McKenna, Egan launch Think Big Liverpool relocation campaign
A new campaign group is calling on the Government to consider Liverpool more prominently in its civil service accommodation plans.
The group was founded by Frank McKenna, head of networking and lobby group Downtown Liverpool in Business, and PR boss Jon Egan of October Communications.
Think Big Liverpool began by calling on Minister for The North West, Beverley Hughes, to visit Liverpool to see how the city is "much better placed" to accommodate large scale civil service relocations from Whitehall.
Liverpool deserves a fair crack of the Government's attention as Hughes, the campaign says, showed "public support for and attended the launch of plans by Manchester" to create a 'Whitehall of the North' civil service campus on the site of the now derelict Mayfield Station.
McKenna commented: "We have been actively involved in the campaign to ensure Liverpool gets its fair share of civil service jobs over the recent months, and we are concerned that Manchester is once again positioning itself to grab a major slice of public investment at the expense of our city.
"Think Big Liverpool is an initiative to get businesses and other civic partners more engaged in the process of imagining a more visionary and exciting future for the city.
"This is not a single issue campaign, but the future of major civil service relocations to the region has become an important focal point for a debate about civic ambition and the need for all sectors to work together effectively to promote the City and fight Liverpool's corner."
Think Big Liverpool is planning a programme of events and initiatives aimed at stimulating "out of the box" thinking about the city's future on other issues.
Egan added: "We think that it is only right and reasonable that the minister for this region takes an even handed approach to this issue and comes and sees firsthand what Liverpool has to offer. The irony is that Liverpool is much further down the road in being able to accommodate this kind of large-scale relocation."
