I'm forwarding this article from the latest edition of Freedom - the anarchist fortnightly newspaper. I'm not the author, but it needs to be circulated. Maybe
I've missed it but this was news to me. This is worrying. They're privatising our
public rights of way, our streets. We need to fight this!

solitage.



LIVERPOOL ALERT.

An area of Liverpool stretching from Hanover Street to The Strand will
be policed by a private force known as 'Quartermasters', a public
enquiry into the city's biggest ever redevelopment heard on 1st October.

Local resident M.P. reports:

Liverpool City Council was defending the privatisation of 35 public rights
of way as it tried to get compulsory purchase orders (CPO's) to allow
the £750 million redevelopment of the Paradise Street area to go ahead.

Day nine of the enquiry saw fierce criticism of the scheme from the Open
Spaces Society, which campaigns for more public space. Their local
correspondent, Donald Lee, said, "we oppose the wholesale extinguishing
of public rights of way on foot, to be replaced by a series of so-called
'public realm' routes that are nothing more than permitted ways under
under the control of private management.

"When I queried with city council officials as to why the new routes could
not be dedicated as public rights of way, thus allowing the Society to
withdraw its objection, it was explained to me that the developers and the
council needed to be in a position 'to control and exclude the riff-raff
element'."

But Peter Mynors, consultant for the Symonds Group, who are working with
the council, said he'd learnt from trips to the United States what people
wanted from cities. "In North America there's been a drift towards the
managed enviroments of shopping malls," he said. "The city centres have died.
What we want to do is create a managed environment in the city centre so
that we don't get that drift."

When Donald Lee asked Mynors who'd be responsible for policing the streets, he
replied "it would be similar to what happens in a conventional shopping
centre, with people called Quartermasters."

This sort of privatisation has real implications for campaigners. When the
streets are privatised we won't be able to hand out flyers if the management
don't want us there. If there were a shop selling sweatshop goods or
involved in environmental destruction, the simple act of trying to inform
the public would become an act of trespass. If we refused to leave the area
then security guards could remove us or call the police.