Our wonderful government, not content with cancelling plans for rail electrification across the north ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40692356 ) have now announced that they are not going to help residents of new Ferry who have had there homes damaged by the gas explosion in March. ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-40711371 ).

The money is evidently needed for Crossrail 2, a £30 billion rail project in - yes, you've guessed it - London ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40708531 )

The EU was - and still is - prepared to spend big money anywhere in Europe where it was needed rather than blowing it all on Brussels. The regeneration of Liverpool was largely EU funded as was Manchester's for instance unde 'Objective One' funding.

Yet the EU is accused of being 'corrupt'! It may well be, but when it comes to corruption, they are evidently rank amateurs compared to the Westminster Government!

In a further irony, the refusal letter about New Ferry funding came from the 'Minister for the Northern Powerhouse'!

Why should the Government ? The houses in New Ferry would have been covered by insurance.

Oh really? You know that for a fact do you? House insurance is compulsory is it? I didn't know that.

Insurance companies have a nasty habit of deciding that the cost of repair is less than the value of the house and paying only that.

Still I suppose it is a great consolation to those people still unable to live in their homes or the businessmen that have had to relocate or have packed up that London is going to get yet another megaproject.

It's worth mentioning that in March when the explosion had just happened that the government said that they WOULD help, but of course we know how much value to put on ANY promise from this particular government.

Not at all, there is no requirement for private housing to have insurance. And there is certainly no moral reason to insure against some other idiot damaging your property.

The insurance companies will be helpful to a point but there will be arguments and negotiations about who will pay what which can carry on for years.

As there is a possibility this is criminal damage it will further delay anything. If the criminal act was done outside building that exploded, the building insurance may not cover it. A more obvious example would be a car bomb blasting one building into another. The building had more than one premises inside it which could further complicate insurance settlements.

The Government should at least offer unconditional loans whereby insurance payouts are repayable.

But this is oop north, government isn't interested, its not London. I notice they have just cancelled Northern electrification at the same time as putting more money into the Southern train services.

Have you ever seen the articles about Maggie Thatcher and the Merseyside heroin endemic?

A few years back during Cameron's reign of chaos, some clown from the nutters think tank 'Policy Exchange' (founded by the egregious Gove!) published a paper suggesting that everyone in the North move to the South East! 'The North' was finished!

As a policy, it is probably cheaper for the government to move everyone to the south east than for them to do their job properly.

I haven't seen the article you mention, DD. Do I want to? Over the years I've read quite enough blood-pressure-raising accounts of the actions of that woman.

6. Wirral Council could have cash available to help

The Conservatives said the council did have more money to help - highlighting a reserve of £770,000 which they said was earmarked for support and assistance to the public in need

I doubt that would cover the damage. Have you seen it Granny, or were you too bust reading the Conservative manifesto?

I must admit I am angry that the government has gone back on their word to help New Ferry. If i remember rightly they did say they would didn't they? I know the Grenvell tragedy was so much worse but to the devastated people who are affected it's heartbreaking. Politicians eh, change their minds like a weather vane! JC gave all the student's that he wanted on his side that he would waive the university fees, suddenly that's all changed too. Not sure who I trust these days...

No you don't, I don't want you keeling over yet!

It was all part of the killing off of Merseyside but in the zest for destroying us they stupidly didn't see that heroin would be come a pandemic. There was something to do with the USA being involved in it too.

I don't bust at anything Ex. unlike some.

Just as a matter of interest to you, Wirral have received masses amount from ERDF and NWD over the years. Usually allocated to Merseyside for it to be divided up. If I remember rightly, Wirral received £10,000,000 in the early 2000's from the ERDF. Knowing where some went but I think we should be asking what happened to all of it. Plus they've had lottery funding too and various other amounts over the years.
More recently money from ERDF received for Wirral Waters £8.6m office block !

Hansard:
Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder

£184 million 2004-08 covering inner Liverpool, South Sefton and Birkenhead/Tranmere in Wirral. Paid in two tranches, £86 million in the first and £98 million in the second


I agree that those from New Ferry have suffered enough, although I fail to see the comparison between New Ferry and Grenfell. Businesses should always be insured, and if homes were rented, then the landlords should also have been insured. I think Wirral are looking for 'regeneration money'of New Ferry. St.Asaph didn't get that for the floods and neither did anyone else who was flooded, other than defences (so far as I am aware) .

Most of UK's ERDF money goes into developers pockets, a much smaller amount goes to training and business support companies.

There are so many business support programs going that nobody can keep track.

Never expect a simple list of where ERDF or any other European funding goes.

You have to laugh at the essential projects that Europe agreed to fund, like building a new stadium for LFC. Its perverse that rich companies receive funding, its just a neat way to make sure that money never goes downwards but stays at the top.

Then there is Wirral Chamber of Commerce who are supposed to support local businesses but actually compete against local businesses thanks to numerous grants they get.

Were the Thames barrier to fail at the wrong time, resulting in flooding of central london and the underground, you'd see the government stepping in - well leaping rather than stepping - with as much money as you could possibly want.



Who is it saying 'should' in this case, other than granny? Should or not, many aren't, and I have no doubt that this sort of damage - the result of criminal action it would appear - would be covered even when insurance IS taken out.

My optician has had to relocate. The new premises are costing him a bomb to rent, the insurance seems to me from what he said quite inadequate to cover repairs to the building and insufficient to buy the premises he's in - even if the owner would be prepared to sell. It has blown his retirement plans to bits. His neighbours have decided not to carry on, so even if he rebuilt his shop it would be bracketed by ruined buildings.

I will not pass on your less than sympathetic remarks to him on my next visit.I think he's suffered enough.

Just shut up Ex. your a pain in the posterior.

If people have a business and can't be bothered to pay out for General Liability Insurance then it's their own fault if things turn bad for them. If they can't afford it, then maybe they should question themselves as to whether or not they want to jeopardize their own assets . Anyone can be a shop keeper, but running it on a shoe string is not business management.

But that's in London, in one of the richeest boroughs in the country with lots and lots of wealthy Tory home owners living literally cheek by jowl with the Lancaster West estate residents. It's not in the same league as a shitty little burg in Murkeyside, is it? And 80+ people weren't killed in New Ferry.

I was in London recently and after reading all the bollocks in the media went to take a look at Grenfell Tower for myself. Sobering. The smell permeates the entire area right up to Notting Hill and Portobello market. It's not a dry smell, like you get with most house fires or post-bonfire, but greasier, more like post-barbecue. It reminds you there are the remains of human beings in that tower.

Literally a minute or two walk from Grenfell takes you into the plusher parts of Chelsea, Notting Hill etc, with multi-million pound houses in leafy streets, expensive cars parked outside. CCTV cameras everywhere, of course.

Each of the properties damaged have an estimated cost of demolition 45 thousand but no one will pay that hence the council are taking them down by a court order . The same council that did not fill in the required documents for releif aid properly knowing that the claim would Be refused but still perceived telling the residents that the government would come good . Councillors knew alison mcgovern new that new kid with glasses knew and phil davis knew it more than anyone else . The buck stopps with wirral borough council for fkin new ferry over for years and the people who caused the explosion. Exasperating a proplem that was already there .