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our ground
contents
updated 19 June 2010
2010 news on this page
Overview: a national perspective and Liverpool
Festival Gardens AGM and new park
Liverpool's mess in Stanley Park
Otterspool Park land sold
Work starts on Festival Gardens Park
Campaign web site lost
'Dutch Farm' green space sold
The Value of Urban Parks
2009 news
Otterspool Park Privatisation and
open letter of objection to City Council
NWDA fund Festival Gardens Park
Festival Gardens sewage disaster
Liverpool's Year of the Environment 2009
Springfield Park Privatisation
Stanley Park and privatisation plans
Sefton Park cafe deadlock
Tate "5th floor" debate
Festival Gardens & Promenade
Millbank Playing Fields Privatisation
2008 news
Secretary of State gives go-ahead
for Festival Gardens scheme
Festival Gardens Public Inquiry ends
Anfield - new design for LFC
U-boat U532 moved to Woodside Ferry Terminal
Biennial Pavilions
Brief history of Stanley Park
2007 news
Otterspool Promenade Privatisation
Disposal
Garden Festival Site Inquiry
Campaign & call for Inquiry
Stanley Park Privatisation & Stadium
Stanley Park Restoration
Millbank Playing Fields Privatisation
Parks Forum
Village Green protection status
Princes Park
Sefton Park
Dixie Dean Memorial Playing Fields Privatisation
inquiry
Speke Park Privatisation and Speke
Parade
Walton Hall Park
public open green
space
public open space
for latest news page click here
Massive tree clearance for new Festival Gardens Park
At the Friends of Liverpool Festival Gardens AGM on 26
May, held at Lark Lane Community Centre, representatives for the new Garden
Festival Park development were in attendance: The Project Manager, Steve
Dawson of Planit who designed the new park, David Evans from the Land
Restoration Trust (LRT) who will manage the park on completion next year.
A major concern for the Friends was the massive tree clearance for the
new park but Steve Dawson of Planit claimed that this was in accordance
with the approved plans.
Cllr. John Coyne was present and he asked what was the point of consultation
with the Friends Group if it has not led to any changes to the design
of the park? Steve Dawson replied to say that discussions with the Friends
had led to some very minor changes.
The 3 phases for the new Garden Festival Park project were explained:
Phase 1: The current phase of construction. Whilst the
Park is being constructed the role of the LRT is to consult community
and user groups and to appoint a site manager by Autumn this year. The
Trust are working with Langtree, Planit and Liverpool City Council.
Phase 2: From March 2011, when the park is due to be completed and open
for visitors, for a period of 5 years the Park will be maintained with
a grant from the North West Development Agency (NWDA). The grant, for
£100,000 per annum, is to cover management and to include the opening
and closing of the gates, grass cutting and litter picking. The southern
grasslands will continue to be under the care of Langtree as funding has
not yet been found for this to be included within the Park although full
planning permission has been given for the grasslands to be included in
the new park.
Phase 3: After the 5 year NWDA grant has finished an endowment from Langtree
is to be handed over to the Land Restoration Trust to cover future maintenance
of the Park, but this will only take place if and when Langtree's planned
built development commences. The LRT will then hold the lease for the
Park, including the grasslands, and be able to liaise with the community
for the Park's future development.
more below
Liverpool's mess in Stanley Park
Front page news from the Liverpool Daily Post on 24 March
2010 reports that Liverpool City Council (LCC) faces a £8.2m bill
to pay back European grants if Liverpool Football Club (LFC) fails to
build a new stadium on the historic public open green space of Stanley
Park in Anfield. The Audit Commission reports that Liverpool's management
of grant funding during 2008/09 was a 'significant issue'.
In 2007 Our Ground first reported on these financial
issues in the Stanley Park Privatisation &
Stadium feature.
Details of the partnership between LFC (Stadco), LCC and their Joint Venture
Company along with European and NWDA funding can be seen here
in the Council's 2007 report: New Anfield - The Restoration of Stanley
Park PDF (including a map of the park and other land allocated for
LFC). This report acknowledged financial risks if the Council accepted
these multi-million pound grants but pointed out that LCC were finalizing
a letter of credit from the Royal Bank of Scotland on behalf of LFC.
Delays in 2007 to set up a deal with Liverpool Football Club, including
the management security for the whole of Stanley Park, has also effected
the Objective One European grant for the Stanley
Park Restoration and re-construction of the Gladstone Conservatory.
This grant aid finished at the end of 2008 with LCC having to foot the
bill for all expenses carried out during 2009.
The original 'Palm House' Conservatory was opened to the public at the
beginning of 1900 but by the 1990's it was left derelict by the Council.
Work stared in the winter of 2007 to completely rebuild the structure
with an additional basement cafe for the general public. The spacious
glass-house upper floor is only available for private hire - without any
vegetation cover but with a bar. The new building, re-furbished band stand
and grounds are now gated with perimeter fencing. Now known as the Isla
Gladstone Conservatory it was completed in June 2009 at a cost of £12m.
Otterspool Park land sold off
The sale of land from Otterspool Park was approved by LCC
on 29 January to "grow the City's economy". A plan and details
of this park land can be found in the 2008 news item here:
Otterspool Park Privatisation.
Full details of the Council meeting minutes with details of all the objections
and the Council's/Officer's response is available as a
pdf from the Council's web site here.
Work starts on Festival Gardens Park
Work has now started to create a new park on a section
of the former Liverpool Garden Festival site with a
£3.7m grant from the North West Development Agency (NWDA). The
new private park, available to the public, is the key justification for
Langtree's development to include 1,308 compact apartments and 66 townhouses
on this former toxic landfill site.
As a requirement the park has to be finished by July 2011. When open to
the public the Land
Restoration Trust will take over management of the park and maintenance
costs will be covered by the NWDA grant for the first five years. As part
of the planning agreement Langtree are required by LCC to provide a £2m
dowry for ongoing maintenance of the park. This dowry is a reduced amount
from what was promised during the Public Inquiry
in 2008.
At short notice the Land
Restoration Trust organised a drop-in session for the public to view
the plans for the park at Shorefields Technical College on the 24 February.
Was this supposed to be a public consultation? The organisers told Our
Ground they will organise another meeting in the near future
to encourage the involvement of local community groups.
A Community Liaison Leaflet not available for this session states that
the managing director of Langtree regards the local community as a partner
in the scheme! The
Festival Gardens Community Liaison Leaflet (pdf) can be downloaded here
and also shows the Planit design of the park for Langtree Developments.
Illustrations of the housing plans integrated into the Festival Gardens
Park can be viewed
here from Langtree's web site.
.
Coming soon on the public open green space of Otterspool Promenade: Langtree's Festival Garden's development row of 7 'finger blocks'. The Our Ground illustrations, shown above, drawn from Langtree's architectural plans were first presented at the 2008 public inquiry to show the effect of the development on the Promenade. The accuracy of the illustration was not rebutted by Langtree. Local newspapers refuse to show this view of the development.
