Liverpool’s Freeport will stretch 45 kilometres, from the Wirral to Skelmersdale, from Runcorn to Salford and will include John Lennon Airport.
By Ritchie Hunter
“Freeports attract organised crime, money-laundering, drug-trafficking and terrorist finance, while bringing minimal benefits to the nations that host them.”
George Monbiot
Once, while playing one of those endless games of Monopoly, my brother acquired all four railway stations. He then came up with an ingenious plan. Linking all his stations across the board he could move between them and miss landing on our properties. When we protested that this wasn’t fair he showed us the rules, which don’t say this isn’t allowed. He taunted us with “M-o-n-o-p-o-l-y. The clue’s in the name!”
‘Full-fat freeports’ to ensure Growth, Growth and more Growth
Endorsed by Steve Rotherham, the Liverpool City Region Freeport “will include three tax sites and strategically located customs zones across all modes of transport, linking to the primary customs zone at the Port of Liverpool.”
Freeports are a gift to private companies, in this case Peel Ports, who have been awarded this monopoly in trade by the government. They will have the right to exploit their workers, avoid tax and customs, relax Health & Safety and planning rules, and they can introduce a ‘“simpler framework for environmental assessment”… government-speak for the removal of public protections.’
The Peel Group can link up their estates to maximise profit and provide a ‘multimodal transportation network’. Local councils, who are cash strapped and facing further savage cuts to their budgets, have been forced to take cash incentives as part of this plan. Halton Council, for instance, would’ve missed out on £6.5m of funding if they had voted not to participate in the freeport scheme. With part of this Port Weston plan being a new access road, what are the chances of another Rimrose Valley incident?
And dockers in Liverpool who have been threatened with redundancies after striking for better pay will be interested in this docks development.
John Lennon Airport is another part of Peel’s network. It could soon be handling more freight if the new runway at Oglet Shore is agreed by Liverpool City Council.
The next step for Peel is Liverpool becoming a Charter City. The region could then be Peel’s personal Fiefdom, becoming wholly unaccountable to the people of the city.
Who can say this won’t happen now Tory commissioners run the city with Labour support!
The game of Monopoly ended when our income became a trickle and my brother, who by then owned the bank, was giving us loans. There was a big argument, which was usual in our house, and the whole game went up in the air.
I reckon Peel Holdings owe my brother some compensation for pinching his ideas!