I went for a walk through the graveyard this morning and came across an interesting grave.
What was Terra Nova that somebody would want to out it on a grave? Obviously there is a suggestion of a link to Newfoundland since it means virtually the same and they came from there. And I find it interesting that there is a quote from Matthew Arnold on the stone, the poet and school inspector that died in Liverpool.
I went back and searched for a reference on the internet. What I found was a rough story of a boarding school that became a school for the deaf that had closed – and then there was article after article about planning permission battles. Councillors battling the greedy property developers that wanted to change the former school into flats (but they would preserve the listed bomb shelters). It is one of the few listed buildings in that particular councillor’s area.
So tonight I decided to have a walk round and have a look. True enough there are a few new houses on the edge of the land, but the majority of the land is derelict – and is an area I have walked past many times wondering “why is an area here looking so run down”. It faces some of the richest houses in the area – you know the sort of houses with big metal fences and gates and footballers hiding behind them.
And this is what Terra Nova now looks like. Half demolished, with asbestos warnings around the site. Sad. And the bomb shelters round the back are now overgrown with weeds that are damaging the structure.
Is this what our planning system was supposed to result in? I don’t think so. And yes – the councillors were probably right to be concerned about money grabbing developers – they may well have just been in it for themselves – capitalist greed. But what was the alternative?
As I walk around the area I see a lot of really nice buildings that are boarded up and falling in to disrepair. However there is money to refurbish the Bootle Strand – a commercial property run by the council. Nearby shops are closing down and there are streets of closed shops – and yet we are funding a concrete shopping centre with some really nasty memories (I can never visit it without thinking about James Bulger who was abducted there).
What am I wittering on about? I just started to think about the effect of this pandemic on our towns. So many high street shops have suffered and are closing outlets. We need to start thinking about what we want our towns to look like in the future.
But more than that I have been encouraged to lift my eyes and look further toward the horizon. Without a doubt the Terra Nova situation could have had a better ending, but the battle of “now” seems to have obscured the optimal end point. Maybe sometimes we need to choose not to win in order to have the better outcome. Hard lesson when you are always right.