A Liverpool politician stormed out of a meeting yesterday after saying that council inaction had left a swathe of his ward 'barren and empty'.
Committee members at last night's regeneration and sustainability select committee were left stunned when Croxteth councillor Peter Mitchell angrily left part way through.
The move was a reaction to assistant director for regeneration Claire Slinger's presentation on development projects the council was working on.
She said the presentation would give a 'snapshot' of what was going on in the city - but immediately after finishing Labour Cllr Mitchell questioned why she had not mentioned Stonebridge Cross, a long running project which is partly in his ward.
The Croxteth ward councillor said he had worked on trying to develop the area for 15 years - and it was unacceptable that nine years after Labour came to power one of the longest running development projects in the city had not fully come to fruition.
Ms Slinger tried to answer that there were too many projects in the city to mention all of them and that that did not mean extensive work wasn't being done on Stonebridge Cross.
Stonebridge Cross is a massive area of industrial land either side of the East Lancs Road -the council describes it as Liverpool's 'longest-running development zone' but parts of it are still empty.
Cllr Mitchell became increasingly angry about an apparent lack of progress on the project, which he said was a crucial location as a 'gateway to the city '.
He said: "Fifty seven acres of this city are barren and empty.
"I have continued to tell people in my area about the promised land that just has not happened.
"I have to go back and tell my community why we are being forgotten again."
He then got up and walked out the meeting, despite offers from meeting chair Hetty Wood for the committee to look in more detail at the project at a later point.
A third phase of construction did begin at Stonebridge Cross last month in a move Mayor Joe Anderson said would deliver 'much needed jobs'.
Other recent developments in the project have seen mixed success.
Traders at the city's fruit and veg market , which moved to Stonebridge Cross last year, have praised the new facilities but said its location has removed a lot of their passing trade.
