City ‘completely transformed’ by changes since riots, claims peer

CHANGES SPARKED by the Toxteth riots have led to a “complete transformation” of Liverpool 40 years after the unrest broke out, according to Lord Heseltine.

During nine days of civil unrest in July 1981, 468 police officers were injured, 500 people were arrested and 70 buildings were damaged so severely by fire they had to be demolished.

The riots, which saw the worst of the violence on July 5 and 6, were sparked by the arrest of a young black man.

In the four decades since, the city has seen huge regeneration, was named the European Capital of Culture in 2008, has a visitor economy worth £4.9bn annually and elected its first black mayor, Joanne Anderson, in May this year.

For Lord Michael Heseltine, who had taken up the post of Minister for Environment two years earlier, there was a sense of “personal responsibility” as he saw the riots unfold.

The Tory peer, inset, who was given the Freedom of Liverpool in 2012, had already been working on plans for the city’s regeneration.

He said: “I’d been involved for two years and I had not realised the intensity of this problem.”

Lord Heseltine said the rioting “injected a degree of urgency” into the plans.

In the aftermath of the unrest, Lord Heseltine spent three weeks in Liverpool and for the next 18 months worked on projects for the area. Speaking to people at the time, he said, there was no “positive movement” or “leadership”. But, he said when he returned in 2011, the difference was “absolutely staggering”. He added: “Everybody we saw had ideas and said if you help us, you give us the opportunity, we will be able to make things happen. It was a complete transformation.”