THE Duke of Westminster, Britain’s richest man, intends to privatise a large part of Liverpool city centre, creating a new urban village with its own social mores and police force.

The plan, which will see 35 streets in the heart of the city sealed off and redeveloped, has sparked anger among locals and civil liberty groups.

While the duke’s company, Grosvenor Estates, insists that the £750m redevelopment will transform the area before Liverpool becomes European Capital of Culture in 2008, his critics say the plans are an attempt to gentrify the city centre and smack of snobbery.

“This is a very disturbing development,” said Barry Hugill, a spokesman for the civil liberties group Liberty.

“It raises concerns as to whether a private police force is going to decide who can and cannot come into a public place.”

Despite such objections, the duke’s plans are already well advanced. Grosvenor Estates recently secured from the city council a 250-year lease on an area that stretches from the Paradise shopping district to the Pierhead on the Mersey.

The company intends to spend £100m on the compulsory purchase of all the buildings in the area. It will then create in their place a swish new shopping centre and a village of 350 modern flats, penthouses and town houses.

Among the landmarks facing destruction are the city’s Quaker meeting house and a flea market renowned for selling Beatles memorabilia. The most controversial element, however, is the duke’s plan to ring-fence the new community and police it using US-style “quartermasters” or sheriffs.

The city council says the regular police and other emergency services will be allowed access but the duke’s sheriffs will “maintain standards”.

They will have the power to block off roads and prevent undesirables using facilities such as pubs and shops in the area. Vagrants, skateboarders, unruly gangs of youths and demonstrators can all expect to be turned away at its entrances.

A two-month public inquiry which ended last month heard that Grosvenor’s streets would have traditional rights of way replaced by “public realm arrangements” policed by “quartermasters” with powers to eject people.

Private security companies have similar powers in shopping malls but it is thought this is the first time that they have been given the right to decide who walks through a city’s streets.

Donald Lee, an Open Spaces Society spokesman, said: “When I asked city council officials why the new routes could not be dedicated as public rights of way, it was explained to me that the council and the developers needed to be in a position to ‘control and exclude the riffraff element’.”

Liberty is outraged and has instructed lawyers to find a way to mount a legal challenge. A petition of 150,000 has also been collected calling for Quiggins, the world’s biggest Beatlemania flea market, to be protected from demolition.

Mike McCartney, the brother of Sir Paul and a former member of the Liverpool band the Scaffold, warned that if the developers got rid of Quiggins they risked losing the “soul and individuality” of the city.

Beryl Bainbridge, the Liverpool-born author, wondered whether any thought had been given to what the people of Liverpool wanted.

She said: “I can understand that large parts of Liverpool are in need of help, but in creating a glittering place with so many restrictions how will people feel that it belongs to them?” Grosvenor Estates, which already owns swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia in London, remains convinced that the development will bring big benefits to Liverpool.

Rodney Holmes, Grosvenor’s project director, said: “People tell us they don’t come shopping in Liverpool because it’s dirty, there is chewing gum all over the place and pavements are cracked. We are developing a series of quarters for the area which will have security staff making sure that people maintain reasonable standards of behaviour.”

The city council is also a firm supporter of the project, which it describes as the biggest of its type in Europe. It sees it as a vital component of the city’s regeneration and says it could create 4,000 jobs.

While big retailers have already committed to the scheme, it will mean the end for Quiggins, an emporium of 45 small businesses and a mecca for Beatles fans.

Planning permission has already been granted for the project but John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, is expected to make a final decision early next year.

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