 REGENERATION expert John Elcock last night backed plans for a £70m tower block at Liverpool's Brunswick Dock, saying it will help put the city on the international stage. The city council's planning committee will tomorrow decide whether to give the go-ahead to enable the construction of what would be the city's tallest tower block. The scheme, by Maro Developments, will tower 500ft and will have to have lights at the top to warn aircraft. Planning managers want the councillors to reject the scheme. Mr Elcock, who works as a consultant to a number of organisations and firms, said: "We should broadly support the Brunswick scheme. If you study the public reaction in the Daily Post letters page to the rejection recommendation, it is easy to see what the citizens want, and that is tall, iconic buildings in their city. "We have the opportunity to see a building designed by one of the world's best known signature architects, Ian Simpson, and we are thinking of turning it down. "This man's work is renowned across the world. "The size and scale, and the vision, shows a city that wants to be seen on a global scale. Liverpool has seen a de-population, with one of the most dramatic reductions ever seen in Europe. "The key is bringing more people back to Liverpool is to have schemes that will attractive the public to come back. This is such a scheme." Tomorrow's debate will be the first test for the council's recentlyapproved Tall Buildings policy which wants to see high-rise tower blocks concentrated in three zones of the city centre, Lime Street, the bottom of Parliament Street and the Business Quarter around Old Hall Street. Although the policy is only in draft form because of a public consultation exercise, the city council has decided that its aims should apply to all developments from now on, in advance of formal approval of the policy. The Maro scheme falls well outside the proposed three zones. Councillors, however, have said that they still want to judge all schemes on merit, even if they fall outside the zones. The developers are hoping that the councillors will use their decision-making power to overrule the recommendation of the officers. If the scheme is rejected, Maro will probably appeal and there will be a public inquiry, with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott making the final decision. Another possible outcome tomorrow is that the planning committee will defer a decision to enable members to visit the site of the scheme to see for themselves the impact. That would put off a decision by no more than a few weeks. larryneild@dailypost.co.uk The scheme > > > | 
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