New SAVE Report: Pathfinder and the Destruction of Liverpool
Large Victorian houses in Bootle, Merseyside, being cleared (April 2012)
Demolition men in Janet Street, Liverpool (April 2012)
Bulldozers at work in Anfield, Liverpool (April 2012)
The site of cleared 19th-century houses in Edge Hill remains undeveloped (April 2012)
Ghost streets in Picton, Liverpool, emptied using Pathfinder funds (April 2012)
10.5.12
There are Places I Remember: Pathfinder and the Destruction of Liverpool
A report for SAVE by Jonathan Brown
The £2.2bn Pathfinder programme continues to wreak havoc in northern towns and cities, long after its funding has been stopped. Focussing on Liverpool, this report documents the latest episode in a heartbreaking tale of misery, waste and destruction.
On a clear winter morning in January 2012, I stood on Liverpool’s inner city Edge Lane, and surveyed a scene of epic destruction. This spot offers a telling vantage point of Pathfinder’s monstrous impact on English cities.
A vast expanse of open land, half a mile wide, stretches to the near horizon, crossed by heavy traffic, which grinds through a mess of dump trucks, direction signs and lamp posts. Over 1,000 people have been dispersed to the four winds from Edge Hill, their hundreds of homes and businesses compulsorily bought up and pulled down following two bitter legal battles.