THE Blue Angel is famed in Merseybeat history as one of the first venues that gave the Beatles a stage. Now co-owner Mike Kearon fears the city council has turned its back on the nightclub.
Kearon says a controversial one-way traffic system means people heading to his Seel Street club have to take a long and winding road – all the way down to Liverpol One.
La’Go claimed the road system was introduced to benefit the Tesco store in Hanover Street, to enable their juggernauts access
Since the experimental, temporary measure was introduced 18 months ago business at the once-busy club has nosedived, he told councillors.
Mike Kearon Of The Blue AngelUntil 2011, Seel Street was a two way street, but things changed when the street was made one-way from Hanover Street to Berry Street.
Motorists heading along clogged up Berry Street to Base2Stay, the Blue Angel, Heebie Jeebies and Alma De Cuba are confronted with a No Entry sign at the Seel Street junction.
During evenings, when the city’s night time economy is at its peak, bollards prevent motorists heading down alternative Wood Street or Bold Street.
Instead this is the diversion for motorists in Berry Street wanting to reach the Blue Angel.
Head along Berry Street towards the Duke Street junction.
Turn right at Duke Street
Turn right at Colquitt Street
Turn left at Parr Street,
Cross over to Wolstenholme Square,
Drive down Gradwell Street
Turn right at David Lewis Street
Turn right into Seel Street….
Drive up Seel Street and find the Blue Angel on the right.
One way or another...
It’s a similar plight for La’Go bar at the junction of Colquitt Street and Seel Street.
Over the past few years Mike Kearon says he has spent around £400,000 successfully challenging the city council after residents of nearby flats complained an outdoor area, used by smokers, was causing a noise nuisance. The club is open to 5am at weekends.
It prompted a debate about what city centre dwellers should be expected to accept as a price for living in the heart of a 24-hour “music” city.
Lill Parle Of La'GoThat battle and this new fight over the one-way system has convinced Mike Kearon the council is driving business away.
Mr Kearon said: "I’ve been working in the city centre for 40 years and the congestion now is worse than it has ever been."
More than 200 local residents and Merseyside Police support the one-way system being made permanent and the city council’s Traffic and Highways Representation Committee met on Tuesday to rule on making the order permanent.
But council cabinet member Cllr Wendy Simon refused to make a decision after Mr Kearon and the owners of La’Go protested they had not been properly consulted.
Instead a site visit is taking place and a decision delayed until later this month.
Lill Parle, manager of La’Go also complained she’d been left in the dark.
The proposed system would prevent beer deliveries to La’Go, she said, putting the future of the bar in jeopardy.
Officials warned if the matter was not resolved this month, the temporary one-way order would lapse and the street would have to revert to two way.
A final decision will now be made on June 21, just 24 hours before a critical legal deadline.
The committee was told action had been needed because of problems caused by traffic congestion and night-time anti social disorder in Seel Street. But La’Go claimed the road system was introduced to benefit the Tesco store in Hanover Street, to enable their juggernauts access.
Tony Mullane, representing 1,500 hackney cab drivers revealed a number of cab drivers had been attacked as a result of frictions caused by congestion in the street. He wanted the one-way system to stay – but didn’t care which way the one-way system flowed.
Cllr Simon said: "I am not prepared to make a decision tonight."
The Laz Word...
The Seel Street issue once again highlights the all-important question of reconciling the night-time economy of a city centre with city living, last flagged up when Static Gallery, on Roscoe Lane, had to bow to a noise abatement order when a resident complained.
The Blue Angel has been operational since the 1950s, so people moving to live in the area after that date should be aware lively night-time activity exists. The old maxim used to be ….live and let live…. If you don’t like noise live in a rural hamlet.
Changing the traffic flow in a city street can transform a once-bustling highway into a backwater. As the owners of La’Go warned if they are forced to close over 30 jobs will go.
Seel Street at night will be a hidden thoroughfare, except for those with the knowledge of a complicated back-street route.
