PRINCE CHARLES and Ringo Starr felt strongly enough about the Government's housing regeneration plans to publicly criticise them.
Last week, the heir to the throne and the ex-Beatle referred to John Prescott's plans to bulldoze old dilapidated buildings. The proposals are having a profound effect on Merseyside. 20,000 houses in the area will be wiped out, with 18,000 built in their place.
One of the houses to go is Ringo Starr's birth place, which stands, for the time being anyway, on Madryn Street in Dingle.
Other Liverpool areas that will be hit include Anfield and Toxteth, while Birkenhead in Wirral and Bootle and Litherland in Sefton will also be affected.
In a speech to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Prince Charles said it would be cheaper to refurbish "characterful" houses rather than knock them down. He criticised today's "wasteful society".
When asked at the Chelsea Flower show what he thought, Starr said he could not understand why the houses are being knocked down.
He said: "Are they going to knock out the centre of Liverpool again? That's what they did before. They moved everybody out to high-rise apartments outside the city and they forgot to re-build."
A house close to Starr's old home on Powis Street featured in a recent episode of Tonight With Trevor McDonald.
The terrace house was refitted to modern standards for £24,000, less then the £18,000 cost of demolition.
It seems that everybody has an opinion, but today the Daily Post asks: What is right for Liverpool?
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