 A VITAL £350m scheme to regenerate Liverpool's Edge Lane corridor was brought to a shuddering halt yesterday, after a landmark High Court challenge by a 60-year-old city grandmother. Elizabeth Pascoe successfully claimed a compulsory purchase order (CPO) forcing her to leave her home in Adderley Street, just off the busy dual carriageway, breached her human rights. It will mean the whole Edge Lane project being delayed until at least next spring and potentially having to be completely redrawn in the worst case scenario. Ms Pascoe also argued that English Partnerships, which wants to demolish 500 homes in the area to make way for a new widened road into Liverpool city centre, did not have the power to make the CPOs. Last night, project organisers admitted the scheme, which was intended to revamp the run-down eastern approach in time for Liverpool's Capital of Culture reign in 2008, now faced a future of "uncertainty and delay". But they vowed to continue buying up houses to make way for the plans they insist are crucial to creating jobs and regenerating the long neglected area. Campaigners hailed the ruling as a victory for the "little people" and hope it will put an end to the project which former Government minister and Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy described as "social cleansing". Ms Pascoe said: "This is a Pyrrhic victory for me. It is bittersweet because much of my community has already been destroyed as a result of this initiative. "Many of my neighbours who had lived here happily for decades succumbed only recently to various pressures and left. "I am very pleased but nervous about the longer term effects. They could just leave us to rot." Ms Pascoe was the principal organiser of the campaign group, Better Environmental Vision for Edge Lane. She told the court her home was in good condition and specially adapted to help her cope with her disabilities. She said in a statement: "I have lived here 10 years and I know all the neighbours in my street. We rely on each other. "The local community is really diverse, and there is a real sense of community spirit, which has suffered as a result of the CPO. "I am already 60 years old, and the thought of losing my home and starting again somewhere new is very distressing to me."
WATCH an animated fly-through of the proposed new Edge Lane development - click here
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