Urgent! Oppose Welsh Streets demolition
Published:
April 11, 2011 19:32
by
nfnmaria
Neighbourhoods: liverpool
The 7 year campaign to save the Welsh Streets in Liverpool 8 is again fighting a demolition order. Petitions online and offline, plus letters of objection to Liverpool City Council must be submitted by 13th April. For the first time the Welsh Streets Homes Group has a campaign website and also a twitter account, and support is spreading rapidly.
Click on a thumbnail for a slideshow view
The Welsh Streets are a set of streets in Toxteth, Liverpool, so called because of their Welsh names. Most of the houses are redbrick two-up-two-down terraces, and most were council housing or social housing. In 2004 they were threatened with demolition under New Labour's now defunct Housing Market Renewal (HMR) plan, which destroyed established communities accross the North of England and Midlands, evicting residents so that older houses could be demolished and replaced with far less affordable new-build properties. In the Welsh Streets residents who wanted to keep their homes have fought hard to resist demolition, and to advocate for repair and refurbishment of the now mostly empty and boarded up houses.
HMR is now long dead, and yet while there are 23,000 people in Merseyside seeking homes and 13,000 empty properties, Liverpool City Council is again seeking a demolition order. There is no current plan for development of the site after demolition. The environmental impact of demolition has not been adequately assessed - either with regards to the waste of destroying houses or for the detrimental effect on people living in nearby streets. There are realistic plans for refurbishment, and plenty of people who would like to live in the houses if they were able.
The Welsh Streets Homes Group is urgently asking people to write letters of objection to the planning application, and seeking signatures for a petition opposing demolition. Full information can be found on the Welsh Streets brand new website, and they also have a presence on Twitter.
Links:
How to oppose the Planning Application - deadline 13th April
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