Lydiate – That Coppull Road pavement or the lack of it

I blogged about the rather strange lack of a pavement on a part of Coppull Road in Lydiate not so long back. It’s opposite the junction with Barnes Drive and its been like this ever since the estate was built. My concern is pedestrian safety and you can access my original blog posting via this link:-

tonyrobertson.mycouncillor.org.uk/2018/05/07/lydiate-why-this-short-stretch-of-coppull-road-with-no-pavement/

The response from Sefton Council’s Highways Dept. was that due to financial cut-backs they no long have a budget to undertake such remedial works to address this short section of missing pavement. An unsurprising response which is very much of our austerity times sadly. I do have sympathy with the Council here by the way, as I realise how short of money they are.

Well at least I’ve put it on Sefton Council’s radar and lets hope that there’s no accident at this location before the money does become available to right a long-term pedestrian wrong.

Liverpool 2 – A busier port means yet more traffic on A5036 & a road through Rimrose Valley Country Park!

Seaforth Docks seen from the Mersey with work going on to construct the river berth for Post-Panamax ships in August 2015.

There is every danger that I’ll do this subject to death but the fact remains that building the new river berth at the Port of Liverpool well before the transport infrastructure to cope with the increased freight traffic was put in place was at best a very odd idea.

The Liverpool Echo has the story of the new river berth’s progress towards bringing in more and bigger ships to the port on its web site – see link below:-

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/business/peel-says-more-big-ships-15015748

Rimrose Valley Country Park map.

Highways England announced recently that it intends to construct a brand new road down the Rimrose Valley Country Park to address the increasing port traffic and the opposition to that new road plan is gathering pace via the Rimrose Valley Friends whose web site can be accessed via the link below:-

www.rimrosevalleyfriends.org/

Fracking – You help fight it by joining a local crowdfunding scheme

With fracking a really serious possibility in West Lancashire and more precisely in Altcar Civil Parish, which is all but surrounded on 3 sides by Sefton Borough, those opposed to fracking are trying to raise money to fight the planning application which is expected to be submitted any day now to West Lancs Borough Council. The link below explains and via it you can join the crowd funders who oppose fracking locally:-

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-us-to-save-altcar-moss-from-fracking

The Moss Alliance comprises community groups opposed to fracking in West Lancashire and Sefton. To help them oppose Aurora Energy Resources’ planning application for exploratory drilling and fracking at Altcar Moss near Formby they will need to engage expert consultants. Expert advice does not come free so they need to raise a considerable sum so that the consultants can give them the best chance of defeating Aurora’s first prospective frack site.

This is one of the biggest environmental challenges locally so please help if you can.

Maghull – Barn fire off Park Lane

A large wooden barn behind a bungalow off Maghull’s Park Lane was well alight around 4.30pm today.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue were in attendance but I think they were having difficulty with the neatest fire hydrant and were having to run their hoses to one some distance away

I first saw the thick black smoke whilst cycling a couple of miles away in Aughton and realised that the fire must be in Maghull. The smell of burning in Millbank Lane was strong indeed.

Hope all are OK.

Click on the photos to enlarge them

Sefton Borough – It’s closed railway stations

A modern freight train on its way to the docks passes the site of the Balliol Road Station.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-l5XtpzwBU

The photos are on You Tube – see link above

An interesting set of photos from just some of the lost railway stations across Sefton Borough. You’ll see a full list of them under the video.

And before you ponder it, Lydiate Station (one the Cheshire Lines & Southport Extension Railway) was never in Lydiate Civil Parish. It was in fact in Altcar Civil Parish and the site of it is within West Lancashire Borough.