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Liverpool's positive image

LIVERPOOL'S photographic collections have been recognised as being of national and international importance.

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council has awarded Liverpool Record Office the prestigious 'Designation status' for its extensive archive of photographs.

The Designation scheme celebrates the leading museum, library and archive collections in England that are deemed to be of outstanding significance.

Organisations with designated collections are seen as caring for important parts of the country's cultural heritage.

Liverpool City Council Leader, Warren Bradley, said:- "As Liverpool approaches its 800th birthday, it's fitting that this hugely important part of our history and heritage has received this national honour.

Liverpool has a rich and varied past and can look back on a fascinating story. The work of our Record Office to preserve and catalogue the images which capture this story, and make them available to everyone, is truly priceless. I'm very proud that this collection has taken its place among the most culturally significant in the country."

The extensive photographic archives at Liverpool Record Office build up a fascinating and detailed picture of the city. They include:-

o The city engineer's archive and housing department archive which documents town planning, transport, housing and public health. Dating from the late 19th century and with a more than 180,000 photographs, the archive shows the rapid development of the city and its people. It also records the outstanding work of Professor John Brodie, City Engineer from 1898-1926. His work was so highly regarded that he was invited to assist with the planning of New Delhi in India.

o The complete work of Edward Chambre Hardman, part owned by the council and part owned by The National Trust. Chambre Hardman was one of the most admired portrait and landscape photographers of the 20th century. There are more than 150,000 of his portrait photographs, providing an extraordinary record of the people of Liverpool as well as distinguished visitors such as Ivor Novello and Margot Fonteyn. There are also several thousand stunning landscape photographs taken in and around Liverpool, the north west, Wales and Scotland.

o The Local Studies collection of around 70,000 photographs from the 1890s to the present provides comprehensive coverage of buildings, streets, districts, people and events. It includes late 19th century photography of street characters and detailed record of the extensive air raid damage to Liverpool in the Second World War.

Record Office Manager David Stoker said:- "Liverpool is gearing up for Capital of Culture in 2008, as well as its 800th birthday in 2007, so it's great news that our photographic collections have been officially recognised as being of national and international cultural
significance.

We place huge importance in looking after our photographic collection - they are the collected memories of Liverpool. Our images are used every day to support all kinds of research, publications, exhibitions and the council's work with the media and cultural organisations.

And at the heart of the work of the Record Office is making sure this wonderful record of Liverpool's history can be seen by as many people as possible, and are not just locked away. Digitisation is making tens of thousands of Liverpool images available to people, on-line, all over the world."

Liverpool Record office is now attracting huge numbers of visitors, and is the busiest in the country after the National Archives. There were just over 43,200 visitors during 2005/06 who consulted nearly 40,000 documents and took up over 40,000 computer and microfilm sessions.

Log on to mersey-gateway.org or liverpool.gov.uk/archives to look at thousands of digitised images from the city's huge photographic archive.

Mensa goes underground

MEMBERS of Mensa will be going underground this weekend when they make a trip to the famous Williamson Tunnels in Liverpool.

A group of the High IQ Society members will explore the strange underground labyrinth created in the early 19th century and ponder their mysteries.

Nobody is certain why Joseph Williamson set thousands of workers to the task of building this subterranean kingdom, but the Mensa group will have a chance to view the man-made caverns and  develop their own theories.

The visit is organised as part of the North West region’s social calendar. Mensa currently has around 24,000 members, with more than 2,200 members in the region. The society welcomes people from all walks of life, with the objective of enjoying each other’s company and participating in a range of social and cultural activities.

The society’s aims are to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members; and to encourage research into the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence. 

MUSIC POINTS THE WAY TO A NEW TOMORROW, SAYS SHELTER

A group of young care-leavers will be at the End nightclub on Wednesday 8 November to launch Shelter’s new CD resource pack A New Tomorrow.

The budding young performers, working with Liverpool music project The Noise, have written, performed and produced a CD of powerful and emotive songs about their experiences of leaving care and moving on.

The CD accompanies a booklet of practical activities designed to aid vulnerable young people’s
emotional development.

Shelter’s Young Person’s team has pioneered the project and expects the resource pack to be a valuable tool for both young care leavers and support workers in children’s homes, hostels or supported housing schemes.

The would-be music stars who feature in A New Tomorrow will be introducing their own songs at the launch event in London’s fashionable AKA Bar above the End Nightclub.

Nafisa Mekki, who participated in the project said:- “I have found that I make my bad experiences into good experiences by writing songs, poetry and stories from them. I have examples of this through the two songs on this CD, which have been my bad experiences turned into good experiences.”

Graeme Brown, director of Communications at Shelter said:- “Up to 20% of young people experience homelessness within two years of leaving care (1). We believe that A New Tomorrow will prove a valuable resource for support workers to explore practical solutions to vulnerable young people’s emotional needs, guiding them in their first steps towards independent living.”

LIVERPOOL IS DOING THE BUSINESS

LIVERPOOL City Centre is highly rated as a business destination, according to the biggest ever independent survey of city centre businesses.

The Foundations for Growth survey, commissioned by the leading business agency in the city, Business Liverpool and Urban Regeneration Company, Liverpool Vision, found that three quarters of the 500 companies who responded said that Liverpool was a good place in which to do business.

The survey reviewed how the city is treating business while investigating the ways of removing barriers to growth.

It asked the business community how it feels the city fares as a business friendly destination and what it feels is important to encourage change - all designed to help develop a blueprint for a continual and sustainable economic boom.

But the survey also revealed that Liverpool's business community wants to be involved in the improvement process as well as the debate, while telling the city council it is on track to achieve its business friendliness goal, awarding a score of 6.8/10 on the survey's index.

Now Liverpool's Champion for Business, Warren Bradley, is calling for the private and public sectors to join forces to turn Liverpool City Centre into a "hot house for business."

The city council leader wants a partnership that will help create the right conditions for business to thrive to transform Liverpool into the most business friendly city in the UK.

Cllr Bradley said the city council recognised that only business can determine whether Liverpool is business friendly and so council services and other public agencies needed to be responsive to its needs.

He said:- "Business Liverpool's innovative survey and index has identified the key issues which need to be the foundation stones for building the city into a hot house for business. We must now work with the private sector to develop a robust and far reaching action plan that fully meets the city centre's business friendly aspirations.

It is a partnership that will work for the future well-being of Liverpool. Business is a key driver for change and the city council is listening to businesses to help make the city friendlier, safer and cleaner in order to raise confidence, increase opportunities and ensure that industry grows."

The survey shows further evidence that the city centre is re-emerging as an important business location and that there has already been an improvement during the last five years.

Findings from the survey include:-

· 74% of businesses rated Liverpool 4+ out of five as a place to do business

· 75% of those who had contact with the city council were very or quite satisfied

· Anticipated growth: 69% of city centre businesses anticipate growth during the next five years, 25% stability and 6% decline

· 76% view Liverpool as an improved location over the last five years, with 29% viewing it very much improved

· Cleanliness, infrastructure, transport, parking, image and continued investment/regeneration raised as areas for improvement

· 70% of respondents said that the city centre provided a good match to their occupier requirements

There were no factors where business felt the city was fundamentally failing.

Cllr Bradley added:- "The big challenge for the future is to sustain recent growth and create a successful, dynamic and prosperous local economy with both public and private interests at the core of this drive for improvement.

It means action from the city council and key public sector agencies on planning, cleanliness, litter and parking. It means continued investment and business support, improved skills and training, improved transport and access, meeting demands for premises for growth and for the business community to expand their customer base.

Liverpool is already a city that embraces business and we are committed more than ever to cultivate this relationship and ensure the conditions are there for investment so we all can reap the rewards."

Mike Taylor, chief executive of BusinessLiverpool, said that combined with the Liverpool City Growth Strategy there was now a strong evidence base of more than 1500 business views city-wide.

He believes that the way is now clear for significant progress to be made in developing an action plan through dialogue with the city's key businesses:- "There is now a commitment for action and real support for it and the survey gives a strong demonstration of the interest business has in shaping the city centre.

The aim of the survey was not only to find a transparent benchmark for business friendliness which can be gauged year-on-year, but also to understand precisely what business needs in order to develop strategies for continued improvement and for the city to stay ahead of its competitors.

These findings are positive, but, none the less, indicate there is room for improvement. We will also need to work closely with the city's retail sector to help them consider how the development of Liverpool 1 will impact on their businesses.

The survey is a starting point which shows that, for the first time, business friendliness actually means something tangible and can be built on with the help of the private sector.

In the coming weeks we will be working with the Manifesto Group, other city centre business leaders and public sector partners to start to shape the action response to the issues businesses have raised."

Cllr Bradley's call for a partnership together with the survey's rigorous research has been welcomed by an influential group of city businesses in Liverpool who are seeking more economic dynamism in the city.

David Owen, senior investment director for Rensburg Sheppards, on behalf of the members of the Manifesto Group, said he hopes that others will join now the emerging new forum for city
centre businesses.

David Owen told the media that:- "This is about genuine partnership with a focus on identifying ways to deliver positive change. We're too busy to get involved in a talking shop, so we hope fellow business leaders will feel encouraged by the role we're playing and want to join us.

This is a genuine opportunity for the private sector to mobilise the city council's resources to make it easier for them to do business, invest and grow. Everyone wins, then.

The idea of an index is a good one. It gives us a yardstick to measure how Liverpool is performing and we're already seeing the city council re-direct resources as a consequence of the study's findings and that's very encouraging.

People we talk to in business have moved on from worrying about capitalising on short-term opportunities and can see that Liverpool faces the prospect of long term expansion if we can get the fundamentals right. This is an early step in that process and we're happy to commend the report to the business community."

Jim Gill, chief executive of Liverpool Vision, who is a partner in the research, said:- "We are pleased that the research reflects the improvement in Liverpool City Centre as a place to do business.

The City Centre has undergone a major transformation over the last five years but we cannot afford to be complacent.

A lot has been achieved in delivering new commercial and retail space, and improving the quality of the physical environment, but it is vital to maintain that progress if the city is to stay attractive and competitive as a business destination."