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Cruise Liner Order Granted
LIVERPOOL'S planned cruise liner facility has taken another step forward. The City Council has been told by government officials that a Stopping Up Order at the Pier Head, which is necessary to allow the scheme to go ahead, will be granted following a public inquiry. The Official Order confirming this will be made early in the new year.
The Order enables the existing footbridge to be relocated by approximately 30 metres to allow the installation of a 75 metre vehicle bridge in the historic floating roadway cut. The footbridge was installed across the floating roadway in 1992. A more permanent structure was put in place in 1995.
Objections were made to the Stopping Up Order and a public inquiry was held in July. The cruise liner development will be a 350 metres extension to the Princes Dock landing stage and will be able to accommodate the world's biggest liners.
It is hoped that construction work will start in Spring next year with completion a year later. Councillor Mike Storey, Leader of Liverpool
City Council, said:-"We now have planning permission and conservation area consent, the Harbour Revision Order and the Department for Transport have approved the scheme in principle.
We are still awaiting their full approval and some funding approvals but everything is on track for this very exciting scheme to start next spring and we can look forward to seeing more of the large ships visiting the Mersey on a regular basis."
The Cruise Liner facility project is being developed by a partnership between the City Council, Mersey Dock and Harbour Company, Northwest Development Agency, Liverpool Vision, City Focus SRB and the Mersey Waterfront Regional Park initiative.
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LACK OF TOILETS CAN MAKE RAIL TRAVEL IMPOSSIBLE FOR DISABLED PEOPLE THIS CHRISTMAS
A NEW survey conducted by disability charity Leonard Cheshire has found that many disabled people will not even attempt to make rail journeys in order to spend this Christmas with family and friends due to the lack of accessible toilets.
Leonard Cheshire's 'Bog Standard?' campaign asked passengers to document whether there were usable accessible toilets on trains and in stations whenever they made a journey.
More than half (58%) of respondents said that the station that they travelled from did not have a usable disabled toilet, whilst four out of five (80%) did not find a toilet they could use on their train.
Figures produced by the charity also found that nearly a third (30%) of disabled people had missed an important social function, such as a family Christmas, a birthday or wedding, because of inaccessible transport. The figure for wheelchair users rose to 40%.
Jo Campion, policy manager at Leonard Cheshire, said:- "Some of the comments we received were appalling. One respondent was told to get off the train, go to the toilet in the bushes and then wait for the next train. No-one should be forced to put up with that sort of treatment."
Even when people did find an accessible toilet the survey uncovered numerous complaints including the toilets being too small, blocked up with mops and cleaning supplies or even kept permanently locked.
Jo Campion said:-"The lack of accessible toilets is one of the biggest problems facing disabled train travellers. With so many trains and stations not having properly accessible toilets it is hardly surprising that many disabled people won't even try to travel by train this Christmas."
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