WE SAID NO

On Wednesday 30th October 2024, after 7 long years of campaigning, the Port of Liverpool Access Road was finally cancelled in the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget. Despite this having been a possibility, the news still came as a shock to both the campaign team and the public and took some time to sink in.

Once the dust had settled, the community gathered on Rimrose Valley on Sunday 17th November to celebrate the news together, to hear from local politicians and environmental groups and to give thanks that the shadow of the road project, which had hung over the area for so long, had gone away.

This episode of ‘We Said No’ captures what was said on the day, what it means for the campaign, and the work that is still to be done.  It also touches on what the decision means for the future of the park and the work that Rimrose Valley Friends wishes to do in the future.

On Sunday 28th July, the Save Rimrose Valley campaign staged “Liverpool’s Most Wuthering Heights Day… Ever” at Rimrose Valley Country Park.

The event, which celebrated Kate Bush’s birthday, saw hundreds of people from across Liverpool and beyond gather on the park to recreate the iconic contemporary dance routine which accompanies “Wuthering Heights”. The song that launched her stellar career in 1978.

Similar public performances are held across the globe each year, but this was believed to be the first time Liverpool has hosted the event.

Every year, we try to do something a little different to bring people together, to raise awareness of our wonderful park and to highlight our campaign to save it from destruction. This year, we went for something VERY different and were blown away by the response.

Events like this are not only fun; they’re incredibly important to local communities as they bring people together, break down barriers and get people active in the great outdoors. None of this would be possible if National Highways’ plans to bulldoze Rimrose Valley Country Park were to go ahead. 

This episode of ‘We Said No’ tells the story of how the event came together. The preparations, the people involved, and how this amazing coming together of communities happened.

In this special edition of our podcast series we are revisiting the topic of air pollution. We last covered this in 2021 and heard about just some of the impacts the poor air quality in our part of Sefton has on people’s lives. 

In this episode, we delve even deeper into the subject. Our charity, Rimrose Valley Friends, recently secured funding to raise awareness of this issue from Community Foundation for Merseyside’s “Breathe Better Air Fund”. As part of our “Let’s put the brakes on pollution” project we’ll be learning not just about the issues we experience today, but crucially, what we as individuals can do about it.

Here are some links for further information of some of the subjects covered in this episode.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-principles-policy-statement/environmental-principles-policy-statement#:~:text=The%20polluter%20pays%20principle,damage%2C%20or%20the%20wider%20community.

https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/what-is-the-polluter-pays-principle/

https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/regulations/polluter-pays-principle/

https://neweconomics.org/2022/12/making-polluters-pay

We’re approaching the end of winter and spring is on its way! With that in mind, we decided to take a closer look at one of the most popular projects our charity, Rimrose Valley Friends, has delivered in recent years.

The creation of a wildflower meadow at the centre of the old Chaffers’ running track reinvigorated a neglected section of the parkland and received incredible financial support from the surrounding community and environmental funders alike. Since its original sowing in 2019, the wildflower meadow has become an annual attraction and has become both an incredible visual display and a new habitat for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators… scooping a prestigious Defra award in the process.

But what has this got to do with the campaign to Save Rimrose Valley? Well, the purpose of the project was to raise the profile of Rimrose Valley, to attract new visitors and to encourage people to care about it enough to fight for its future. 

In this episode you will hear how it is very much ‘mission accomplished’ and that the once disused running track has now become one of the jewels of this incredible parkland and a vital, free facility - benefiting people’s health and wellbeing. 

As 2022 comes to an end, members of our campaign team caught up to mull over the year, to reflect on some of the key developments, and to revisit some of the other projects undertaken by our charity, Rimrose Valley Friends.

2023 is set to be a pivotal year in the fight against the road proposal, with National Highways expected to hold its long awaited statutory consultation on its final road design.

We'll be calling for people to reject this outright, and to instead demand non-road, sustainable alternatives to port access which respect our communities, our health and wellbeing and the environment.

Stay tuned for more information on how you can play your part throughout the year.

This recording was made prior to the news that our fellow campaigner and former trustee, Hazel Davies, had passed away.  Our thoughts go out to her family and friends and our work will continue in her memory.

On Friday 26th August, a group of Save Rimrose Valley campaigners consisting of children, parents and grandparents hit the road and boarded a coach to Manchester.  

The trip was the campaign’s latest protest as they took the fight to the regional headquarters of National Highways - the public body responsible for the plans to bulldoze Rimrose Valley.  

Joined by other campaigners from the North West and members of staff from long-time allies, outdoor clothing store Patagonia, they marched through the streets of Manchester to deliver letters and materials produced by local school children.  

Would National Highways come out to accept them?  Find out in our latest podcast.

In this episode we focus on the game of football and how Rimrose Valley and the green space surrounding it hosts numerous, pitches clubs and leagues. 

We look at the massive physical and mental health benefits that come with people of all ages playing our national game all year round, and how National Highway’s proposed road through the valley will affect thousands of participants.

Having seen how the recent Euro 2022 victory for England's Lionesses gave the whole nation a well needed shot in the arm, why is National Highways even considering ploughing a four lane carriageway through many of these sporting facilities?

We talk to local, grass roots players and organisers about how they feel about the potential loss of their football pitches and the effect it will have on their lives and wellbeing. And how the football clubs on Rimrose Valley and the surrounding spaces could be lost.

A question our campaign is often asked is; why can’t Sefton’s network of railway lines solve the problem of port access? Many members of the community have pointed out the number of disused railway lines running from the dock that were active up until the 1980’s. 

 In this episode we investigate how these used to operate by visiting some of the locations with former lorry driver, John Wilson. We then discuss the wider picture of rail freight distribution in the UK with Maggie Simpson, Director General of Rail Freight Group, the representative body for rail freight in the UK. 

 We conclude by bringing things right up to date and taking a look at the government’s latest plans for rail enhancements in the North West. Is our region getting the investment it so badly needs?

It's been an eventful and a positive year for the campaign. We've had protest events that were covered nationally. Activities and educational events on the valley for the first time in what seems like forever. 

In a year where most of us haven't had the best of times, here's our review of some of the good things that have happened in 2021.

In 2020, Sefton Council commissioned engineering consultancy firm ARUP, world leaders in sustainable infrastructure, to look at different ways of transporting freight containers in and out of busy ports in locations such as ours.

Among the options presented was Underground Freight Transport (UFT); a pioneering technology owned by Cambridgeshire-based Mole Solutions Ltd.

In this episode, we meet with senior members of their team to better understand the technology and to explore how this could be used in our setting. We hear just how many of today’s problems this technology would solve, the long-term benefits it would deliver and how, far from being a pipedream, this could become a reality.

Over the course of the last 4 years, we have repeatedly been told by National Highways, the Department for Transport and Peel Ports that their road proposal is the only way to address the problems created by the Port of Liverpool’s expansion.

It isn’t.

We believe that this episode represents the first, major step towards a brighter future for the Port of Liverpool, the people of South Sefton and our environment.

Enjoy.

For more information on Mole Solutions Ltd, Underground Freight Transport and their other technologies, visit www.molesolutions.co.uk