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Silly Girl said 

 
I must be even more daft that I thought I was… I liked that last close-up best. 

Reveal Spoiler

I’m not sue if you are joking but, to be honest, I think it is a cool picture. The artist did a great job of capturing the detail of the Beatle boots. 

The “Welsh Streets” in Liverpool’s Dingle area (which include Madryn Street where Ringo was born), long under threat of demolition for a regeneration project have been saved (for the time being) with Liverpool Council dropping its appeal against a Government decision to block their widespread demolition – partly because of its Beatles association. The Council has said it will now look to refurbishing the empty homes in the area (though still refusing to say there will be no demolitions proposed at a later time). Ringo’s childhood home in Admiral Grove, just around the corner, has always been safe, and now it seems his birthplace is safe as well.

It was very sad earlier in the year to see the Welsh Streets deserted and boarded up.

The battle over their future has been going on for around a decade. It will be good to see the area allowed to become a community again, rather than the one or two hold-outs having to live among boarded-up homes all around.

I’d happily live there if I had the chance.

@meanmistermustard said
I know i’ll be in the minority but is it not better to demolish the buildings, start from scratch and regenerate the area fresh than standing still with history, partly because a Beatle once stayed there. Where do you draw the line? 

I’m surprised at times to not read that people aren’t campaigning to keep the spot where John once peed on when drunk from being renovated.

Why would it be better to demolish perfectly good houses that, at little cost, can be updated to meet modern needs? The Welsh Streets were social housing that it was being proposed would be demolished and replaced with more expensive private housing. The Government did not only reject the scheme because Ringo was born on one of the streets, but also because of its policy to bring empty homes back into use, and because many from the area objected to their wholesale demolition and the proposal to replace them with homes they would struggle to afford.

This is something that happens a lot in London, and so I’m familiar with it and its effects. Just down the road from me, as an example, around 200 socially rented flats were recently demolished and replaced with around 100 modern flats, of which only around 20 were retained for social housing, while the majority were sold privately at prices which were unaffordable to the majority of local residents.

It’s one of the big problems in many parts of the country, perfectly good social housing being demolished and replaced with a fraction of the social housing along with much more private housing stock that is unaffordable to the local population.

The objections that took it all the way to Government were from people who lived in the area, and who didn’t want to see themselves priced out. The proposed scheme would have made a lot of money for Liverpool Council and the private developer, but it would have priced much of the local community out of the area.

Myself, I don’t believe that the destruction of social housing that has taken place in many parts of the country over the last 35 years has been good for the locals who can no longer afford to live there.

@meanmistermustard said
I’m just of the opinion its better to start afresh from scratch instead of counting pennies and pounds and keeping with whats been there because its cheaper. As for those not being able to afford the new homes surely the Government should be able to rule that the houses go to those in need ahead of those with cash.

I would agree were the proposed scheme supported by those affected, but it wasn’t. Admittedly, many Liverpudlians grew tired of it dragging on and on, and moved toward the council scheme because they thought it would win in the end. But locally there has always strong support for the Welsh Streets surviving as they were, with the housing being refurbished.

They are good houses. There is nothing wrong them that a little work won’t solve. This wasn’t a case of locals damning the substandard housing they were living in. This was Liverpool Council looking to make money.

Which should be more important – the council making money or what the people in the area want?

And, yes, the Government could do more on affordability but is a Conservative Government, who believe the market rules, ever going to control the market?

The fact that the Government rejected the proposed scheme says a lot.