Yes rather than leaving them bloody empty it should have been a condition put on by the council that until they had acquired all the necessary properties they couldn't leave them in a ****ty, disgusting state with no tenants. Easy enough to sort....just put a 6 month notice period on any they rent out for when they are ready to expand...but that didn't suit them because they would have had to pay a higher price if the area remained decent. This is peoples lives they have been playing with after all. The stupid thing is this has led to a lot of residents digging their heels in and playing hardball. The club will have a long wait especially if every remaining resident takes them through the courts to challenge every CP price offered (especially when you consider how derisory the offers always are). Simple question for anyone who thinks this isn't scummy behaviour.....if some meat head knocked on your door and offered you two thirds the value of your house then threw you out when you refused would you just lie down and accept it?
Slightly OTT mate but the article is based on more fact than any single piece of bollox the club has spouted over the last two decades on the subject. Take a walk around the area now and have no doubt what LFC (and the council) have brought upon the good people of Anfield. We were even going to steal half the bloody park so is it any wonder many locals think the club are a million miles removed from the area it's in. Just bear in mind the fact they used disgraced solicitor Kevin (****ing) Dooley to help "ease" people out of the area. Now there is a fella who makes Jen Chang look like a pussycat.
Well as a community people do tend to stay where they are happy. It has little to do with securing the best price possible when the best they will get is about two thirds of the CURRENT value of the house....and similar houses in Liverpool go for twice as much as Anfield because the place now looks like Beirut. So they'll get about two thirds of half the market value please log in to view this image
Not many of the surrounding neighbourhoods look like the above picture The reason there are a lot of decent houses in Liverpool like in Anfield boarded up is because the last council (shambles) were doing all sorts of deals with house builders to knock down perfectly good houses (see the Welsh Streets....LCC are so stupid it's tried for years to knock down the house of Ringo....one of the stops on the Beatles tour that gets thousands of visitors every year). You really couldn't make it up.....especially when you consider there are about 40 000 empty homes in the Liverpool area....and there is a council waiting list of approximately....yeah you guessed it....40 000 people.
If there are 40,000 empty homes it seems the half a street bought by LFC is the least of the city's problems. Anyway, I would be in favour of any privately owned house left empty for more than a few years being compulsory purchased back by the council at about 10% of its market value. Get on with it or sell it to someone who will.
So; just out of interest, exactly how many property's does the club still have to buy before they have the required space to renovate the stadium? (Ignoring willingness to sell for the moment)
Not the least of "the city's" problems if you happen to live in that part of the city is it and it's not just half a street that's been blighted. When was the last time you took a walk around the area. I've lived the other side of West Derby Road for years and trust me when I say whilst it was never perfect Anfield has got worse and worse at a greater rate than any other area I've ever been to. Anyone who thinks that's a coincidence is blinded by club loyalty to the extent that they won't admit this is a massive issue. Ultimately, not only has it held the area back but this policy of secretive buying and underhand tactics HAS COST THE CLUB FOR DECADES by alienating the people around the ground. Most of these properties would have easily been in the clubs hands had they just gone about things in consultation with locals and offered slightly over market value. I hear the argument so often "well why should the club pay over the odds?".....well for the price of 6 months of Downings wages we could have brought the whole bloody lot ten years ago at a more than reasonable price that 90% of locals would have bitten their hands off at (as long as they were re-housed in the area wherever necessary and on condition the club improved the area long term). It's so ****ing simple it beggars belief.
Still quite a few. The ones remaining are the ones who'll dig their heels in the most too (unless the club wakes up and does things properly for once). The easiest to shift have already gone.
Well that's what I don't understand Billy, that's why I asked how many properties they would still have to buy to do the refit? Ignore saw above
The problem is now DF that they will have to CP the rest that they can't buy legit. CP = kicking people out of their family homes (in many cases) so people don't go easily and they certainly don't go on the cheap. The vast majority of the remaining residents could at least try to drag it out through the courts and if they find against LCC as has happened before then the whole thing will collapse (even if just one resident wins and sits tight). The council (LFC) will put a CP bid in at a certain rate and the residents may well challenge it....thus it becomes a lengthy process. Then there are the property developers who've bought up a few of the empty ones just in the knowledge they can hang on to them for a while and they can screw more out of the CP price if they sit tight for a while and challenge the first offer.
Not sure exactly but I know a man who will bear with me............ ..........approx. two dozen on the main stand side but if they don't get all the ones they want in Sybil and Coningsby Rd then they'll never get the issues with light restrictions past the planners (second hand info this but 95% reliable). The other problem is there are so many locals in the other streets now who'll fight the whole planning application every step of the way thus more delays.
What's the market value round that way, I mean real value not the street with all the boarded up houses but comparable properties?
A three bed terrace in Walton say or Tuebrook would probably go for £70 000 in decent nick So Downing gets lets say £250 000 a month........see why local people are so perplexed why the club has to draw this out so long trying to save a few thousand quid
That's what I thought. I mean if we really wanted the stadium upgraded: work with the council: say CP at 70k; in fact treble each to say sorry for being pricks & to lessen the feasibility of any challenge to CP You're still only talking 8 million or there abouts for 40 houses. be stingy and only double it if theres more to buy than that . Jesus we paid 35 million for West Ham to have a striker!
In fact did we not write off 50 million on some now defunct paper drawings and models to scale of non existent stadiums?
Yeah and combine how much the cost of building has increased, endless consultants fees, shady housing agents, and the lost revenue since the mid 90s......and the whole process has cost us more than 10 times that £8 million.....probably twenty times at a conservative estimate....great work eh
