Residents lose battle against demolition

The 8.8 hectare Edge Lane West area is due to be cleared as part of the transformation of the residential area into new housing and community facilities.

The project is orchestrated by the Homes and Communities Agency, which has secured a compulsory purchase order for 371 houses after a battle with some residents stretching back more than three years.

A first CPO was thrown out on technical grounds in November 2006 after an appeal, and the second CPO was confirmed in 2008 although 53 residents were refusing to take an agreed price for their homes.

In September 2008 the planning inspector ruled there was a ‘compelling case’ for regeneration. Resident Elizabeth Pascoe took the case to the High Court on appeal, but she has now lost the case.

The HCA, along with partners the Northwest Regional Development Agency, Liverpool Council and economic development company Liverpool Vision, said it welcomed the ruling as a ‘green light’ to start work.

‘The overwhelming majority of the local community who support our plans deserve to see work start in Edge Lane West on this long awaited and critically important part of the programme,’ HCA area director Eliot Lewis-Ward said.

Ms Pascoe said she had spent more than £40,000 fighting the case and is devastated to have lost.

‘It was a fight to the death as far as I was concerned,’ she said.

‘It has to be up to others now, younger than I, to fight for the future against the insanity of mindless consumerism, which is obviously damaging the planet and society not just our built heritage.’

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