Liverpool's Olympic dreams - years in the planning
THERE is no doubt at all that the London Olympics were a superb show, and Merseyside's own athletes were amongst its stars.
But the involvement of Liverpool-based contestants at games of yesteryear was perhaps somewhat less thrilling.
For in 1932, a team from this fair city travelled to the Los Angeles Olympics (proving junkets are by no means a modern phenomenon) to take part in an extremely exciting contest in which they took the gold medal.
And what was this spellbinding event in which they won? Town Planning.
Even Mr Brocklebank himself, an inveterate enthusiast of all things municipal, struggles to be stimulated by such a prospect.
But believe it or not, Town Planning was an Olympic sport back then. Presumably slotted in between painting and decorating and pothole repairing.
It transpires that the city's own John Hughes picked up the top accolade for this most mesmerising feat - the imagining of a "Design for a Sports and Recreation Centre with Stadium, for the city of Liverpool".
On discovering this little gem, Mr B contacted a certain colleague at the Town Hall to enquire whether or not this design had ever come to fruition. His sardonic source informed him that it was "still going through the planning committee".
Still, there's every chance it will be built before Liverpool Waters ever comes to pass!
OBVIOUSLY these days there isn't the money in the pot to be justifying elaborate municipal trips to the USA, and it would appear that the cutbacks have affected the most unlikely of things within the council.
For an envelope that arrived on Mr B's mat the other day - emblazoned with the council's redesigned logo - seems to have fallen victim to cost-cutting: the 'l' has been taken off the end of 'Liverpool'.
The council won't say how many of these duff envelopes have been printed.
The fiasco brought to Mr B's mind Mayor JoeAnderson's oft repeated of late joke about how if Liverpool One sold £1m of perfume the local press's headline would be "Liverpool people stink".
If city leaders have now rebranded their authority as Liver-poo, then Mr B would suggest it's the council, not the people of the city, which must stink.
THE city's Central ward councillors have stepped in the proverbial in recent weeks with a leaflet warning of the perils of so called 'party flats' ruining the peace and quiet of city centre residents.
However, Cllrs Nick Small, Sharon Sullivan and Christine Banks unfortunately managed to have their picture taken outside one city centre 'des res' which does not have any such weekend break stag do crash pads in it.
Cue a polite reprimand from the concierge of the Princes Dock apartments, pointing this out. The excuse? It was one of the few pictures they had to hand.
So, that's all right then.
Dale Street Associates
David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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