Joe Anderson finally stopped plans for a zip-wire to the Central Library, but has left plenty of questions unanswered.
By Ritchie Hunter
Why did Liverpool City Council spend £15K in legal fees to find out if the zip-wire was possible? Why didn’t they just ask Joe? After all he has the final say on the use of Council buildings.
Joe states that he was “always anxious and uneasy about the location”. Well, why not tell the planning committee Joe? Why ignore MPs and Councillors, Hillsborough Justice and other campaigning groups, heritage and charity bodies, local residents, writers and actors? Why wait for two on-line petitions and a planned judicial review before saying anything?
Anyway, shouldn’t the ‘adventure firm’ Zip World have paid for this advice? Well actually, the Council asked the law firm DAC Beachcroft for the advice in 2018, before Zip World put forward their plan.
Is Anderson out of touch with his own Council, or is something else going on here? He must’ve known that an uproar would ensue about a wire over to the Central Library. So was this just a kite flying exercise? Did Joe calculate that he couldn’t lose with this one? It was a way of finding out if public buildings can legally be used in this way, Tick 1. He could also test reaction to their use, Tick 2. And if plan ‘A’ goes bottom up, then he could zip in and save the day!
So what’s plan ‘B’ then Joe? Zipping over to the Festival Garden site, or down to a Council owned building in the Kings Dock? Both these options are fraught with problems. Can you imagine a zip wire stretching from the beacon to the Festival Gardens? What a wheeze! But be serious, the Mayor now has a legal ruling on what can and can’t be done with public buildings.
We’ve been here before. When the campaign to save part of Calderstones Park was successful the Mayor appealed to the courts to get a ruling about building on Green Spaces.
We now know that Joe has the ultimate say in the use of public buildings. He’s the one to target about their sell-off, or use by dodgy companies. Like Zippy from Rainbow He’s the one who knows best.
Joe could STOP THE ARMS FAIR planned for the Kings Dock in November. ACC1 who runs the buildings is a subsidiary of the City Council. So Joe could “Bar these merchants of death from our city” in two ways:
- as a director of ACC
- as Liverpool City Mayor
So come on Joe, Do we have to go though the whole campaigning process again before you step in?
Notes:
- ACC Liverpool, Kings Dock is a private limited company owned by LCC, which pays one of its directors £264,000 a year. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05204033/officers
Image: Zippy on the wire
Zippy claims to be the best at whatever is being discussed, always right and has to be the centre of attention. His behaviour gets him into all sorts of trouble. Zippy is often portrayed as loud mouthed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zippy_(Rainbow)