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MERSEYSIDE'S ultimate David and Goliath deathmatch creaks back into action today.
In the red corner we have Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Land Development Company and government regeneration agency English Partnerships, the three public bodies who want to tear down 400 family homes to make way for Edge Lane West, a new gateway into the city.
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Pascoe questions
the motives behind destroying sturdy houses and a strong community, and replacing them with
a socially engineered hotchpotch of brand new residents
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In the blue corner we have Elizabeth Pascoe, a 60-year-old disabled grandmother with a fondness for cardigans, and a steely determination to save her Victorian terrace, and her community.
If the authorities are to be believed, the clearance is an essential part of the £350 million Edge Lane Project. And this isn't just any old project. This scheme will, ahem, transform the corridor from the M62 into Liverpool city centre into an urban boulevard befitting a major European city.
Pascoe, her band of supporters, and a good chunk of city dwellers are not so convinced.
Campaigners say the authorities will knock down more houses than necessary for the road-widening, and replace them with shoddy newbuild, paid for by the controversial Housing Market Renewal Fund.
The retail park
That publicly-funded initiative is clearing swathes of terraced housing across nine areas in the North and Midlands, ostensibly to resolve market failure. In Merseyside it is administered by the regeneration partnership New Heartlands, which aims to bring about transformational changes through the wrecking ball.
Battles are raging across Merseyside over plans to bulldoze Victorian houses, including ones to make way for Liverpool FC's new stadium at Stanley Park.
With Edge Lane, the council and its partners believe they are doing the best thing for Kensington, an area which suffers from some of the worst urban decay and deprivation in the country.
They promise 290 new homes, including sheltered housing, apartments and family houses, environmental improvements and a state-of-the-art health centre. They also claim to have the support of most of the residents, with one group lodging a petition calling for work to go ahead.
But while Pascoe and co are being painted by the authorities as anti-progress, the situation is anything but black and white. Their campaign group, Bevel (Better Environmental Vision for Edge Lane), says it is not against regeneration.
It simply argues that the scheme is badly thought out and heavy-handed, and Pascoe questions the motives behind destroying sturdy houses and a strong community and replacing them with a socially-engineered hotchpotch of brand new residents.
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Elizabeth Pascoe
It claims the council has deliberately kept the streets boarded up and blighted to give the impression of dereliction and decay. And it has put forward an alternative plan, which involves fewer demolitions.
The phrases, whisper them, "social cleansing" and "state bullying" have been used; accusations that are angrily denied by the relevant authorities.
The battle has raged for several years, with popular protests, a public inquiry and High Court hearings. Today, it starts up again.
The Edge Lane Project was, of course, meant to be finished by now, in time for Liverpool's year in the spotlight as European Capital of Culture. But while the first three phases were completed before Christmas, part four, Edge Lane West, has gone horribly wrong. And all because a community refused to roll over.
Facing the demolition ball
So far, about 300 of the necessary properties have been acquired by the city council, a necessary step before regeneration can take place.
But when the remaining residents challenged the original Compulsory Purchase Order in 2005, the matter went to a public inquiry, which went in the favour of the authorities.
That was hardly surprising, given that Pascoe sat through it alone, except for a part-time lawyer who gave his services for nothing. Inevitably, her well-funded opponents who had never even carried out surveys to prove that the Victorian houses were unfit to live in, had a cabal of lawyers.
But where others might have accepted defeat and stepped aside, Pascoe, a trained architect, challenged the order with the help of legal aid and managed to get the plan thrown out in November 2006.
The High Court quashed the CPO on the basis that mistakes had been made in the process.
But it takes more than a mere High Court judge to stop a formidable alliance of bureaucrats and developers. A second - almost identical CPO was duly served on home owners by English Partnerships last summer.
Their continued opposition has triggered this second public inquiry. The hearing could last as long as six weeks, and cost the taxpayer millions of pounds. Should the decision go in favour of the council, work will not begin until 2009.
Pascoe warns that should she lose this time around, a dangerous precedent would be set. Anyone's property, whether home, back garden or business, could be up for grabs if councils or other public bodies set their sights on it and set up a deal with developers. I, for one, am inclined to agree.
*Ciara Leeming is a freelance journalist who has written about regeneration for publications including the Big Issue in the North, Inside Housing, the Sunday Express and the Guardian. www.ciaraleeming.co.uk
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