Saving Toxteth’s African Caribbean Centre

Dear readers — it’s us again, your intrepid uncoverers of corruption, pondering interrogators of local culture, and reporters from the front-line of Merseyside’s social conditions. At the risk of doing down the city once again, the weather doesn’t look very summery today, and we’re expecting rain for much of the week. But never fear — we have a red-hot edition of The Post for you, shining a disinfecting beam into the darkest corners and warming the souls of our faithful subscribers. So whatever Ryanair deals the Other Local Paper have tried to clickbait you into, you can cancel your flights to southern Spain or coastal Portugal and instead bask in the sunbed studio of The Post.

Catch up and coming up:

• Over the weekend, Laurence and Abi took a trip to Southport to mark a year passing since the horrific knife attack that blighted the town. In it, MP Patrick Hurley made his wish clear: “We want to remember what happened, but not be remembered for it,” he told us. Make sure you read it here.
• This week, we have a deep dive into Liverpool Council’s new strategy to tackle homelessness by Abi, as part of Answers in The Post.
• Then, Laurence will be taking a trip to Liscard to investigate how the Wirral town has been coping with delayed funding and a declining reputation over the last few years. 

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The big story: L8’s African Caribbean Centre is safe. But why was it in danger to begin with?

Top line: The centre in Toxteth, described as a long-standing cornerstone of the community, will remain where it is. But the judgement of those who placed it in peril is still up for debate.

Context: Back in February, it was reported that the future of the African Caribbean Centre off Upper Parliament Street was under threat. L8, not to mention the wider black and mixed race community in Liverpool, hardly had a chance to register the news when Liverpool Council revealed their potential plans for the site: to repurpose the centre into the Eden Girls’ Leadership Academy — the city’s first Muslim faith-designated school. 

Nevertheless, recriminations were swift. The board of the African Caribbean Centre said they were “shocked, angry and extremely saddened”. In a post on Instagram, the board said they had not been properly consulted over the decision, adding that the community had been “broad-sided due to the lack of democratic process”. 

The African Caribbean Centre, established in 1977, has long been an important staple of L8, serving as a central meeting point for the area and city’s black community as well as fostering an atmosphere of support, wellbeing, and engagement. Historically, many have seen it as a focal point of resistance, from a time when Liverpool was socially segregated and its police force guilty of the targeting of minorities. In the 70s and 80s, the council was accused of discriminatory housing allocation, all of which stoked racial tensions the African Caribbean Centre was set up to combat. 

For some, when the centre came under threat, it raised that spectre of the city’s less harmonious past. Thousands signed a petition to save the centre from closure and the black community from being “displaced once again”. Protestors lined up outside town hall meetings. Former mayor Joanne Anderson added her voice to the tumult, saying the council’s actions had put vulnerable communities in “potential danger.” 

Nick Small, the cabinet member for growth and economy, came in for particular criticism: Anderson accused him of undermining “community ownership and prioritising developer interests over the needs of the community”, and Small was loudly heckled at a fiery town hall meeting where he claimed the land was the “only site” that met the Department of Education’s (DfE) provision for a new school. 

With Anderson’s warning that the decision could “exacerbate” tensions between Toxteth’s black and Muslim communities, she may have been thinking of that same council meeting. When Tawhid Islam, trustee of the Liverpool Region Mosque Network, said the two communities had stood “side by side for generations” and L8’s future should be shared together, he was also loudly heckled. Towards the end of the two-hour meeting, some members of the public had to be removed by CitySafe security staff.

In May, council leader Liam Robinson wrote that he had apologised to the centre’s trustees “for the poor engagement with them by the council over many years” and recognised the need to protect the centre. And late last week, the council pledged to preserve the building and surrounding land, allaying fears the centre would close. 

While questions about the council’s judgement linger, their initial decision was prompted by what Robinson called “a long-standing demand from communities within L8 for a new school”. Last week, the council announced new proposals were being submitted to the DfE in regards to Eden Girls’ Leadership Academy. The new site is on land bordered by Mulgrave Street and Selborne Street, and if approved the first 120 pupils could start in September 2026. It’s thought the school, run by Star Academies, could provide 600 school places, with half of those preserved for Muslim girls. It would be Liverpool’s first Muslim faith school.

Bottom line: Councillor Lucille Harvey, of Princes Park ward, who had campaigned to keep the African Caribbean Centre open, said: “I’m pleased that this project has reached a stage where we can move forward positively.” She went on to say: “We know that our communities are strongest when they work together.” But the tension and anger over the situation, both in L8 and towards city hall, may take time and effort to dissipate. 

Photo of the week

The Jacaranda held a brilliant tribute to Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne last week. Here’s a wonderful picture from the night of fans raising a glass to their metal hero. 

Have a photo you want to submit to The Post? Email it to editor@livpost.co.uk for a chance to be featured in our Monday briefings.

Your Post briefing

Liverpool FC have announced plans for a memorial sculpture for Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva. Jota and Silva died in a car crash earlier this month in the Spanish province of Zamora. The sculpture in their name will be erected at Anfield, and will be made out of recycled tributes left outside the stadium over the past month. A “Forever 20” emblem will also be printed onto players’ shirts next season, and the club has said if supporters want to honour Jota by having "Diogo J 20" on the back of their shirts, then the profits of the purchases will go to the LFC Foundation, the club's charity.

A third and a fourth Merseyside house have been damaged by suspected arson in the last fortnight. Merseyside Police say petrol was poured into the front porch of a property on Carlingford Close, Toxteth to ignite the blaze which then spread to the house next door. Both houses were empty at the time. This incident follows a fire on 15th July on South John Street in St Helens which killed Eric Greener and Sheila Jackson; a 46-year-old man from Fazakerley has since been arrested on suspicion of murder and taken into custody. Then last Friday, Merseyside Fire and Rescue removed a resident from his property on Roxburgh Street, Everton after a man threw a brick through his window, poured petrol inside, and set it alight before cycling away towards Hale Road. There is no suggestion by police that the three incidents are linked, but they are appealing for witnesses to the suspected attacks in Everton and Toxteth.

When is a bus, not a bus? Well, when it’s a “trackless tram”, according to metro mayor Steve Rotheram. In an interview with BBC Radio Merseyside last week, Rotheram was quick to fight off criticism that the city’s new "rapid transit vehicles" — due to hit the streets in 2028 — are just fancy buses. The city’s new public transport was most definitely, not a bus. “If you take the tyres off and put it on rails, it’s a tram,” he said. If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike…

And yet another surreal moment over at Wirral Council. The local authority has been the subject of much criticism over recent months after facing near bankruptcy and serious questions over the spiralling costs of its regeneration projects. In a council meeting last week, councillor Kathy Hudson suggested the town hall — which is currently closed due to budget cuts — could be transformed into a casino, "where the women get dressed up in ball gowns and the men wear tuxedos and you have food and drink.” Now we know what you’re all thinking, but get your minds out of the gutter! “I didn’t mean anything seedy,” councillor Hudson quickly clarified.

Post Picks

🎭To celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, Claremont Farm is hosting an outdoor production of Pride and Prejudice on Thursday. Gates open at 6:30pm – grab a ticket here.

🏺On Saturday, Arts Bar on Hope Street is hosting a sculpt and sip evening, with a step-by-step guide to using air dry clay. The session runs from 2pm to 4pm — tickets here.

⛪Or why not try this tour of Liverpool Cathedral instead? You’ll hear the stories of how Liverpool Cathedral came to be located on St James Mount, how the architect was chosen, and where the stone came from. Tickets here. 

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