Sefton Park Meadows: Housing plan scrapped, says mayor

Sefton Park Meadows will not be developed following a green spaces review

Plans to sell off land close to Liverpool's Sefton Park for housing will no longer go ahead, Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson has revealed.

But he insisted the green space known as Sefton Park Meadows should be used as allotments or a community garden.

It follows a green spaces review and a new local plan allocating brownfield land for 37,000 homes.

Ken Aspinall, of Save Sefton Meadows, said: "I'm happy but in a guarded way. It should be left as it is."

Mayor Anderson broke the news on BBC Radio Merseyside's Roger Phillips show.

He said he had "paused" the plan to sell off the 11-acre green space site in Aigburth ahead the review and publication of the local plan.

"We've acquired a lot of things, for example the Garden Festival site, which is going to give us a lot of opportunities."

'Unique site'

He said he wanted to see the meadows used by groups such as Transforming Choice, which helps people beat addiction.

"It's not a U-turn, we've got to find a workable use for it," he said. "There are some gardens in Speke that produce fruit and veg, that's the type of thing that people need more support from us."

Kim Cattrall said the Sefton Park Meadows plan would "encroach on the people's land."

The Save Sefton Meadows campaign has been running for five years and Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall, who grew up in Liverpool, spoke out against the sale in 2014.

Chairman Mr Aspinall said the announcement "sounds good, but we won't accept any building on there".

"He's talking allotments but we would like more information," he said. "The park has been like that for 150 years and should be left like it is for the people of Liverpool.

"It's a meadow, there are 120 mature trees. It's a unique site. We'll keep our campaign going until we know what's proposed."