Street View shows up the other side to the city

Added on 23 Mar 2009 by Guest

We've all been to New York and wandered down Broadway, travelled across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and stood beside the Eiffel Tower. Virtually, that is.

And now, web browsers from around the world can visit Liverpool, which last week was among the addition of cities to Google's Street View.

City residents will be able to navigate to their homes. Recent visitors to the city can again check out many of the landmarks and attractions they may have visited.

You can take a drive past Liverpool ONE. The Albert Dock, ECHO Arena and the Three Graces are all included. As are the football stadia of Liverpool and Everton in the north of the city.

And that's where one of the scruffy neighbours of the hugely impressive, new-look city centre is shown up.

The Anfield-Breckfield regeneration programme has been in operation for many years, but still looks every bit as run down as its status as one of the poorest and most deprived areas in the country would confirm.

The City Council has insisted that the regeneration is not dependent on Liverpool FC's plans for a new stadium, though through all of the stadium delays, the appearance of the area has remained in similar fashion, suggesting that the two are, indeed, linked.

Without a brand new, world class stadium, there will be limited regeneration of the area. Or at least, that seems to be the view.

An increased stadium capacity, be it 60,000 or 76,000, would obviously bring many more visitors to the area than at present. Of course, it wouldn't be a pretty sight for visitors if the current state of the area was to remain unchanged, if the rows upon rows of empty, boarded up houses are left untouched.

But the City Council should not be thinking primarily about tidying it up for people who may make venture to the area the odd LFC fixture, nor for those who travel to Anfield to watch the Reds play every other week. They should be thinking of the permanent residents, and regenerating the area for their benefit.

In the virtual world of Google's Street View, the images used will paint a permanent picture of a badly run down area. But that doesn't mean that real life also has to stay in its current shape.

The recent decision by the Audit Commision to rate Liverpool City Council as a two-star authority included a reference to an improvement in the way that they city's finances are managed.

Let's now see some of the money spent on improving the Anfield-Breckfield area, for the residents' sake.

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