{"id":603874,"date":"2025-11-30T18:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T18:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/603874\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T18:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T18:59:17","slug":"when-we-moved-here-it-was-the-place-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/603874\/","title":{"rendered":"When we moved here, it was the place to be"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some say the Liverpool road is ‘in bits’, others say it has ‘died’, and there are views that the area is in ‘managed decline’\"CountyCounty Road, Walton(Image: Liverpool ECHO)<\/p>\n

County Road was once the north end\u2019s busiest high street \u2014 but some residents say it is now \u201cin bits\u201d, others say it has died, and there are views which argue the area is in \u201cmanaged decline\u201d. So, when Chancellor Rachel Reeves<\/a> delivered her Budget earlier this week, there was little optimism that Westminster could introduce anything to improve the lives of local residents.<\/p>\n

The Walton<\/a> constituency is Liverpool\u2019s second most deprived constituency,<\/a> and the 11th most deprived in England. The headline announcements in the Budget<\/a> on Wednesday included the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap, a 4.1% increase in the minimum wage, the freezing of tax bands at higher rates, a mansion tax on homes worth over \u00a32m, and cuts in green levies to bring down energy bills.<\/p>\n

Patricia Nelson, 70, pushes her baby granddaughter\u2019s pram along the pavement, past closed shops and quiet caf\u00e9s. She said: \u201cCounty Road is in bits. You don\u2019t come down here unless you have to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we moved here, it was the place to be, now, you feel ashamed to say you live around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the Budget, Patricia said: \u201cIt feels like they\u2019re doing more to help people who aren\u2019t in work than hard-working families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chancellor announced in the Budget This week, the Institute for Public Policy Research reported that 70% of the additional spending from removing the two-child limit will go to families who are in work.<\/p>\n

Of County Road, Patricia added: “We don\u2019t get anything down here. Anfield<\/a> gets it. It needs cleaning up.\u201dJeff Kelly, 64, has run Kelly\u2019s News for almost two decades. According to the sign above the door, the little newsagent was \u201cestablished a long time ago\u201d \u2014 more specifically by Jeff\u2019s dad in the 1970s, when County Road was the north end\u2019s busiest high street.<\/p>\n

\"CountyCounty Road, Walton. (Image: Liverpool ECHO)<\/p>\n

\u201cFootfall has dropped. The road has died. It\u2019s a ghost town by six o\u2019clock in the evening,\u201d Jeff said, adding that he doesn\u2019t believe the Everton men\u2019s team move away from the area has contributed, pointing out that the football crowds arrived just once a week, and mainly troubled the pubs and takeaways.<\/p>\n

Jeff is concerned that a rise in tobacco prices will affect business, with smokers turning to cheaper cigarettes. Tobacco duty is set to increase by four percentage points over the next year, with an extra \u00a32.20 per 100 cigarettes or 50g of tobacco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is cutting their nose off to spite their face. Counterfeits are going to explode.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government says the high duty rates are aimed at reducing smoking prevalence and contributing to government revenues.<\/p>\n

A smoker buys her usual pack of loose American Spirit tobacco from Jeff, at a cost of \u00a328. The price has doubled in a decade. Asked about the duty hikes, she said: \u201cI\u2019ll still find the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might make me smoke a little less for a while, but then the addict comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rajee Gamage, owner of PXK Booze, is also worried about tobacco duty rises announced in the Budget. \u201cThe customers blame us,\u201d he said. Rajee believes the cost of living is also keeping customers away. He said: \u201cI think people are struggling with expenses and energy bills are high. The energy bills for this shop have doubled since covid. So many small businesses are closing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government says an average of around \u00a3150 per year will be knocked off household energy bills when green levies are cut from April. Rajee said: \u201cIf energy prices go down, customers will have more money in their pockets. Currently, a lot of people just come in here to top up their metres.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of County Road, he said: \u201cThere\u2019s so many of the same shops down here, it hurts our business. It\u2019s dead after seven o\u2019clock. I think people are struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LizLiz Tierney, 79, and Rae Workman, 42, on County Road. (Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

Rae Workman, 42, owns Uniqcorn Crystals on County Road. She said: \u201cA lot of people believe it\u2019s in a state of managed decline, just go up the road and count the empty shops. But, we\u2019re not going to let it happen. We need a strategic plan to improve the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rae said County Road\u2019s strength is in its tight-knit community, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s old school. It\u2019s one of the few places that still has a sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rae added: \u201cWe all live in such close proximity. Since the riots, there has been a lot more togetherness. And we\u2019ve got some boss little places down here. There\u2019s some absolute treasures in the north end.”<\/p>\n

Liz Tierney, 79, said: “There\u2019s nothing really for the seniors of the parish. People came together for the older population in covid. Now people go into the library just to stay warm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some say the Liverpool road is ‘in bits’, others say it has ‘died’, and there are views that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,61351,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-603874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-county-road","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115640192367922725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}