On the far side of The Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, the entrance to a high-rise block of flats is adjoined by the doors entering a bookmakers.
When the shopping centre first opened in 1968 it was at the height of modernity and reflected the ambitions of a town ready to step out of the shadow of central Liverpool.
Nearly 60 years later, the entrance to the Strand House highrise is reflective of a town where the odds have been stacked against it.
