Another lorry. Another full bin.

Litherland had early Merseybeat gigs at the town hall. That was the 1960s. Now it's dock lorries nose to tail through the middle, with the fumes and the industrial noise that come with them, and communal bins spilling onto the pavements. People round here argue about whether a Sefton address counts as Scouse. Nobody else is that bothered.

The air's nearly 40% worse than the typical town's for nitrogen dioxide and some bright spark sets a fire more than twice as often. There's one hairdresser. The sewage figures are spotless, which in Litherland is about the only clean thing going.

The editor, stuck behind a lorry to the docks