The Mersey’s clean-up cost £8 billion. So why is it still so dirty?

The Mersey’s clean-up cost £8 billion. So why is it still so dirty?

Dear readers – the River Mersey is our “lifeblood”, as metro mayor Steve Rotheram is fond of saying. At the height of British imperial power, it helped make Liverpool an international trading port – the famed “second city” of the Empire – and Birkenhead an important shipbuilding hub.But like a thriving Victorian tycoon gone sclerotic on too much Madeira and rich cheese, this main artery between Stockport and the Irish Sea became clogged with pol…