The Liverpool Times

In December 2007, Councillor Mal Sharp put out a leaflet in Kirkby saying there are” no definitive plans for Kirkby from Tesco, Everton or the Town Centre owner…”

During the pre Christmas period the main town centre owner – Development Securities - resubmitted plans to develop the town centre, without a football stadium.

This was in response to the borough council’s constant denial that Tesco weren’t up to something.

They were proved right. Tesco have now submitted two separate plans for the Town Centre, the one they have been working on in secret with Knowsley Council for at least three years, and a fall back outline position if the stadium plan fall’s through.

Both are a little short on detail, though there is the real prospect of wide scale demolition of prominent civic buildings less than forty years old.

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It might be a new series or just a throwaway one-off, but maybe we should show a few success stories up online. If possible we can link to events that might even show us the video!

This week’s working class hero is your basic shopkeeper – working his own little store somewhere in the UK. Such a job carries dangers of course. There is always some lowlife prowling the streets who would think nothing of battering you for the week’s takings or even the nights.

Anyone who owns a shop in Liverpool already thinks about security a lot. Its not easy running a small business and many are family owned and provide an income. They also provide a good service, and often work the hours no one else wants to work. Anyone who has been behind the till or counter as armed raiders burst in – will probably have hit the deck (dived to the floor). However, if it was your shop, what would do then?

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The Liverpool Echo reported on a burglary at Appleby Court nursing home on Sunday January 20th at around 9.30pm. The thieves, most certainly local lads – broke into the care home by use of a ladder. The thieves then forced open a UPVC window and took the safe.

Seems like the thieves knew what they were after. They broke into a cupboard and stole a safe – an unsecured safe by all accounts. This was tore out and hurled from the first floor window. No burglar alarm went off. Bear in mind many of the cheap safes out there need to be bolted to the floor – into concrete. The Liverpool Echo reports on the contents…

“Inside was around £3000 of cash belonging to the residents along with bracelets, chains, identity bracelets, watches, pendants and rings containing various precious stones.”

You can almost see the scum gloating as they opened up the safe. The safe itself was put into a wheelie bin and hauled along Kennlewood Avenue. Dozens of people will suspect or even know the lads involved.

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In the past the Liverpool Times has exposed the skulduggery and deceit that put paid to the plans for a tram system from Liverpool City Centre to Kirkby.

The project was first muted back in the late 1990s. Knowsley Council then launched a huge consultation exercise, deploying market researchers around Kirkby Town Centre/ Bus and Rail Station. They aimed to “get it right” to legitimise the formation of a massively complex plan to build a tram system.

Experts in local government know that once such far reaching schemes are commenced they have to be completed, or aborted at a very early stage.

After five years of planning and legal agreements being successfully negotiated, Mersey Travel, who were managing the project; bid for the substantive funding that had always been promised by the new labour government.

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The local media here in Liverpool has a long standing system which filters out reports of the local crime which is committed in the less fortunate and less prosperous areas. Ask anyone from the ‘outskirts’ of the City and most will agree that crime is out of control and that it’s barely reported anymore.

Recent figures point to Merseyside Police having reduced violent crime by 19%. This never stopped Rhys Jones being murdered or a young girl being gang raped (one who bravely came forward and reported it). These statistics mean nothing when you live in a town which can let people rack up decades of violent rule under the noses of councillors, police and MPs. The 19% could mean 19% less people made reports which could be categorised as being violent attacks.

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Let there be light!

“And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness” Genesis 1:3

Despite the government’s own agency, the Energy Saving Trust, announcing that all new homes will be powered in part by solar power before the end of 2010 – we are only two years off the target and in the poor areas of Liverpool, we see dozens of different contractors building homes, but not a solar panel in sight.

Tony Blair promised in 2004 that ‘sustainable development would be incorporated in all new schools and public sector buildings’. But have you seen any new schools and public sector buildings that incorporate solar panels?

One the main ‘ingredients’ we need for solar panel production is silicon. Now like you, I’m as ignorant about the supplies of silicon as the next man or woman in the street. Thankfully, the internet can educate us on the things we don’t know. A quick search using several sources online reveals an abundance of research on how much silicon we have out there. The good news is that it covers 25.7% of the Earth’s crust.

That’s a lot of silicon.

From the US Geological Survey…

“Silicon is a light chemical element with both metallic and nonmetallic characteristics. In nature, silicon combines with oxygen and other elements to form silicates. Silicon, in the form of silicates, constitutes more than 25% of the Earth’s crust.” (link here )

Others say that silica forms 25.7% of the actual weight of the Earths crust. Either way, there is enough of the raw product be able to supply every man, woman and child on this planet with cheap, clean efficient energy supplies once we manufacture the end product of the silicon cells.

We would easily invest some newer energy supply before we used up 25% of the Earths crust. If we started now we’d not have 1% shifted for a few centuries.

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Another appeal for information on the past – feel free to add anything in the comments that might help us dig up the history of a camp with wooden huts (prefab style?) that existed for single men in the 1940s on the site of the now Kirkby College.

Surely some older folk in Kirkby will recall the camp and perhaps they might have worked there or been to the theatre.

Below, a recreation of the wooden huts – probably not factually correct but you’ve got an image of wooden huts and Kirkby – which might stir up some memories.

Here is the appeal from a reader Bill T.

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Just a simple appeal from an adopted child and hopefully someone in Kirkby can help out. If you can help then it would be best if we furnished details to the person making the appeal in private. To this end it would be best if you emailed with any definite knowledge of the whereabouts of any family rather than put them in the comments.

Appeal starts…

“Hello from Greece! My name is Paissi Maria and I am 24 years old. I am a legally adopted person.

I found out from my biological father who is Greek that my birth mother is called Gillian Ann. Edward Smith, her family lives in Kirkby and her father’s roots are from Ireland but he is now dead.

Gillian 6 years ago used to live in Texas. I have never met her so I thought if you could help me to find her by making an announcement on your newspaper. I sent you some photos of her 20 years ago. Thank you beforehand.”

Here are the photos…

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Why are the poor of the UK being charged a higher rate of electric, gas and water than the middle class and rich?

“A Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in the West Midlands reported the case of a client, who lives on his own in local authority accommodation, has a low income, and suffers from chronic lung disease. The client wanted prepayment meters installed for his gas and electricity supply to help with budgeting but was unhappy about the fact that he would have to pay more to pay for his fuel in this way. The client considered that this is not fair for those on low income who are trying to budget and avoid debt.” CAB website

For a lot of poor people in the UK - we either purchase credit to ‘feed’ the gas or electric meter with a prepayment card or key or we freeze. You can ‘top up’ these keys at a variety of outlets, (garages, post offices, shops) all of whom earn a slice of the cash for ‘brokering’ a deal, acting as the middle agent between you and the power supply companies.

For those better off financially, the benefits of direct debit mean that bills can be lowered by allowing the company to dip into your bank and take what they say you owe them. Those with more money pay a lower rate of tariff. Hence, someone in the suburbs surrounding Liverpool would be paying less to heat a small swimming pool or some giant tropical fish tank, than a pensioner in Kirkby feeding the prepayment meter just to keep alive when the cold spells hit us.

With prepayment meters, using ‘top up cards’ and now ‘top up keys’ – the cost of electric and gas is higher than the rates paid by customers who get quarterly bills through the post and higher than those who pay by direct debit. This means that the poorest are charged the highest rate through no real fault of our own. This is penalising the poor - in fact, it is killing us and make no mistake about it.

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The website has been undergoing digital surgery, so to speak. A few changes have been made to the way the website looks and how it is read, in particular for readers who find it hard to read the small print of websites.

To this end we include a text re-sizer which is situated on the top side of the website. This enables readers to customize the text to a size which is easier on their eyes. Once configured to your liking, the main text stays that way.

And the wonders of modern technology cease not there!

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And only the gangsters have the guns!

“Each year 25,000 older people lose their lives to a preventable cold-related illness.” - Help the Aged website press release.

German power company N-Power recently announced plans to raise the price on electric and gas supplies in the UK. This move makes the ‘brave new EU world’ seem like it’s just a neat set up for the bankers to fleece us all. Maybe it is.

Just as the Nazis and many others had some ideas on the weak and vulnerable being a burden on society, so do the people who own the power companies share this form contempt of the poor and vulnerable.

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