Ernie Ashley touches the plaque before heading to each game
A football fan was left ‘sad and disappointed’ after being asked to remove a plaque from outside his front door.
Liverpool FC season ticket holder, Ernie Ashley, touches the Bill Shankly decoration before each game.
The 81-year-old bought it in Gambia and it is made out of a 300-year-old tree, he said.
READ MORE: Weapons, £50k cash haul and illegal tobacco found amid police crackdown in Birmingham city centre
But now, his landlord has ordered him to remove the plaque – which says ‘One of Bill Shankly’s disciples lives here’ – for health and safety reasons.
READ MORE: Lozells murder probe latest as police ‘keen to speak’ to two suspects after man stabbed to death
Ernie told The Liverpool Echo: “When I visit the Gambia I always have a look around the craft market, and see various things getting made.
“On the last visit to the craft market, I asked the man to make a plaque with the wording, ‘One of Bill Shankly’s disciples lives here’. The tree which it was carved from was 300-years-old, the man said.”
Ernie met Shankly on numerous occasions, but the most memorable encounter came after his final game as manager in 1974 when the Reds defeated Newcastle 3-0 to win the FA Cup.
He was in the crowd at Wembley and decided to commemorate the triumph by running onto the pitch to kneel before Shankly and kiss his shoes.
Pleased with the plaque made in tribute to his idol, Ernie decided to hang it outside his Woolton flat.
He said: “I was made up with the job he had done of my lifelong hero, the great Bill Shankly. When home, I asked a friend to put it on the wall next to the front door.
“One day, after coming back from a walk, there was a card from Riverside, the housing trust, telling me to remove it by May 14 or they would remove it.
“When they told me to take it down, I was sad and annoyed – the man who made it had gone to a lot of trouble.
“I’ve got other plaques up; I don’t go overboard but I’ve got a couple of wooden ones, but it’s just this particular one. It’s not oversized, it’s not on the floor, so I can’t understand it.”
His landlord company Riverside said that, while it appreciated Ernie is upset, it had a zero-tolerance approach to resident items in common areas, which the wall outside his flat is technically classed as.
As it has not installed the item, the housing association says it cannot guarantee it will not fall down and cause harm or damage to other residents and their visitors.
After Ernie read the letter instructing him to remove the plaque, he phoned Riverside immediately.
“I was right on the phone with them,” he said. “They said it was to minimise the risk of fire and I told them I have lived in my leasehold flat for over 50 years.”
A spokesperson for Riverside said: “We appreciate Mr Ashley is upset at being asked to remove a football plaque he has installed within a communal space of the high-rise block of flats he resides in.
“As this building is registered with the Building Safety Regulator due to its height and for the safety of our customers, we adopt a zero-tolerance approach to customer items in common areas.
“This is standard across all Riverside apartment blocks, where we ask for communal areas (e.g. stairways, corridors and hallways) to remain sterile and free from obstructions or combustible items to ensure safe and quick exit in the event of emergencies.
“Mr Ashley is welcome to install the plaque inside his flat and a member of the team will reach out to provide this reassurance, but to ensure the safety of everyone within the 79-flat complex, it cannot remain in the common area where it is currently installed.”