Questions over why Dale Street stayed open for LFC parade

BBC News

5 days ago

Almost a week on from Liverpool FC's trophy parade and questions are being asked over why a main city centre road remained open to vehicles and what caused hour-long queues at the city's biggest station.Dale Street, which runs through the city centre before it joins Water Street, was left open for vehicles, despite warnings given to businesses over expected crowds.At about 18:00 BST on Monday evening, 79 people were injured when a car crashed into fans on Water Street during Monday's parade.But the council said planning for the parade had taken place over several months and there was a robust traffic management plan agreed by all partners.
Gareth Morgan, 46, owns The Dead Crafty Beer Company on Dale Street. He says they were told to remove street furniture due to the volume of crowds expected, yet "the council still let vehicles up and down"."When you have 800,000 people walking back up to the city centre, it's crazy that any of the main roads in the city centre were open," Mr Morgan said."There should not have been any vehicles - everyone I have spoken to is in agreement that it should not have been open to traffic."The pavements aren't big enough to take that volume of the public so the only place for them to go is the road."
Mohamad Abbar, who works at A2Z Mobile also on Dale Street, echoed his comments and said "there were too many people on this road" which he thought was "supposed to be closed".But the council said Dale Street had never been completely closed for a Liverpool FC victory parade, with the bus travelling on the same route as in 2019 and 2022.A Liverpool City Council spokesman added that the part of Dale Street left open was a key route for traffic going to and from the Mersey Tunnelt.He said all roads feeding into Dale Street and Water Street from Exchange Street East down towards the Strand were shut, and there was a further closure at the top of Water Street outside the Town Hall.
On Friday, former Royal Marine Paul Doyle appeared at Liverpool Magistrates' Court and Liverpool Crown Court where he faced seven charges including wounding with intent, causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, attempting to cause GBH with intent and dangerous driving.Mr Doyle faces charges relating to six victims, including two children aged 11 and 17, after a total of 79 people were injured in the city centre on Monday evening.He will next appear at Liverpool Crown Court on 14 August for a plea hearing.Tom Benson, 24, who works in Manchester, said he had travelled to Liverpool for various events previously and he felt a lot more roads had been closed."But this time around that wasn't the case," he said."It seemed like a fair few of the roads were opened despite there being significantly more people."
Mr Benson also said he felt the organisation at Liverpool's Lime Street Station was "pretty terrible", with police blocking all the entrances and "thousands of people" queueing for hours only to be told to "go and join a queue at the other side of the station".A 24-year-old, who asked not to be named, said he queued for more than an hour at the train station only to be told he was in the wrong place. He described the scenes at the station as "absolute carnage"."There was no organisation at all," he added."We were pretty lucky we got the last train to Birmingham, but it was terrible for the people with children who were all crying."
Network Rail said there had been "an unprecedented number of people travelling to and from Lime Street Station to be part of the parade".The firm had used "tried and tested plans" to manage demand, it said, including closing the Lime St entrance and putting a one-way queueing system in place starting at the Skelhorne St entrance.However, the large numbers of people wanting to travel at the same time "significantly impacted" the queuing system, and Network Rail said it is reviewing what happened so as to learn from it in future."We are sorry that people were delayed in getting to where they needed to be during a distressing time," a spokesperson said.
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