Save Orrell Mount Park in Bootle

Orrell Mount Park, on the border of Bootle and Litherland in the county of Merseyside, Borough of Sefton (locally known as Silcocks), is under threat! Sefton Metropolitan Burough Council have approved plans to install 3G football pitches, for which local youth teams will have to pay a premium; a planning application that SMBC have, themselves, submitted.

While some football teams seem to be in favour, most of the local community is against the proposals but the council are determined to go ahead. Most of their discussions, negotiations, and (perhaps underhand) dealing have gone on during the worst time in living memory - the Covid pandemic - thus almost eliminating the opposition since we could not campaign or knock on doors to gain support. No-one was allowed to attend council meetings about the proposals because, well there weren't any; at least there were no real world meetings that we could turn up to and the council have put up whatever obstacles they could to prevent us having our say.

It has become apparent that very few of the Bootle and Litherland residents know about this because only about twelve houses were sent information - the houses the council deemed to be the only ones affected by the plans, ignoring the impact on local families who have used the field for generations, informal football teams, potential Olympians and Paralympians who have trained or will train on the field (Including Andy Grant, the fastest man on one leg), dog walkers who exercise their pets, local wildlife (including foxes, birds of prey, squirrels, pollinating insects and myriad common birds) and people who just want a pleasant walk on a sunny afternoon.

The council also don't seem to appreciate the impact on the traffic in the area, which has to negotiate a blind bend exactly where the entrance will be.

Added to that is the environmental impact of artificial grass, which goes directly against the government’s commitment to sustainability.

We, the community, believe there has been impropriety on behalf of the local council who seem to have been handed a sweetener by a national housebuilding company in return for handing over a piece of land that had previously been earmarked for the very project for which the council now want to deprive the local community of a large portion of a much used park and recreational facility.

Despite a House of Commons directive, we have been deliberately kept away from planning meetings in which the local authority have approved a planning application from the local authority.

We ask the Minister to step in and investigate this violation of yet another piece of green land, to add to the many hectares of greenfield already defiled in the name of "progress."