Looks great on the surface but underneath.... (Liverpool City Council)

Member Name: manonfireuk

Product:	Liverpool City Council
Date:	01/10/09 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of free exciting events

Disadvantages: Lots of run down areas, not good with dealing with complaints

This is a review about Liverpool City Council as a whole, not so much the council website.

I lived in Liverpool from 1999 - 2002 and I moved back again a few years ago and have been living here since 2007.

I think the council has improved since 99-02, however there are still many undyling problems that the council has failed to tackle.

On the surface of things the council is great. During the capital of culture year the city centre has vastly improved with new swanky apartments being built, a new shopping complex called Liverpool One and lots of free and exciting events. This makes Liverpool look fantastic to the tourists, however, if you explore a little further out of the city or you actually live here you'll discover a different side of Liverpool.

The council did a great job of promoting Liverpool, bringing in a lot of new business for the Capital of Culture year and creating lots of new jobs. However, where the investment is really needed is on the outskirts of Liverpool, areas such as Kensington that are completly run down, boarded up houses, businesses gone bust etc. This is the side of Liverpool that the tourists don't see. It may not have attracted so many tourists but investment should be for the people who matter, the people who actually live in Liverpool.

The council should also be aware that although they have created a fantastic new shopping centre in the form of Liverpool One, this is having an adverse effect on what was the old shopping centre of Liverpool. There are many shops in the old centre that are closing down and moving to Liverpool One, one half of the centre will end up being abandoned!

As I mentioned before, one thing the council is very good at providing is free exciting events for the whole family. There are music festivals, arts festivals, comedy festivals and more happening all year around Liverpool. This makes sure there is always something to do in Liverpool and is the one thing that the council is very good at providing.

If you live in Liverpool and ever require any information or need to make a complaint then you make a call to Liverpool Direct. The Liverpool Direct line varies. Sometimes you are put through to somebody evry helpful, other times the person you end up speaking to has no knowledge of how to deal with your problem and you end up being passed around many people before you get to the right one! I made a complaint over 6 months ago about the noise coming from a nightclub, it still has not been resolved. I called Liverpool Direct late in the evening. Then I have to wait an hour for the noise pollution team to ring me back then up to another hour for them to call out to us to witness the problem. As you can imagine, by the time this happens, the noise has ceased! A very ineffective service!

If you live in the city centre you will also notice a temendous smell often coming from the drains below the city. Yet another problem that the council have failed to resolve.

I don't believe I could ever cover everything to do with the city council in this review but my intention was to give you a snapshot of it's good and bad points. I will end on my view of the library service in Liverpool, having worked for an excellent library service in Birmingham, I have something to compare it too. I think the library service provides a very good service to adults of all ages and backgrounds with their collections, exhibitions and outreach work. However, the children's service is sadly lacking. There are no librarians who are specifically children's librarians, their stock levels are much too small and they do not concentrate on good effective ways of bringing children into libraries.

I have covered the topics about the council that I am passionate about. I am sure the council has many more good and bad points too.

Summary: Could do better