Just to bring all friends and supporters up to date
The SSPM Campaign Group have recently been in contact with Liverpool Council Planning Department to ask for an update on Redrow Homes and Sefton Park Meadows.
Their response was that no decision has been made, nor any report prepared in connection with the current Redrow planning application. We had been told by the Mayor and the Planning Officer earlier this year that Redrow intended to submit an amended planning application, following the Mayor’s two public announcements about trees being felled and the density of proposed housing . You may recall the objections date for this current application was 19th February. However, no amended planning application has not yet been submitted to the Council from Redrow and the Council are obviously waiting for – and probably negotiating with Redrow – over this. We have not been given any explanation why. We are not sure if it is connected with the report Simon O’Brien is drafting for the Greenspaces Review Board – which should be published in draft for public consultation in June, we were told.
We have been informed by the Planning Officer that when any amended planning application is received, all relevant parties will be re-consulted and given the opportunity to comment further. We are not sure if this means we all have to amend and resubmit our original objections at this stage. She will then prepare a report taking into account any comments received. Following this, the Planning Committee will consider this report and make their decision to reject or approve.
Keep watching this space and our Facebook/Twitter pages for news.
See our Candidates Survey Responses to the two questions we asked for our local Liverpool elections survey on Sefton Park Meadows and Loss of Greenspaces.
See the additional Comments to Survey made by local political groups and individual candidates.
We sent our survey (see previous post) to the central offices of the main political parties in Liverpool. We also sent it to as many candidates whose email contact details we could find.
We invited candidates to contact us through Facebook, by email or on Twitter.
We focussed on candidates closest to Sefton Park Meadows, and also invited others from wards across the city to respond.
We have receivedonly 1 comment from ANY candidate in Liverpool Labour Party to our greenspaces survey. This is despite sending it out to Liverpool Labour Central Office, the Mayor’s Office (as he is the lead agent), and to all current councillors across the city. The comment is from current councillor Patrick Hurley, standing again for Mossley Hill Ward, close to the Meadows. He did not however answer either question specifically.
We have had All Candidate responses to both questions with further comments from Liverpool Green Party AND Liverpool Liberal Democrats. ALL of their candidates standing are opposed to the sale of the Meadows and public parks and greenspace cherished by local people.
We had an all candidate comment only from Northwest Liberals.
We have had one response to both questions and further comments from a Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate. This is from a Greenbank Ward candidate, opposing the sale of the Meadows and other greenspace sales.
We had two response from UKIP and comments. From their Picton ward candidate who is also parliamentary candidate in Wavertree constituency, and from their Woolton candidate. Both responded to both questions with ‘No’ to sell offs of the Meadows or other greenspaces,a nd made further comments.
One Independent candidate responded to both questions with comments. Standing in Wavertree ward, he responded to both questions with ‘No’ to sale of Meadows or other greenspaces. He is also chair of the Save Our Greenspaces (SOGS) campaign.
We will add any further responses we receive as they come in before Election Day on May 7th.
If you wish to ask your candidate for council about their views on greenspace sell offs in Liverpool, please see the previous post for our survey.
Meadows campaigners will be lobbying outside the next full Council meeting, together with other Liverpool green space campaign groups. Please come and join us!
Town Hall from 4 to 5pm
Wednesday 14 January 2015
Council meeting starts at 5pm.
This is the last full Council meeting until April and an opportunity to show the strength of feeling from all save green space campaign groups.
The Liverpool Echo describes the future of green spaces as ‘one of the biggest issues in our city’. Paddy Shennan, Echo reporter, posted an article online and in the paper on 31st Oct , asking readers to send in questions to Mayor Joe Anderson NOW on our concerns and issues related to their sell off for development.
The Echo has already highlighted over 30 parks, playgrounds, allotments and recreation areas listed by the council, that could be up for development. These include the high profile sites of:
Sefton Park Meadows – a planning application by Redrow is due to be submitted before Christmas.
Walton Hall Park – a possible site for Everton Football Club
Woolton Woods – a grassland and recreational area as part of a rebuild of St Julie’s Catholic High School
Olive Mount Playing Fields -sell off for housing
Calderstones Park – loss of miniature railway, Scout Hut, Harthill Allotments and green space on Menlove Avenue for housing
THIS IS A CHANCE TO TELL JOE WHAT WE THINK – AGAIN!
We expect Joe to reply – again- that Liverpool is in deep financial trouble; that he needs higher council tax band revenues; that it’s not his fault; that we have ‘too much greenspace’; that some of it isn’t used etc , etc.
BUT WE WANT A DIFFERENT DEBATE. One about listening to the people of Liverpool,not just developers, about quality of life, especially for children and families, about our health and well-being, about climate change and smart green cities of the future, about wildlife and what they need, about WHAT PARKS AND GREENSPACES GIVE TO US.
We need Joe to understand that these places are largely protected now, and for very good reasons. He can’t just rip up the planning policies overnight with no respect or ideas of what will replace the parks and green spaces once they’re gone – and gone forever. He can’t hand over valuable land without more consultation and accountability. That was not in Joe’s manifesto when he was elected.
Over 400 of us answered Redrow’s call to come and comment on their housing plans for Sefton Park Meadows on Tues 16th Sept.
Only problem? There were no detailed plans to comment on! We were shown 5 boards with information on such as Liverpool’s planning documents, the benefits of housing in the Mossley Hill area, a basic ( to say the least) aerial view of the Meadows with 30+ small blue boxes aligned on it, (representing 55 units, including apartments) and a few random housing styles that may be included – or not. See the boards here on the Redrow online consultation website.
MISSING were any detailed designs of:
what the development would realistically look like
access in and out, including to approx 40 individual driveways
concrete assurances on the threat to the magnificent trees ( ‘ trees will be retained, where possible’, and when we probed the Redrow director on this, he admitted that trees would be ‘sold’ with the houses to each individual owner)
views in and across the park with the new houses
traffic management
You have 6 days UNTIL TUES 23RD SEPT to give your comments to Redrow. EITHER online using the above link. Or EMAIL to landatparkavenue@lexcomm.co.uk . Or by post to Redrow Homes at Park Avenue, ℅ Lexington Communications, First Floor, The Zenith Building, 26 Spring Gardens, Manchester, M2 1AB
Our SINGLE COMMENT using the ‘Added Comments’ section if using the online form, email, or in your letter, is
NO TO REDROW, NO TO HOUSING...
We can’t comment on plans that are not available… We won’t participate in a tick box exercise… we won’t support any housing on Sefton Park Meadows…
THANKS TO THE HUGE NUMBERS OF LOCAL PEOPLE WHO CAME TO TELL REDROW THEIR VIEWS. Special thanks to Liverpool Taxi Drivers Alliance and Socialist Singers.
Please circulate this Redrow Land at Park Avenue consultation leaflet to all your contacts ahead of the Redrow Public Consultation Event on 16th Sept from 2pm to 7pm at Greenbank Sports Centre, Greenbank Lane Liverpool L17 1AG. See their map below, showing the distribution area for the leaflets – only 5,700 are being produced for the immediate Mossley Hill Area. Sefton Park has a massive catchment of users and visitors across the north and south of the city. Why aren’t they being directly asked to attend and give their views? Posters will only be put up locally too. Their press release will go out soon.
Redrow map of leaflet distribution for consultation event
Redrow has hired a top London and Manchester based PR company specialising in land and property deals to run this event, so it will be a slick affair! They say they will run a strong media campaign – listen up and if they are on a phone in – call and give them your views.
Charlotte Morris of Lexington Communications states in an email, “we are more than happy to provide information to those who cannot attend the exhibition, as well as allow them to provide their feedback on the plans”. She also adds that “we can also send information by post to anyone who cannot make it to the exhibition or readily access the internet.” Contact Charlotte.Morris@lexcomm.co.uk if you wish or phone their community information line on 0844 556 3002 (Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.30pm).
so please bookmark this site now. It will go live ONLY from 16th Sept for you to view and comment on Redrow’s ‘exclusive’ homes proposals.
DON’T BE FOOLED! THIS IS NOT A CONSULTATION PROCESS.
This is simply a PR exercise by Lexington Communications to promote the executive housing development and ‘soft peddle’ the designs in order to get support for the planning application to Liverpool City Council, which is coming next.
It will be interesting to see how they go about their task. Is their objective to show support in the community for the proposals? How might they do this? A guess: By focussing on the need for housing in the area, by trying to demonstrate that the proposal still leaves plenty of green space (even if it is in gardens), by trying to show that the proposal enhances the setting in some way (e.g. defining edges), by showing that the proposal is in keeping with the area perhaps through materials and building styles borrowed from nearby housing? All possible. They will fish for positive comments which can be selectively used to build a case even if it means taking them out of context. Then maybe by pulling out from the process some figures showing how many people support the proposals.
Alternatively they may just do the whole thing as blandly as possible, ticking the consultation box without trying to fan the flames.
We need to avoid getting distracted by the style or ‘quality’ of their executive housing plans. Our Campaign position is still strong and focussed:
SAY NO TO ANY HOUSING…. MEADOW NOT REDROW…. THIS IS NOT A DONE DEAL….
SHAME ON CEO STEVE MORGAN AND REDROW! Does he know Sefton Park and the Meadows? Has he ever spent any time there, especially on a beautiful spring or summer day and enjoyed its trees, views and sense of space and light? If so, and he still wants to build there, then double shame on him…What motivates him to take away the last of the original Sefton Park grassland areas – and no, we contest the claim that this was always intended for Victiorian villas. We have council minutes from the 1860s and 1870s to challenge this. The Meadows are almost certainly part of Edouard André’s original Sefton Park design and form the grand entrance in and out from Queen’s Drive. Its double row of Lime trees are unique in Liverpool. Its sandstone boundary wall and open grasslands are part of its landscape views and heritage.
Why build here Redrow? Presumably because all of this makes it a lucrative place for you too sell expensive but banal houses – by destroying the very character that makes it so attractive?! It’s within Sefton Park’s Conservation Area and alongside the Grade 1 Listed area ( which the campaign is also challenging with English Heritage. The Meadows should be part of its listing!).
Not to mention the Meadows as part of Liverpool’s green lungs, its internationally celebrated parks and openspaces, a wildlife corridor, part of our urban natural resources to provide shade, habitat, clean air and combat pollution. Above all, the Meadows are treasured by the people of Liverpool – north and south – as one of our GREAT PLACES TO BE. For relaxation, for leisure, for families, for activities, for quiet space, above all, for their beauty and history.
Mr Morgan, if you build and sell all of the 5,000 houses you have promised for Joe Anderson as part of his Mayoral Pledge, Redrow stands to make over £250 million profit, we estimate (let us know if we have got this wrong!). Wouldn’t £8m to buy Sefton Park Meadows for the people of Liverpool, gifted to us forever, be a good use for a small part of this profit? (Maybe tax efficient too??)
Answers on Facebook or Twitter please!!
SUPPORTERS, PLEASE NOTE FOR YOUR DIARY
REDROW will hold a pre-planning public consultation drop in event in September, at which people will be able to comment on their outline ideas for the site. We will publicise the date and details when we know them.
The sale of the land is conditional on Redrow obtaining planning approval. The Save Sefton Park Meadows campaign is fundraising to get expert help to object to planning by Redrow. WE NEED FUNDS URGENTLY. Use the Paypal button on this page or on our Facebook site. 7,500 people signed our petition opposing the proposed sale of Sefton Park Meadows and a record 1,300 people objected to the misleading Loss of Open Space Public Notice (describing the Meadows as ‘incidental open space’ and hidden away in the back pages of the Liverpool Echo), giving Liverpool a free hand to dispose of the land.
THIS IS NOT A DONE DEAL! WE WILL FIGHT THE LOSS OF SEFTON PARK MEADOWS AT EVERY STEP.
THE NEXT STAGE
REDROW will submit a planning application in September. We have hired an independent planning consultant to help us prepare our strong objections. We need money for this work to be successful, as it is likely to be a long process. Please help if you can with a donation. We will keep everyone informed of progress.
We were invited as the Meadows campaign to speak at an informal meeting on Thurs 17th July at Ullet Road Unitarian Church. New Green Party councillor for Greenbank Ward, Lawrence Brown, wanted local people to come and meet him informally – and hear from the Meadows, which he described as ‘one of the most important doorstep issues’ in Greenbank, helping him gain election for the first time.
The meeting was lively and well attended. Meadows campaigners were led by local Avenues resident Janet Pell. Cllr Brown was joined by another new Green Party councillor Tom Crone from St Michael’s Ward, who will now sit on the Council Regeneration Committee – the key group that was supposed to scrutinise green space sell off. Both pledged their continuing support to stop this heritage greenspace in Sefton Park being sold for housing. We also met a student at Hope University who is writing his dissertation on the Meadows as part of his Environmental Management degree. People filled in questionnaires to support his survey work.
Sincere thanks to Angela, Hilary and the great people at the Unitarian Church.
HOW YOU CAN HELP NOW
1. We believe strongly that Redrow Homes are the preferred developer. We want people to contact Redrow – and their Chief Executive Steve Morgan to ask him to confirm or deny, and say why they object to housing on this beautiful and unique part of Sefton Park.
Redrow House, St David’s Park, Ewloe, Flintshire, CH5 3RX
01244 520044 /01244 545655
groupservices@redrow.co.uk or nw.customerservice@redrow.co.uk
You can also write to Nick Kavanagh and Joe Anderson to ask the same question. nick.kavanagh@liverpool.gov.uk liverpool.gov.uk/contact-us/contact-the-mayor
Ask them to CONFIRM OR DENY!
2. We need to fundraise £1,500 to pay for professional legal and planning advice. Redrow will submit a planning application for the Meadows in early September, and we need to be ready. We are starting to draft our submissions BUT WE NEED PROFESSIONAL HELP. And this will cost us money! Please donate using our PAYPAL button lower down this page. Share this on your own Facebook & Twitter Accounts.
3. Our government e-petition is open to AUGUST 2ND to ask for future planning approval to be called in for an independent review. SIGN UP NOW AND HELP US GET PROPER SCRUTINY OF THE COUNCIL’S SELL OFF. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/53216
4. English Heritage will have a major influence on any Planning Application. They will be a Formal Consultee and give an opinion on the impact of housing development. Contact English Heritage and tell them how much you value the Meadows as part of Grade 1 listed Sefton Park. graeme.ives@english-heritage.org.uk
5. FLASH MOB EVENTS. We need a group of enthusiastic people to come to the Meadows at short notice to protest. CAN YOU HELP? Contact Martin Dobson on 07930 760868 facebook.com/saveseftonparkmeadows
6. A new STATE OF UK PUBLIC PARKS REPORT by Heritage Lottery has been published in June. IT MAKES GRIM READING. Parks & Greenspaces will be lost, or slowly decline due to cuts in budgets to local authorities. Northwest parks are the worst hit in the country. CONTACT HERITAGE LOTTERY to complain that public money they have invested is now being wasted and their great work in Liverpool is being lost. Tell them about the current threats to Sefton Park Meadows and Woolton Woods. Sara Hilton is Head of Heritage Lottery NorthWest. NorthWest@hlf.org.uk
Please, let us know what actions you are taking to stop the Meadows being sold off. Time is critical now and we need all the help we can muster! Leave a comment or message on this website or post on Facebook. THANKS.
John Davies photography exhibition 5 July to 10 August 2014
The Meadows portraits launch night
Thursday 10 July at 6:30pm
Unit 51 Coffee Baltic Creative
49 Jamaica St L1 0
ALL WELCOME
John Davies photography exhibition
During the month of May this year, John Davies spent 90 minutes each day for 10 days in the public green space of the Meadows parkland. He asked a total of 114 adults if he could take their picture. 98 people agreed to have their portraits made to be included in exhibitions to help promote awareness of the potential loss of the Meadows. The Mayor of Liverpool is proposing to sell off Sefton Park Meadows for executive housing.
This is an example of what is happening in local authorities throughout England: assets sold off and services cut to meet the requirements of central government’s austerity measures along with pressure to build housing on green space as a more profitable alternative to building on brown-field sites. A planning application to develop and sell the Meadows will probably be decided by September 2014.
Portraits of people in Sefton Park Meadows, Liverpool – on show at 3 venues across Liverpool:
Quaker Meeting House Cafe, 22 School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BT (next to Bluecoat Centre)
Open Monday to Friday 9:00am-5:00pm & 6:00-10:00pm.
Unit 51 Coffee, Baltic Creative, Jamaica Street, Liverpool L1 0AF
Open daily 8:30am-5:30pm or later.
The Old Police Station, 80 Lark Lane, Liverpool L17 8UU (front entrance)
Open Thursday to Sunday 12:00am-6:00pm.
All portraits will be shown at the Old Police Station on Lark Lane. These will be all together in 2 big frames.
Other venues will have a selection of large prints.
Download this poster and pass onto your friends and family if you can.
If you are a singer or musician, make cakes or can do something to help make this picnic rock in any way, let us know! Post a comment here, call Martin on 07930 760868 or get in touch on facebook.com/saveseftonparkmeadows
Show Liverpool Council that we will not give up fighting this sell off of Sefton Park Meadows !
