As you may have read in the Liverpool Echo recently, Green Party Councillor, Neil Doolin, submitted a motion calling on Sefton Council to demand the cancellation of the Port of Liverpool Access Road by writing to Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh.
This was heard at a cabinet meeting at Southport Town Hall on Thursday 12th September.
The Echo reported that the motion in its original form was "voted down in the council chamber as the Labour group were keen to stress they had a long history of supporting the Save Rimrose campaign and had always opposed plans for the port road".
Instead, it was reworded with much of the original content being retained, and subsequently passed. The final motion included an action for the Council Leader, Marion Atkinson, to thank the public for their campaigning efforts.
We have since received a letter from the Council Leader containing the motion and have been asked to pass on her thanks to our supporters, which we're doing here.
Amongst other things, the motion notes:
"Despite our constant requests to the previous Conservative Government to confirm abolition of the scheme, which were ignored, we will continue our efforts to work with the newly elected Government through our MPs to seek a positive outcome"
This is extremely encouraging to hear.
With the new Government being Labour, and with a Labour-controlled council and Labour MPs, we expect any new requests to abolish the scheme to not only be listened to, but also acted upon.
The motion goes on to echo our concerns over air quality, CO2 emissions, loss of green space and its biodiversity.
This was a particularly powerful statement:
"Building a road through this park would further perpetuate the mindset of prioritising economic growth over environmental sustainability and public health and wellbeing."
Couldn't have put it better ourselves!
You can read the motion in full below.
We would like to express our own thanks to Cllr Atkinson, Cllr Doolin and Cabinet for supporting the campaign.
Of course, the best way of thanking us is for the road to be cancelled.
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