three doses. Booster uptake is still very low among the under 50s, at 32.5%, compared to 53.9% of over 50s.
Home of the week
A quirky 5-bedroom Edwardian house in Blundellsands is on the market for £800,000. It has stained glass windows, turrets and parquet flooring.
Our favourite reads
A fascinating long read in the New Yorker about Liverpool-born Tabitha Lasley’s memoir, where she writes about the experience of interviewing men living and working on off-shore oil rigs. What emerges is a study of the precarious life of a dying industry. “Lasley’s first interviewee is an offshore worker from Teesside, an area that was once a hub of steel and chemical manufacturing. Caden has clear blue eyes, a jockey’s body, and tattoos of the names of his wife and twin daughters. He likes the gym, ironing, the autobiographies of Mafia dons, and bio-pics about soccer hooligans. Afterward, Lasley invites Caden to her hotel.”
A piece in Air Mail revisits Brian Epstein’s memoir and talks about his struggle with his sexuality and how the Beatles “were everything he could never be”. “Epstein portrays himself as lonely, businesslike, scrupulous, obsessive, shrewd, awkward and pernickety, all of which he was. Now that we know how his story ended, the odd phrase flashes on the page like a fork of lightning.”
We liked this feature in BBC Future about the secret lives of Neanderthal children, based on a recent discovery after a storm on the south west coast of Spain that revealed a rock covered in footprints of hooves, claws and paws. It’s by Rebecca Wragg Sykes, an honorary fellow in archaeology and classics at the university of Liverpool. She writes: “The footprint surface formed around 80-120,000 years ago, meaning they can only have been left by Neanderthals, walking barefoot along the margins of a salty marsh or lagoon.”
And Bill Drummond wrote a great piece for The Guardian about designing and building the stage sets in the Everyman, and the life lessons he learned from his friendship with the actor Ken Campbell. “I went and found a phone box and called the number. It was in London, thus long-distance, thus cost me all the money I had on me, almost all the dole money I had for the week. The phone was answered by a strange, strangulated voice. ‘Ken Campbell here. What do you want?’”
The view from Everton Brow
Snowdonia mountains in the distance. Thanks to u/Duanedoberman via r/Liverpool for letting us use this lovely photo.
Post Picks
🎨 Fresh Perspectives, the bi-annual exhibition of artworks by young people at Wirral secondary schools, begins at Lady Lever Art Gallery this Friday. It aims to celebrate and nurture the best young artistic talent in the area and it looks like a lovely day out. More info here.
🎙 We liked this BBC Sounds podcast about Liverpool’s dance music scene, which tells the story of nightlife in the ‘80s and how Liverpool laid the blueprint for super clubs. Listen here.
🎞 Photography on Wellbeing, an art workshop teaching you how to make cyanotype prints, also known as sun prints, is running at Make North Docks this Sunday. You will learn about the 180-year-old practice, which produces silhouettes onto light sensitive paper, and create your own prints. Beginner-friendly. Book here.
🖋 There’s a great selection of family events to celebrate Chinese New Year at Victoria Gallery & Museum this weekend, including dance classes and the ancient arts of calligraphy. More info here.
? The Sunday quiz is back on at Love and Rockets bar in Lark Lane, which also serves a range of craft beers and stone-baked pizzas. There’s prizes for the best team name, and there are funny questions too. More info here.
🎭 Formby Little Theatre are playing live radio broadcasts of a New York performance of It’s A Wonderful Life. It starts tomorrow — book a place here.
Letters from readers
Great article from The Post about the mayoral ‘consultation’ (‘The arguments for Liverpool’s mayoralty — and why the Caller report was ‘sexed up’’) — but regardless of a mayor or a council leader, it is the culture of local politics in Liverpool that is rotten. Structural changes won’t fix that, Dr David Jeffrey
Really interesting read about inequalities, & the similarities people in different socio economic circumstances have (‘The lives of mothers in Walton and Woolton’). Good luck to Ella with her nursing plans, Janet Nash
Great article Mollie. I obviously represent Woolton but am conscious of the social and economic divides in our city. Articles like this keep feet grounded and help make political thoughts/decisions proportionate, Kris Brown