Who’s got the Momentum within the Labour Party?

The Liverpool Echo has the story on its website – see link below:-

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/anger-momentum-accused-ignoring-locals-17700135

Well that was an odd read in a number of ways. Firstly, why should anyone be surprised that a political organistion is seeking to influence things within the Party whose Leader that very organistion was created to back up? Secondly, is this not yet just another example of Labour’s internal difficulties with its warring factions trying to gain the ascendancy? Thirdly, this is politics in Liverpool, it’s always been ‘lively’ to be polite about it so let’s not be so shocked that Liverpool’s Momentum faction is at odds with their London comrades.

Let’s be honest if Liverpool Labour were not kicking lumps out of each other we would think there was something wrong!:-)

Lydiate – Haigh Crescent – Posts go up to try to make green safer

A while back we had a discussion at a Lydiate Parish Council meeting about the dangers of vehicles on the green in the middle of Haigh Crescent when children are playing there.

We discussed, together with the Park Ward Sefton Councillors, what could be done to make the green safer and putting in posts to restrict vehicle access was seen to be the best way forward if the money could be found to get the work done. Well the money has been found as the works are ongoing today:-

Maghull’s Vast Urban Extension -Sefton Council complains about site it selected to build on!

The vast Maghull East site seen from Poverty Lane presently used for growing crops but under Sefton Council’s Local Plan it will become housing.

Sefton Council produced a Local Plan which it finalised and published in April 2017. In that plan, amongst other hugely controversial sites across the Borough which had been designated for building, was the massive urban extension of Maghull dubbed the Maghull East site.

Presently @1700 houses are expected to be built on that former Green Belt and presently high grade agricultural site which I and many other environmental campaigners fought against. But this is not another rehash of the arguments to save the site from development because we lost and Sefton Council won you might say. No, this is a commentary on what has happened since then as Sefton Council and developers/builders have been working up strategies and plans to deliver this massive urban extension to the Town.

Sefton designated this site, no one else selected it for them

You see Sefton Council designated this site to be built on, no one else selected it for them. Yet now we seem to have a situation where the same Council is complaining that that things are not going well, that things have been flawed, that the site is going to have all kinds of detrimental effects on Maghull etc. etc. We’ve even heard Sefton moaning about the Town’s infrastructure being unsustainable if things are not put right.

I’m sure all those concerns are only too valid as they are amongst those raised by those of us who campaigned against this monster site being developed in the first place. Indeed, it was obvious to us that developing such a huge site as this would be full of difficulties and that’s even if you, like Sefton Council, felt it was sensible to go ahead with!

Sefton Council is fighting against a process which it put in place!

My point? Sefton Council is now fighting against the consequences of developing a site which it chose itself. Maybe it should have thought through what it was planning to do before agreeing to do it because the drainage, traffic, infrastructure, schools, doctors/dentists and other environmental issues (or indeed the Council’s interaction with developers) were are quite predicable problems.

We have reached a stage now where Maghull residents, many of whom opposed the building in the first place, have had to rise up again because the development they did not want has turned into the organisational mess that they feared it would and all because this vast site was picked by their own Council to build upon.

Liverpool Echo story says what many of us have been saying for years about air pollution

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/nearly-300-deaths-just-one-17614406

But how long do we have to keep saying it before the powers that be, nationally and locally, actually take useful and positive action to stop us all being poisoned?

Maghull – The Dell in Liverpool Road North

NHS, Maghull in Bloom and project partners meet at The Dell – 31st Jan 2014

I’ve blogged about this prominent piece of land at the heart of Maghull a couple of times before in 2011 and 2014 – here are links to those postings:-

tonyrobertson.mycouncillor.org.uk/2011/03/20/the-dell-pct-take-action-over-trees-but-will-they-pass-the-land-over-to-maghull-town-council/

tonyrobertson.mycouncillor.org.uk/2014/02/07/the-dell-maghull-environmental-renewal-project-starts-to-come-together/

What I did not do was to follow up on the last posting but contact from a Lydiate resident recently has reminded me to do so. The resident was talking to me as they are of the view that some of the tree branches overhanging Liverpool Road North may well be a danger to pedestrians and vehicles on the highway. In short Sefton Council has been informed and they have undertaken, I understand, to sort things out whilst holding the line that the land on which the trees are growing does not belong to the Council. On that basis the trees must be growing on the part of the site owned by the NHS.

Hare and Hounds in background

Readers who have read my links above will note that I make reference in those previous postings to The Dell belonging to the NHS. But that is only partly the case, indeed my present understanding is that a small part of The Dell actually belongs to Sefton Council. That part is a narrow strip along the Liverpool Road North boundary (possibly just the stone wall?) and a small section of the site around the Liverpool Road North/Westway corner. Interestingly, the Council also owns the grassed areas fronting the Health Center site on Westway. I say all this as I’ve seen copies of the Land Registry documents detailing it.

Going back to the attempt by Maghull in Bloom to take over the management of the land in 2014, one of the issues which caused the volunteers to call a halt to the project was the split ownership. As their volunteers were relying on a successful Lottery bid to fund the proposed works the project went no further as the Lottery would, I understand, be reluctant about investing in a site with split ownership.

Previous tree works being carried out in 2013

I wonder if there will be a 3rd attempt to get this green lung at the heart of Maghull managed in the long term?

Maghull – Frank Hornby wins Borough of Culture local poll

MySefton has the article on its website – see link below:-

mysefton.co.uk/2020/01/27/hornbys-in-the-driving-seat-for-the-sefton-stories-project/

Quote from MYSefton website – ‘Frank Hornby has steamed ahead, reinvented himself and engineered top spot in the Sefton Stories Project launched as part of Sefton’s Borough of Culture year!

The inventor from Maghull, topped the list of 10 stories synonymous with Sefton, by claiming 28% of the total vote.’

A great piece of model Meccano engineering

Obviously the Trustees (I’m one of them) of the Maghull based Frank Hornby Trust who run the Frank Hornby Experience exhibition within the Town’s Meadows Leisure Centre and Library are delighted by the result of the poll of local people. Maghull, as demonstrated previously by one of Michael Portillo’s Great British Railway Journeys TV programmes being filmed in the Town, is becoming well known for having a world famous toy maker as it’s most famous former resident.