Toxteth, 'years of investment' and who has benefitted?

IN THE wake of the Toxteth riots Lord Scarman published his report from the official inquiry into the disturbances.

Among his findings was the following: "The riots were essentially an outburst of anger and resentment by young black people against the police. (But) the police do not create social deprivation; while good policing cannot remove the causes of social stress."

In clear language, Lord Scarman was telling the world that social injustice was the root cause of Toxteth's problems and the riots were aviolent reaction against the state.

The question is, 25 years on from the popular uprising, have the problems which caused the riots now been removed?

As far is the statistical and anecdotal evidence goes they most certainly have not.

A trawl through census records and awhole raft of national reports into poverty suggests one thing - Toxteth is still being crushed under the weight of socio-economic inequality.

When it comes to unemployment, deprivation, health and education the area is always towards the bottom of the pile.

And, perhaps most importantly, those who live in Toxteth feel left behind and are still waiting for promises made aquarter of a century ago to be fulfilled.

Community leader Pauline Davis, from the Granby Residents Association, is among those who believe not enough has been done to improve Toxteth since the riots.

"You have to look at the business side and we still have no supermarkets, no banks and not enough jobs,"she says.

"There is no proper infrastructure, no proper planning and it has to be said that there have been few changes for the better in Toxteth over the last 25 years.

"You get tired of hearing promises that are never kept. The decline is continuing because there are too many basic things that have been overlooked.

"Unemployment is far too high. I'm unemployed myself and I received aletter from the job centre the other day telling me about ajob that might have been suitable for me at the Women's Hospital.

"I rang up about it but they were no longer taking applications because they had had so many.

"People want to work but the opportunities just don't exist.

"And this has an impact on everything, even people's health. Heart attacks and stress related conditions are rampant around here."

According to the available evidence, Pauline's experience of living in Toxteth is symptomatic of the kind of problems which continue to bedevil the area, as the following statistics reveal:

* Specifically standard mortality (SMRs) rates are consistently higher for L8 wards than for the city as awhole.

* Lung disease, heart attacks, strokes and cancer of the lung and throat are causes of death that have far higher SMRs in Liverpool 8.

For instance, in the latter case the SMR for Granby ward is 250 (2.5 times the national average and significantly higher than the SMR for Liverpool, which is 150).

* Rates of emergency admissions to hospitals are higher in L8 than in the city as awhole.

* In Granby 20.4% of the population is registered unemployed. Amongst the local Somali community, this figure rises to almost 70%.

* Granby is ranked 10th on the national index of Multiple Deprivation.

* According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the area suffers from the highest incidence of child poverty with three out of every four children living on the breadline (ie in families surviving on an income which is less than 60% of the national average wage).

* A massive 72% of children grow up in families where the main source of income is benefits.

* The index of multiple deprivationreveals that as many as 51% of people between the ages of 16-74 in Toxtethhave no qualifications.

* The average householdincome in Princes ward is £18,641 - 4,000 belowthe city average.

* 25.4% of residents in Princes ward are on incapacity benefit, compared to the city average of 16.49%.

* Around 63% of households in the Princes Park area have an income lower than £10,000 a year and only 25% of residents are in full time employment.

Linda Bellios, director of Diversity Solutions, aspecialist equality and diversity consultancy, says the experience of Toxteth since the riots is typical of the way the British state responds to an uprising.

She says: "Some of us do not like violence as apolitical strategy, but history seems to show that some communities are ignored until they ignite.

"Then, typically, aformerjudge or academic writesalong report on problems that have been festering for years.

"The Home Office takes note, but soon the status quo is restored."


'Everything is dying around us'

ISMAIL Heltsi does not need anyone to tell him that Toxteth's Somali community is the poorest of Liverpool's poor.

"Twenty-five years ago this area was the most deprivedand it is still the most deprived. We have been totally forgotten," he tells me at the Somali Welfare Development Trust he runs on Granby Street.

"If the council just gave us the running costs to help with our after-school study group it would make amassive difference to this and future generations.

"It would mean that today's children would receive aproper education and they could then get jobs and play aproper role in society.

"In the absence of this, what is there to keep youngsters away from things like crime and drugs?"

The majority of the shops on Granby Street are now boarded up, as are scores of Victorian terraced houses which line the small roads running off it.

Farah Yusuf, an educational support worker for the Somali community, says the situation is now so bad that many Liverpool Somalians are quitting Toxteth for anew life in Birmingham.

He says: "Very few people around here have got jobs. The women cannot even get cleaning jobs.

"Poverty is endemic and there are many people living in poor housing. Some are even living in overcrowded conditions with families of 10 living in just two rooms.

"Things are actually getting worse rather than better. You only have to look at the number of houses boarded up to see that.

"Where is the supermarket, the bank, the post office? We have none of these things.

"Everything is dying around us and we have just been left to rot."

City is set to spend £50m on new homes

IN recent years, anumber of initiatives havebeen launched to try to address the social inequalities which bedevil Toxteth.

A multi-agency approach has been taken as arange of organisations including central government, Liverpool city council and Liverpool Central Primary Care Trust (PCT) attempt to regenerate the area, improve health and stimuate education services.

The city council's executive board recently approved a £50m plan to demolish hundreds of terraced houses, build anew estate and refurbish hundreds of otherhomes in the Princes Park Renewal Area, which stretches from Park Road to Upper Parliament and Devonshire Road to Kingsley Road.

Liverpool's executive member for housing, Cllr Flo Clucas, says: "Almostathird of all properties in this area are likely to fail government decency standards and, thanks to feedback from local people, we know that they share the same aspirations of other residents in the city.

"They want worn-out housing demolished, and they want to live in ahome with agarden thatisbig enough to support afamily. They want to live in aneighbourhood that is well-looked after, well managed and crime-free."

A multi-million pound Sure Start centre is due to open in Granby shortly, offering childcare, family support with outreach services for parents.

Paula Grey, lead director of publichealth at Liverpool PCT, says agreat deal is being done to combat poor healthinthe area.

"It is true that we still have poor health in many parts of Liverpool, particularly those that are most disadvantaged.

"A lot of the work we are doing is to do with improving people's lifestyles so that the incidence of heart attacks, strokes, lung disease are reduced."

Cllr Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool City Council, says: "Ido not accept that after the millions upon millions of pounds spent in Granby there have been no improvements, but I'm conscious that the pace of change has been far too slow for some members of the community.

"We are conscious that other parts of the city are also deprived, most notably in the north of the city, and we need to get the balance right.

"The architecture, cultural mix of people and its close proximity to the city centre make the Granby area one of the most attractive and up and coming parts of Liverpool and the high level of investment in the area reflects this.

"The city council and other social housing providers are about to invest £12m on major housing projects alone in the area in the next 2years.

"In tandem with these physical regeneration proposals the council's South Central Neighbourhood Team is supporting residents by making improvements on the ground in Granby and Lodge Lane."