As we start the new year, and as the dust settles on last October's decision to cancel the Port of Liverpool Access Road, we've made a fresh approach to the Liverpool City Region's Port Access Steering Group (PASG). We last approached them at the end of 2023, which you can remind yourselves of here.
This is because, although Rimrose Valley's future has been secured in the short-term, as a campaign we committed to continuing to push for proper solutions to port access which will mean such plans are never revisited.
Just as importantly, solving port access is key to removing as many HGVs as possible from the A5036 and the surrounding road network.
Living conditions along this route are completely unacceptable and need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, as we have said throughout our campaigning.
Over the years, Sefton Council, the Liverpool City Region and the government's Department for Transport have advised that PASG is the correct forum for such discussions.
Unfortunately, there is no transparency around the work of this group, which has to change if we're to avoid a repetition of port access solutions being imposed on the communities most impacted. The past 7 years have demonstrated that not engaging with, or properly consulting communities on this issue is not an option.
In an effort to widen the debate from purely focussing on Rimrose Valley, at the end of 2023, we joined forces with other community groups in our area to form the South Sefton Communities Alliance.
One of the alliance's core objectives is to reduce the impact of the port's operations on surrounding communities, which means that this piece of work is about all of South Sefton, not isolated pockets, or individual communities.
We're really positive about what our alliance can achieve by working together.
With that in mind, you can read our letter to the Chair of PASG and the LCRCA's Executive Director of Place in full, below.
As ever, we will share any response that is received.
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