The residents of the Beetham Plaza are revolting against their landlord… Elliot Lawless

Dear readers — the residents of the Beetham Plaza, a set of apartments which self-describe as “an oasis in Liverpool's City Centre”, are having landlord troubles.

The landlord in question? Mr Elliot Lawless, a pretty well known name the city over. Lawless was one of Liverpool’s most successful developers during the Joe Anderson years, once said to sit atop a £1 billion pile of potential developments. But after moving to London following a series of high profile controversies, he’s a name you hear much less of in Liverpool these days.

That is unless you live in the Beetham Plaza. The building — where Lawless has his own large penthouse apartment — has played host to ongoing tensions between Lawless and his residents in recent years. In the most recent development, they are now refusing to pay their service charge in protest against what they see as a failure to maintain the upkeep of the building.

Read on below.

Your Post briefing

A meeting over strike action between union members and staff at Blue Coat in Liverpool ended with police being called, after chaotic scenes. Allegations of assault have since been made against a member of the school’s senior leadership. The BBC reported that National Education Union (NEU) members at the school recently voted by 93% to back industrial action due to concerns about the school’s management (some of which have been covered extensively by The Post). The NEU’s regional secretary Peter Middletone has now claimed that assault complaints have been filed with police after the meeting became aggressive. A Blue Coat spokesman told the BBC it "strongly refuted" the assault claim.

In a month of market-related shenanigans, Wirral clearly had no plans to be outdone by Liverpool. While traders at St. John’s found themselves locked out of the market, which has now been closed to the public, the situation is slightly more cordial over the water. Wirral Council, in the midst of a huge regeneration project in Birkenhead, have agreed this week to move the traders out of their current home and into a former Argos site nearby instead, some 15,000 sq-ft smaller than the current market, which will be demolished. While traders say they feel “let down” by the decision, council leader Paul Stuart says they’ll be “fully supported’.

The son of a Czech World War II hero who settled in Wirral after meeting his wife during military training in the war has paid tribute to his father. Ervin Hoida, who has died aged 105 was smuggled out of his hometown aged 20 after it fell to Nazi occupation. His parents were Jewisg. He later joined an armoured division of the Czech army, taking part in the Dunkirk siege and the victorious allied entry into Prague in 1945. His family later settled in Birkenhead, before moving away and returning to Irby in recent years. He was honoured by the Czech government for his wartime endeavours in 2023.

The residents of the Beetham Plaza are revolting against their landlord… Elliot Lawless

Just before Christmas, a blacked-out Range Rover pulled up outside Beetham Plaza. Out stepped Elliot Lawless. The property developer had come to talk about cladding. 

The residents of the Plaza might’ve been pleased to hear this. Lawless is their landlord and cladding is one of several ongoing frustrations on the site. Scaffolding has now been up for a year, and while ultimately the government’s responsibility, residents at the Plaza had hoped their landlord might be able to seek some answers. But Lawless’s concern wasn’t the speed at which the contractors were carrying out the job. Rather, it was that in the course of their work, a small damp patch had appeared on the ceiling of his own flat.

Hello readers! Laurence here. To read about Lawless’ stewardship of the Beetham Plaza, you’ll need to be a Post member. Doing so costs just £1 a week for the first three months.

We are a reader-funded publication, doing old-school journalism in without clickbait headlines or clunky ads. If that sounds appealing, get on board and sign up now.

Get The Post for £1