Latest news with #QueensDrive
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Broken down tram blocks main city route in Nottingham
Traffic is building up in part of Nottingham due to a broken down Travel Wise said on Friday the tram was blocking Queens Drive (A453) at Enterprise Way and emergency services and engineers were at the operator Nottingham Express Transit (NET) said services were halted between Old Market Square and University Boulevard on the Toton Lane line, and Southchurch Drive on the Clifton South line shortly before 11:40 added NCT buses were accepting tram tickets.
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
There has been too much tragedy for Liverpool to endure. The overwhelming emotion in the city is simply 'not again', writes IAN HERBERT
There was an enormous silence on Tuesday after day broke on the place where all hell had let loose. The preservation of the crime scene had delayed the post-parade clean-up, so the beer cans, the wine bottles, the red confetti and the cheap little 'Champions' flags still littered the streets around the place where a vehicle was driven into Liverpool fans. Reminders of the joy that came before the horror. The desolation was more understated, yet no less vivid, out under leaden skies on Queens Drive, a few miles from the centre of town — always part of the open-top-bus parade route, where generations of people have hung out flags, posters and bunting and shinned up lampposts over the years. It was near this thoroughfare's junction with Utting Avenue that Phil Thompson jumped off Liverpool's open-top bus in May 1981 and asked the occupants of one of the nearby houses if he could avail himself of their toilet. 'Upstairs, second on the left,' came back the swift reply, though by the time Thompson had re-emerged, the bus carrying the club's European Cup-winning team was disappearing off under a railway bridge. He flagged down a passing ice cream van and asked for a lift. 'No problem, but you'll have to climb in through the hatch,' he was told. Simpler, gentler times, when the idea of a vehicle running down football supporters and the following morning's news bulletins incorporating a discussion of 'hostile vehicle mitigation' would have been utterly inconceivable. A professor of 'urban risk and resilience' suggested on the BBC on Tuesday morning that some kind of 'constantly moving' cordon might be necessary to make trophy parades safe. Who knows when Liverpool will next stage such a victory tour, but it seems reasonable to assume that such events will never be quite the same again. No more Thommo and the ice cream van. For the city awaking to the aftermath of an incident which left 65 injured and children seriously hurt, the overwhelming emotion was simply, 'Not again'. Part of Liverpool's sadness seemed to reside in the familiarity of shocking scenes at what should have been a great football occasion. Tom Sutherland, a supporter walking on Liverpool's Strand, near the scene of Monday's catastrophe, wished there had been no need for the reminder, provided by Sir Kenny Dalglish, that no one ever 'walks alone' in Liverpool. 'We're all pulling together again and everyone can take strength from that,' he tells me. 'But we've been here too often before. The morning after, the week after, the year after some terrible thing. We've had to live with too much of this.' He's talking about events at Hillsborough in April 1989, of course. Though by a grim coincidence, Monday evening's events also came ahead of Thursday's 40th anniversary of the Heysel Disaster, which killed 39 mainly Italian supporters who were in the Belgian capital to watch Juventus's European Cup final against Liverpool. The culpability of a small, violent group of Liverpool fans that night contributed substantially to the sense of this city's devastation in the aftermath. Both those tragedies are remembered at Anfield. Two red scarves were tied on Tuesday to the small beech tree at the stadium's Hillsborough memorial, where mementos have been placed also marking the 20th league title that the fans who died at Sheffield Wednesday's ground never lived to see. Plans for a new memorial to the 39 who died at Heysel have also been announced by Liverpool, to coincide with this week's anniversary. 'Yes, we at this club have known too much tragedy,' says Dave Higginson, near the spot on the stadium's 'Champions Wall' where the number of league titles now registers 20. 'Not this. Not at this time.' In nearby Coningsby Road, where a mural of Virgil van Dijk adorns a gable-end wall, a group of young people speak of Monday's celebration being something they'd waited all their lives to see. 'The reason so many were here was that we didn't get the chance in the Covid season,' says one of them, Liam. Down in the city, the fragments of nightmarish memory on the morning after the night before included the revving of the engine of the Ford Galaxy which was used to wreak havoc, the driver incessantly sounding the horn and the sight of a woman lodged under the vehicle as the car was being besieged. There was the frantic struggle to get out of the city on Monday night. A mass panic to get away from the scene made it difficult to reach buses, some of which were running half-empty for a time. Crowds poured up towards the Mersey Tunnel as relatives drove around trying to pick them up. Hundreds queued for ferries back to the Wirral, though that service struggled to deal with the numbers. It's a measure of the way that terror forms part of our landscape that one woman standing close to the spot where the car ran amok on Monday had also been caught up in the 2017 attack on Barcelona's Las Ramblas, when a van was driven into pedestrians. Her boyfriend, who was with her for Liverpool's parade, had himself been caught up in the Manchester Arena attack, in the same year. The forensic investigation of the vehicle is only one part of the challenge for the authorities. At an impromptu press conference for those of us standing near the crime scene at 10.30am, Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram discussed the importance of identifying the driver of the vehicle as a white, local man to prevent others using the event to incite racial unrest. 'The police's need to do that tells us that social media is a cesspit,' said Rotheram. 'That things can run riot.' There was attempted incitement from the social media swamp, despite everyone's best efforts. Ant Middleton, a provocateur who spoke at the Reform UK party conference in 2024, tweeted in response to the Merseyside force's public statements: 'Do not believe anything that comes from police statements or the msm (mainstream media).' Such is the world we are in. For Mark Lawrenson, a five-times title winner with Liverpool, the bewildering modern scale of title celebrations, and of football support more generally, makes everything harder to manage and predict. 'When we beat Everton in the 1986 FA Cup after taking the league away from them the week before, the two teams flew back together and we did our open-top bus tours together,' Lawrenson tells me. 'We were on the first bus, the media were on the second and Everton were on the third. Imagine that today! 'We live in a strange world where there would be huge crowds for the opening of a plastic bag. I'm just pleased that I was born when I was and played when I did.' Back in those 1980s days, Liverpool would take the bus up to the old Speke Airport, to get around as many people as possible, travelling at 30mph on some stretches. 'Because not many people were watching,' Lawrenson recalls. The extraordinary contemporary scale of Liverpool FC was evident everywhere on Tuesday. In the hundreds up at the stadium and hundreds more queuing to buy merchandise from the club store in the city centre. Lawrenson hopes that the events of Monday night do not affect future celebrations of a Liverpool title, though feels that they might. 'If none of this had happened, we would probably be remembering it as the greatest bus tour ever, with 250,000 people lining the streets,' he says. 'With so many people, it only takes one guy to change the entire complexion of an event.' New details released by the police on Tuesday night suggested the authorities did all they could. Water Street, where the incident occurred, had been closed off to vehicles and was only opened to allow an ambulance to attend to an individual suffering a suspected heart attack. The man under arrest lives a football pitch's distance from Queens Drive. 'Don't regulate these events. They're safe,' says Steve, a fan at Coningsby Road. But it is hard to equate that observation with the desolation and bewilderment down on debris-strewn Water Street. The vehicle which had been the source of the horror is encased in a blue-and-white pneumatic tent, at the spot where it came to rest. Fans in Liverpool shirts look dazed. The city had hoped such moments were in its past. This will take some getting over.
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The 'magic' of living along Liverpool FC's parade route
When Liverpool FC win a major trophy, one of the longest roads in the city is Drive, which stretches 10 miles (16.1km) from Sefton Park in the city's south to Walton in the north, traditionally hosts large parts of any open-top bus parades for Anfield's conquering heroes. On Monday, Reds lucky enough to live close to the route are planning to host friends and family from across the country, fire up their barbecues and join the crowds of hundreds of thousands just outside their preparations begin weeks in advance. How and where to watch Liverpool's paradeEverything you need to know ahead of LFC's parade Perhaps nowhere in the city is more ready than to celebrate than a terrace of seven properties along Queens Drive, as it passes through Stoneycroft. Each home has been decked in flags, banners and red bunting since it became clear Liverpool were going to emerge as Premier League champions for the second time in five years. Vicky Potter, who lives in one of the homes, told the BBC there was no co-ordinated effort - all the neighbours just happened to be on the same page. "It's always the same every year, we're all just Reds along here so everyone does it naturally to be honest," the 37-year-old said. "When we go down the Drive we always look to see if there is any other blocks like ours but there never is."For mum-of-two Naomi Dunne, who lives just off Queens Drive in Wavertree, another major celebration is a chance to "show off the city". "Liverpool still does have a bit of a reputation in some parts of the country", she said. She said: "I think actually it just shows we're a fantastic city, Eurovision two years ago showed that when there's something to celebrate, we celebrate it well."We've friends coming up from London to stay, we've had a couple of other friends asking if they can come and stay as well from Middlesbrough."For her children, she said the chance to see their heroes up close in their own neighbourhood is "just magic". The 41-year-old said: "I can remember being in Year 11 and that parade [For the 2001 treble trophy winning season] and the emotion around it and being overwhelmed. "For my kids to get to experience that as well. It's really important for them to see the team winning." Liverpool have had more opportunities for this kind of celebration over the decades than the average English football club. But there have also been long fallow periods, including a 30-year wait for the league title before the pandemic season in 2019/20, which could not be celebrated with a parade due to lockdown measures. Phil Cross, 41, who lives on Queens Drive, said he expected Monday's party to be "quite emotional"."You get all the old timers who've been there done that, and then you get them from up the East Lancs [The Manchester clubs] rubbing it in our face for the past 20 years, now it's our time to shine again I think, I love it."We never got to celebrate the last one properly." Chris de Asha, who lives in Childwall a short walk from Queens Drive, said he had vivid memories of celebrations as a child in the 1970s. "When I was younger, to be fair, it was second nature", he said, adding that he other fans "took it for granted in a way".But now Mr de Asha said there will be no danger of overlooking the significance of Monday. "I think as you're driving round the city you can see even more flags get the sense of excitement and relief that Liverpool are winning leagues again and we're back on track."Rachel Roberts said she and her three children plan to watch the parade before heading to her sister-in-law's house for a "Liverpool party" complete with bouncy castle. She said: "We're going to make the most of it, because you don't know how long you're going to wait again for it to happen." John Pout, 61, said he and his family are planning to host a barbecue early on at his son and daughter-in-law's home yards from the parade route before heading to the city centre. "I think too many kids in particular don't get chance to get inside Anfield to see the game and so for them to see their heroes in the flesh with the trophy it's just amazing," he said. "Seeing people hanging off lamp-posts and the flares it's just going to be fantastic." Some Queens Drive businesses like Vape store Fuel Vapours in Old Swan, are aiming to taking advantage of the parade's business shop, on Derby Lane, has been transformed into a sea of red and white with flags, banners, scarves, posters, noise-makers and t-shirts. Sean Cox, however, whose family run the business, is an Evertonian. "It's good for the city isn't it, whether you're a red or a blue. There's a lot of things happening, a lot of opportunities for people", he said."People are very excited for the parade and the last game of the season." He said he would be in the shop on Monday "to take the money off the Kopites while we can!"Further along Derby Lane, trophy sellers Trophies for All is also cashing in on the celebratory mood. One staff member, Hope, said: "It's been quite busy, everyone's just really excited, really interested. It's been a really good thing for the open-top bus parade is scheduled to start at 14:30 BST on Monday from Allerton Maze, and will progress over the next several hours to Blundell Street in the city centre. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
