The closure of a number of city centre roads - which was initially illegally approved by Liverpool City Council - has created a hotspot for crime and anti-social behaviour, according to local people.
In July 2021, a number of roads and areas were closed including Highfield Street, Cockspur Street and Pownall Square, which lie close to the Moorfields area of the city centre. The closures were permitted by the council so that construction firm Graham could begin work on a major housing development.
Work is ongoing to create the 22-storey residential development called Pall Mall Press, which is expected to be completed by October 2023.
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The closure of the roads, which Liverpool Council accept was initially done without the correct order and permissions in place, has now created an alley area that local people say has caused crime and anti-social behaviour to soar.
The matter has been raised by nearby residents, who are part of the Princes Gardens Right to Manage group, who challenged the council and Graham Construction about how the roads were closed and said they were initially met with a wall of silence.
Princes Gardens RTM Director Mark Osborne said: “I’ve worked for over 20 years in highway planning and it was very clear that the proper process had not been followed by both the Council and Graham Construction from the very start. With roads closed for months without consultation with the emergency services or the local community.
"It took months of requests and a formal complaint along with needing the Local Government Ombudsman to secure the evidence showing the failures and prove fault.”
Mr Osborne, on behalf of the Princes Gardens residents, made a complaint to the ombudsman against Liverpool City Council regarding its approval of the site compound and the temporary road closures that came with it. He pointed out that the proper processes had not been followed for the road closures and said some of the roads had been closed at least three months before an official closure order was made.
In its report, the Ombudsman found fault with the original issue of not following the proper processes to close the roads and also in how it dealt with complaints from Mr Osborne - ordering the council to apologise and review its own processes. Responding to the ombudsman, the council agreed the road was closed before a temporary traffic regulation order was made. It explained this was due to a misunderstanding by the developer who believed the order was in place.
But the residents say essentially nothing has changed apart from a "weak apology" from the council. Mr Osborne added: "This doesn't explain what happened, instead we are stuck with it with no resolution attempted."
Speaking about the impact this has all had on the area, Princes Gardens RTM Director Martin Gee: "Since the closures, crime has increased so much that our female residents have told us that they are scared to leave their homes at night. We have had to divert thousands of pounds in the middle a cost of living crisis to improve security on site. While access has become so severely limited we cannot undertake basic maintenance to the property."
While Pall Mall Press is not a Liverpool Council scheme, Graham is one of the local authority's main contractors.
Mr Gee added: said: "We have reported the act of closing the road to the police and asked our local councillors to investigate and we look forward to their findings.
"We are frustrated as at the planning stage for the development, we asked to be consulted on access during the construction period as we have vulnerable residents. We have been totally ignored and we are paying a heavy price. It is not just the roads, we’ve had out of hours work, security lighting not working, roads blocked, loud generators, it’s been endless.”
Graham Construction was contacted for a response.
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