Commenting on the homophobic attack on James Parkes, Councillor Marilyn Fielding, Liverpool's Lib Dem executive member for Safer, Stronger Communities, said:
"The thoughts of the city council and our partners are with James Parkes and his friends and family at this time and we wish him a speedy recovery. I would like to reassure the gay community that we will do everything in our power to bring the perpetrators to justice and prevent such attacks from ever happening again. We are working to improve security for the gay community and to educate people about the totally repellent nature of hate crime.

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"There are many organisations in Liverpool working together to make our streets safer and tackle crime. We are all horrified about this attack and we are determined to make sure that such events never happen again. Liverpool is a tolerant multi-cultural city that embraces people of all backgrounds and beliefs. We all have a duty to make sure that the small minority of senseless individuals do not prevent our wonderful city from continuing its wonderful historic association of diversity, respect, fairness and equality."



The Community Cohesion partnership of Liverpool First, the city council led body which includes all registered social landlords, the voluntary sector, fire service, police, schools and faith organisations will be redoubling their efforts to reduce hate crime.



The city council commissioned a study from Stormbreak, a specialist research organisation, into feelings of safety in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. The report was published in 2007 and a number of recommendations have been taken forward by the city council and other public sector bodies including Merseyside police.

More recently a report on the work being done to combat hate crime was submitted and presented to the Community Safety Scrutiny Panel on October 6, 2009 detailing activity and progress in the last 12 months. The city council also supports Homotopia, the city's gay arts festival, which is due to start next week and has a theme this year of 'Homotopia not Homophobia'.