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DUKE GETS PARADISE PROJECT CONSTRUCTION UNDER WAY
THE Duke of Westminster and Liverpool City Council leader Mike Storey heralded the start on-site of the 42-acre Paradise Project today at a public groundbreaking ceremony in the centre of Liverpool.
Directing work on the ground, the Duke of Westminster set in motion what will be a massive construction programme to transform the centre of Liverpool in time for the city's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008.
"This is a momentous day for Liverpool, for the North West and for Grosvenor,"
said the Duke of Westminster. "It gives me great pleasure to formally get the wheels of construction turning on this ambitious and exciting project to revitalise the centre of Liverpool."
Councillor Mike Storey added:- "This is a memorable day for Liverpool as we officially start the city's biggest-ever building project and the biggest scheme of its kind in Europe.
The Paradise Project will cover the equivalent of 22 new football pitches. It will create a new heart for the city with significant new leisure and shopping, including many big names that have never been in Liverpool before. Our
established businesses like John Lewis will benefit from impressive major new stores.
This scheme will transform the heart of the city, creating thousands of jobs for local people and making Liverpool one of the country's top retail and leisure destinations. It will be a major part of helping us achieve our ambition of making Liverpool a premier European city."
The Paradise Project will create new and refurbished buildings, streets squares and open spaces, carefully integrated into the existing fabric of the city.
There will be 30 new buildings, designed by local, national and internationally renowned architects.
A new 5.5 acre terraced park will provide versatile leisure space and link the city's enlarged shopping area to the Waterfront.
Two new hotels, 465 new residential units, 3,000 car parking spaces and a new bus station will also be created.
Liverpool's overall regeneration initiative is expected to deliver around £3bn of investment and 12,000 jobs.
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LIVERPOOL TO BENEFIT FROM NEW VOLUNTEER GRANT
INDIVIDUALS with muscle wasting conditions in Liverpool will get more support from people with similar conditions as volunteering gets a boost following an award from the Home Office's Volunteer Recruitment Fund to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.
Over the next two years the £88,889 awarded to the charity will fund a Volunteer Development Co-ordinator in the North of England to establish 16 support groups, of which Liverpool will be one, attended and run by people with muscular dystrophy, their family, friends and carers.
Ruth Geall, Director of Research and Care at the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
said:- "This award will allow us to provide a network of emotional and support for individuals in the North of England, affected by muscular dystrophy.
"It will help to reinvigorate our regional volunteering by drawing on the experience and knowledge of our members to help and encourage others in coping with this devastating muscle weakening condition. We are grateful that this vital work has been funded by the Home Office's Volunteer Recruitment Fund."
The 16 new support groups for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign will also operate in areas including Bradford, Manchester, Sheffield, Hull, Leeds, Carlisle & Gainsborough. The charity aims to have them in place by early 2005 once the Volunteer Development Co-coordinator has been recruited.
Charities Minister Fiona Mactaggart said:- "In the Year of the Volunteer 2005, the voluntary sector will be making a big push to encourage more people to get involved. I am pleased to make an early contribution to that effort. These grants send a clear message that everyone has something to offer."
Fifty-nine voluntary and community projects across England have benefited from the fund, announced at the national voluntary sector conference Funding the Future, which aims to recruit more volunteers nation-wide for the Year of the Volunteer 2005.
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