Heads up...for Hezza

MARGARET Thatcher's one-time envoy to Liverpool, Michael Heseltine,  is to receive the freedom of the city of Liverpool next week.

The former Minister for Merseyside, whose early visits to the city in 1881 were marked more by pelted eggs than civic pomp, will receive the award during a special reception  at Liverpool Town Hall on Tuesday March 13.

Last year, along with Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, he produced the report Rebalancing Britain which looked at the potential for growth, job creation and investment in Liverpool and its city region.

Unhappier timesHeseltine has been referred to as the “Father of the Regeneration Movement”. His association with Liverpool started in the early 1980s when, in the aftermath of the Toxteth riots,  he set up the Merseyside Development Corporation. This led to the restoration of the Albert Dock. He also started the programme of garden festivals, the first of which was in Liverpool in 1984 and the site of which, in Aigburth, has been derelict mostly since.

Council Leader Councillor Joe Anderson said: “Lord Heseltine has been a great friend of Liverpool for many years. In the 1980s he came, he saw and he championed Liverpool’s cause. The renaissance of the city started with the transformation of the Albert Dock and the International Garden Festival which he was largely responsible for bringing about as Minister for Merseyside. He has played an important and role in the regeneration of Liverpool over the past three decades."