Light at the end of the tunnel

If a week is a long time in politics, three years is a very, very, long time when it comes to roadworks.

Yet that's what I and everyone else who lives, works, shops or entertains themselves in Liverpool city centre has had to endure for the last 36 months.

And as someone who does all of the above, I've been at the sharp end of the Big Dig a lot more than most.

So, as builders frantically try to make sure that the works to The Strand are completed in time for the opening of Liverpool 1 (and just a week shy of their second anniversary), do we, the users of the city, think it's all been worth it?

The only sensible answer is an emphatic yes.

After decades of false dawns and tinkering around the edges (remember the 'Spring Festival' to cheer us all up?), big, transformational investment has finally arrived and it's jolted this city out of its 40-year coma.

I know the new city centre glitz masks the huge problems that still exists in neighbourhoods just a stone's throw away - you only need to look at the latest basket of social and economic indicators to see that we're still at the wrong end of many league tables - but the evidence of genuine improvement is almost everywhere.

Yes, certain things should have been done better.

My biggest gripe is there's just no excuse for the current state of the Pier Head. As a honey pot for visitors and the jewel of the World Heritage Site, the Pier Head could have been a show-ground for the Capital of Culture celebrations.

Instead it looks like it's about to host a Supercross rally.

It's been five years since Liverpool beat off tough competition to be crowned 'European Capital of Culture'. And those five years have seen positive changes as great as at any time in the city's history…that's surely no coincidence.

COMMENTS

No comments added for this entry.

POST A COMMENT