THE first of 20 streets in Liverpool to be considered for plaques to explain their links to the city’s slave-trade past were nominated yesterday.

All the streets are either named after slavers or places connected with the trade.

The city council agreed in January to place plaques and other notices on statues, buildings, monuments and street names to explain Liverpool’s heritage.

Announcing the move to mark Slavery Remembrance Day yesterday, Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said that changing street names is not the answer as it would be “wrong to airbrush out our past.”

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the city grew immensely wealthy on the back of the transatlantic slave trade, becoming the most important port in Europe involved in the business.

Mr Anderson said the plaques would help people to “judge the past with a historical perspective, taking into account today’s higher ethical standards and, most importantly, how everyone, from every community in the city, feels about it.

“As we understand our past we can also focus on our future for the black and BAME (black and ethnic-minority) communities in our city.”

In recent months, Black Lives Matter campaigners have called for the removal of many statues, street names and memorials that glorify Britain’s racist past.