Some people living in the city shared frustration on the speed of protecting Liverpool’s parks
Parks friends group leaders Ken Aspinall (left) and Caroline Williams (second from right) have questioned the council’s commitment to protecting Liverpool parks(Image: Save Sefton Park Meadows)
Liverpool City Council has come under criticism from residents and parks friends groups for a perceived lack of urgency in protecting the city’s parks and green spaces. Councillors voted to remove from an opposition motion the commitment to publish a timeline for placing the city’s parks in trust by the end of the municipal year at a meeting on January 28.
The motion, which was moved by Liberal Democrat councillor Carl Cashman and was passed with two amendments, committed the council to publishing the timeline but removed any reference to the timescale for doing so.
The first amendment, by Labour councillor Laura Robertson-Collins in her role as cabinet member for neighbourhoods and communities, removed the timescale and reasserted the protected status of Liverpool’s parks and green spaces under the council’s Local Plan.
The second amendment, by Green councillor Martyn Madeley, committed the council to consulting with members of the public and parks friends groups before executing the next phase of the agreement.
Sefton Park received the plaque which signifies its protection in perpetuity from development on Sunday, March 15, finally drawing a close to the 13-year campaign to save Sefton Park Meadows, the adjacent green space which has been recognised under new maps as a part of the near-240-acre park.
Nevertheless, questions remain over 84 other parks in the city which were designated for ‘sealing’ under a 2021 agreement between Liverpool City Council and the national charity Fields In Trust (FIT).
Last week, the ECHO spoke to representatives of parks friends groups from across the city about the significance of the protection of 16 parks under the agreement, yet found concerns still run high regarding the level of commitment shown by the council to complete the job that was committed to five years ago.
The agreement was fought for at the time by seasoned local campaigner, the late Chrisie Byrne, with the support of then-Cllr Ian Byrne, who has since been elected MP for West Derby.
Well-known parks campaigner Chrisie Byrne died in 2023, but local parks friends groups have continued her legacy(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The council initially agreed to sign off an initial 100 parks and green spaces by December 31, 2023. The first major phase of the project, however – which will see 20 parks protected under the agreement – is yet to be completed.
Stanley Park, Croxteth Country Park, Otterspool Park and Everton Park are the remaining parks yet to be “sealed” from the first phase of the project, which has so far ensured the future of some of the city’s largest parks including Princes Park, Newsham Park and Walton Hall Park.
A spokesperson stressed the council’s efforts to safeguard the city’s parks, including the initial 20 parks chosen for protection under the agreement, and emphasised the protection offered to Liverpool’s parks and green spaces under the council’s Local Plan.
The council spokesperson said: “We recognise the significance of our parks and work constantly to protect, maintain and improve them.
“Already, 16 parks are protected under Fields in Trust, with three more finalised and another one drafted. Our priority, as it always has been, is to safeguard our parks and their role in bringing together local communities.”
Caroline Williams, chair of Liverpool Parks Friends Forum, criticised the lack of publicity from the council over the unveiling of the FIT plaques, and shared doubt that the Local Plan would prove sufficiently robust to rebuff potential development bids in the future.
She told the ECHO: “I think [the council] just think it’ll all go quiet and it’ll slide gently into the background. In fact, I went to one of the council meetings on January 28 and Cllr Carl Cashman put a motion forward to move the Fields In Trust agenda on.
“He put a timescale on it [the end of the municipal year], but then [Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins] proposed an amendment without the timescale.
“[Cabinet member for growth and economy, Cllr] Nick Small got up and said, ‘we all know our parks are protected by the Local Plan,’ which is absolutely untrue, because the Unitary Development Plan which preceded the Local Plan didn’t protect Calderstones Park, not for one minute.
“And we don’t believe, not for one minute, that the Local Plan will protect parks either.”
Residents took the council to court over the proposed plans to sell off part of Calderstones Park to housing developers Redrow and won in 2019, with former mayor Joe Anderson forced into a u-turn.
Sefton Park Meadows had similarly come under threat in 2013 when the council announced its intention to sell the 3.7-acre plot to housing developers, scrapping the plans in 2018 after a high-profile campaign from residents garnered national attention.
Caroline said whatever the commitment council leaders may have towards preserving the status of Liverpool’s parks, a Local Plan liable to change can never provide the same security as the existing agreement with FIT, which – if fully implemented – would give the charity the final say over any future development. It would also ensure that no development that did not complement or add to the facilities of the city’s parks would be permitted.
The council has tasked Liverpool Parks Friends Forum with suggesting the next 20 parks to be designated for protection under the FIT agreement, which the ECHO understands will prioritise parks with existing friends groups that have already expressed their support for placing the parks in trust.
Chair of Friends of Sefton Park Meadows Ken Aspinall (centre) has criticised the delays in implementing the terms of the council’s agreement with Fields In Trust(Image: Save Sefton Park Meadows)
Ken Aspinall, chair of Friends of Sefton Park Meadows, shared frustration over the speed of the progress towards protecting all 100 parks under the agreement.
He said: “The delays are all at the feet of Liverpool City Council. When [the FIT agreement] was initially signed off and approved by the council, it was in March 2021, would you believe?
“At that time, Fields In Trust wrote to the council, saying, ‘Yes, we’re going to fulfil this agreement for these 100 parks and green spaces across Liverpool, and initially we’ll do the first 20’, and they listed those out.
“And then they gave a programme for doing the other 80, and it should have all been finished – 100 sites – should have been finished in 18 months.
“And here we are, five years later, and only 20 are just about to be complete. That’s the current position.”
Preserving parks for younger generations
Freelance author Paul McDermott reached out to the ECHO to share his concern for the parks’ status. He is putting the finishing touches on the latest instalment in his series of children’s books set in Liverpool parks, which began with ‘Rocking Horse Droppings’ in 2018, set in Springfield Park.
Paul’s magical realism sets real-world folklore and stories from Liverpool parks alongside fairytale themes and talking animals, creating a mythos that he hopes will encourage more children to enjoy and appreciate the city’s green spaces.
The latest, set in Calderstones Park, will explore the story of a group of children who meet a satyr in the south Liverpool park and embark on adventure in which the park comes under threat from property developers.
Paul told the ECHO: “I was born and brought up in Old Swan, so more or less the same distance from Springfield Park and Newsham Park.
“We always used to go to Springfield Park to play cricket, because the fields are better than the ones at Newsham. That was what gave me the idea to start there, that was the first one I wrote.
“So I decided to start with that, and then I found out to my amazement that for all the lovely parks we’ve got around town, nobody’s ever bothered to make a big thing about it, and I thought that’s just not right.
“It’s like they say: you use it, or you lose it. I wanted to make children aware of the luxury, basically, that we have: all these great parks to play in and the stories behind them and what you can find in the various places.”
Other books in the series tell stories from Sefton Park and Newsham Park, and books set in three of the parks yet to be signed off from the first phase of the FIT agreement are currently in the works: Stanley Park, Everton Park and Croxteth Park.
Paul sells his books from regular stalls at Granby Street Market and Woolton and Lark Lane Farmers’ Markets.