Features

Terry Ryan
A Mayor seems like a good idea, more democratic than the council.

Dion, Essex (returning to Liverpool)
One thing I each time I return to visit from the South is the constant erosion of the city's 'character': many of our best buildings are in ruin, while the number of shiny new residential and office complexes rockets by the month. Maybe I'm being a little naive, but surely some kind of planning law could be introduced whereby solid structures facing disuse and disrepair could be let or sold at reduced cost to developers, on the proviso that those buildings are renovated and then put to immediate use, and some kind of 'quota system' implemented in order to see that conservation projects outnumber new developments? For all of this talk of preparation for 2008, most of it isn't driven by 'culture' at all, just cold-eyed commerce.

CMo
It would be stunning if the backward department that is Liverpool council's plannning dept got its act together and approved things based on design, and not purely on how many storeys high things are. Some of the best proposals have been 40 plus storeys and turned down. Some of the worst at 15-30 storeys and approved. Somebody somewhere needs their heads banging on this!