‘It isn’t normal for secret documents to turn up; it’s like something out of a John Grisham novel.’ ibid.
The advice included that the contractors cover their lorries and make sure no dust is created particularly on public roads … ‘Lorries weren’t covered with sludge raining out of the back of these dump trucks. All the roads in this area are judged covered in this silt. And that’s where things went pear-shaped … a tremendous amount of pollution over the whole of the district. That is basically a toxic soup of dust hanging over a town … over many many years.’ ibid. Environmental health officer
18 families were now involved in the fight for compensation, and they were finally ready to go to trial … A case that had never been proven before: ten years after their battle began, all 18 mothers made their way to court … The judge visited the reclamation site … The issue of how far the dust could travel … [Corby Council] were hit with a legal bill of almost £15. It was the first case in the world to rule that air pollution could harm babies in the womb. ibid.
In the north of England we used to build in solid brick and stone. Today we clad in glass in steel: this is Liverpool I. The city fathers had delivered unto the people of Liverpool the biggest city-centre shopping development outside London. In fact since the end of the Second World War these 42 acres will only ever be shops, temples rising to the sky to celebrate the new gods: the big brands. But once upon a time when the North built, the world looked on and applauded. The city fathers then had different ideas of how architecture could contribute to the shape of their cities and improve the lives of their citizens. By lining the streets, not with temples to the gods of commerce, but buildings that expressed the grandeur and the nobility of a great civilisation. Those who gave Liverpool its architectural treasures would inspire other city fathers right across the north of England. The civic buildings they created would transform the industrial towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and revolutionise urban landscapes for decades to come. Jonathan Foyle, People’s Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture I: Neo-Classical, BBC 2020
Victorian architecture in the north of England: 200 years ago these cities were themselves novel but a new breed of mercantile princes and governors came to build a raft of civic buildings. ibid.
In 1795 the writer James Wallace published A General and Descriptive History of the Ancient & Present State of the Town of Liverpool: he wrote of the Blue Coat: ‘There are in this school 79 orphan children, 143 fatherless children and 158 whose parents are in indigent circumstances’. ibid.
Throughout the 18th century Liverpool was controlled by men … who made up the Corporation. It was a closed shop of cronies, unelected sons who … looked after the town’s needs but chiefly they looked after their own. ibid.
The 16th century Italian genius Andrea Palladio: an important principle of Palladian buildings is that they are bound by symmetry, geometry and numbers in firm proportion. ibid.
Clearly in the 1740s the slave trade was nothing to be embarrassed about. ibid.
Liverpool’s Lyceum was Europe’s first lending library, designed by Thomas Harrison in 1802 this fine little building has fine strong bones – Greek bones at that. ibid.
Liverpool was fast becoming the Athens of the North. ibid.
Their handsome Portico Library (founded 1806) … Just 100 yards from the Portico is the Royal Manchester Institution. ibid.
St George’s Hall: One of the hall’s most glorious features is its Minton floor, a mosaic of over 35,000 clay tiles. ibid.
Half of its children were dead by the age of ten. ibid.
Leeds’ budget £200,000: enter Cuthbert Brodrick. ibid.
In a golden age of civic architecture the North created buildings that expressed the fashions and the philosophy of the day. But behind the grand facades there are human stories: personal conflicts, private passions, lives and loves set in stone. These civic buildings were bankrolled by proceeds from the Industrial Revolution which turned modest market towns into vast modern cities. Jonathan Foyle, People’s Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture II: The Gothic Revival
A pointed arch – that’s the central motif of Gothic style; the rest is just variations on its theme. ibid.
The vogue for medievalism combined with concern about the architectural health of the nation would see Gothic move beyond ecclesiastical architecture to become a suitable style for the North’s great civic structures too. ibid.
Manchester: They opted for a fashionable Gothic design by local architect Alfred Waterhouse … designed to suit a committee and Waterhouse made some compromises which Ruskin may not entirely have agreed with. ibid.
Why when they’re [Council] told to make savings they’re hiring expensive consultants to tell them how to do it. Jacques Peretti, Who’s Spending Britain’s Billions? BBC 2016
Out of 10 Downing Street with the prime minister steps Britain’s most controversial Conservative council leader. This is Lady Porter. Panorama: Lady Porter: The Pursuit of Power, John Ware reporting, BBC 1989
She spent millions of pounds of ratepayers’ money to try to keep her Tory council in power. A policy which may be unlawful. ibid.
Lady Porter’s domain is in the very heart of the capital. ibid.
Three years after the sale and the ‘cemeteries affair’ still haunts Lady Porter. ibid.
Lady Porter identified eight key battlezone wards in Westminster which were so marginal a few hundred votes in each of them could decide the balance of power. ibid.
It is on estates like this that Lady Porter plans to literally move in potential Conservative voters she needs. ibid.
This council gambled public money and lost. And local people are paying the price. This is the council officer who risked hundreds of millions of pounds. And this is the businessman who profited. We reveal how he cheated the council and spent millions on himself. Panorama: The Millionaire Who Cheated a Council, BBC 2023
Thurrock sits on the banks of the River Thames in Essex. The council has some of the most deprived areas in the UK. Now it has to make major savings. ibid.
Dodgy investments … left Thurrock with the second biggest deficit ever recorded by a local authority: £470 million. ibid.
Hundreds of millions were invested with a Hampshire-based businessman: Liam Kavanagh. ibid.
By 2020 the Conservative-led council had handed over £655 million. ibid.
Saturday night at the dogs in Romford. The bookies may be doing nicely but the local council isn’t: it’s on the verge of going bankrupt. Across England, many councils are running out of money. Panorama: Councils in Crisis: Paying More for Less, BBC 2024
‘It’s unsustainable, it’s untenable, and we need a response.’ ibid.
One council in every five in England says it’s at risk of bankruptcy. ibid.