Save Bixteth Street Gardens
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I’m Mandy and I’m a worker in Exchange station. I'm horrified that the green space outside my office may be destroyed. Monday to Friday I look directly onto the gardens. If this happens my quality of work life will effectively be ruined. At the moment I peruse 52 beautiful mature trees, a wide expanse of grass and blue firmaments. I have spent the summer watching everyday as the park has been packed with office workers enjoying the sun, playing games and eating their lunch. With the weather being particularly lovely I have witnessed some spectacular sights; starfish sunbathing from men in suits, foreign exchange students playing rounders and hurling beanbags around, workers in hi-vis tucking into picnics. One day I saw a hula-hooper in a bikini. That was my James Stewart in Rear Window voyeur moment!
Early in the morning I see the dog walkers, later in the day families bring their children to the park. Often we spot wildlife here, including rabbits and squirrels. Residents have even reported seeing bats at night. At the moment the autumn leaves falling from the threatened trees are forming a blanket of russet confetti which makes it all the more poignant. It seems to me that no consideration has been given to employees in our building who will be unable to work due to demolition noise, maddening and messy disruption. Equally this is the only peaceful and reflective space in the area for local residents who live in the flats. This will impact detrimentally on their physical and mental health too.
As I look out of the window I can see uninhabited brownfield that would be much more appropriate for building without this utterly baffling and unpopular development going ahead. Environmentally the plan is so very wrong. The land reclamation works are a folly and it is shocking that this well-loved and used park may be levelled purely to profit developers. Green spaces are the lungs of the city and this is the only verdant area of its kind for miles around, the nearest being St John’s gardens.
We have all seen the kind of add on that is used to placate local communities when a development of this nature is waived through; trees in pots, lesser concreted spaces that are corporate in nature and exclude tenants. There is no substitute for staring at the sky above us as opposed to the plethora of high rise boxes that are turning Liverpool into Gotham City. Local workers say Save Bixteth Gardens and all our green spaces! City dwellers need their own natural health service just as much as those in the suburbs.
Early in the morning I see the dog walkers, later in the day families bring their children to the park. Often we spot wildlife here, including rabbits and squirrels. Residents have even reported seeing bats at night. At the moment the autumn leaves falling from the threatened trees are forming a blanket of russet confetti which makes it all the more poignant. It seems to me that no consideration has been given to employees in our building who will be unable to work due to demolition noise, maddening and messy disruption. Equally this is the only peaceful and reflective space in the area for local residents who live in the flats. This will impact detrimentally on their physical and mental health too.
As I look out of the window I can see uninhabited brownfield that would be much more appropriate for building without this utterly baffling and unpopular development going ahead. Environmentally the plan is so very wrong. The land reclamation works are a folly and it is shocking that this well-loved and used park may be levelled purely to profit developers. Green spaces are the lungs of the city and this is the only verdant area of its kind for miles around, the nearest being St John’s gardens.
We have all seen the kind of add on that is used to placate local communities when a development of this nature is waived through; trees in pots, lesser concreted spaces that are corporate in nature and exclude tenants. There is no substitute for staring at the sky above us as opposed to the plethora of high rise boxes that are turning Liverpool into Gotham City. Local workers say Save Bixteth Gardens and all our green spaces! City dwellers need their own natural health service just as much as those in the suburbs.
A VIEW FROM A RESIDENT:
My name is Lisa.
I moved to Liverpool when my life collapsed.
Old Hall Street had been home to me many years before, but I relocated to Wales with my then husband to keep a menagerie of animals.
My life imploded without warning, demanding massive change. Strangely, it felt completely natural to return to Old Hall Street, not least because of Bixteth Gardens which would provide me and my old dog with some greenery, some outdoor space, a little city centre haven.
I believe with all my heart that Bixteth Gardens played a massive role in my healing.
Looking back it’s clear that I was struggling with depression, as a consequence of my abrupt change in circumstances. Were it not for my darling old canine pal, I doubt that I would have left my bed on many a day.
There were undoubtedly times when I wondered whether my life was even worth living anymore. I was a crushed human being.
At the time I didn’t know a soul in Liverpool, but after a few weeks of walking my dog in the park that soon changed.
Some of the people I met and had a lovely chat with I never saw again. Some were in fact my neighbours. Some became friends. All of them, and the interaction that we enjoyed, were critical to my personal healing, and it’s questionable that I would be where I am now without it.
Tragically as a nation – as one of the richest nations on the planet - our society is riddled with a disease called loneliness. A potentially life -threatening disease. But unlike many diseases there are some simple, non-invasive, free treatments.
Company. Conversation. Social interaction. Neighbours. Community.
Bixteth Gardens provides all of this in abundance.
Five - star hotels, anonymous office blocks and synthetic, over designed concrete piazzas don’t even come close.
People don’t sit and get to know each other in areas like that. Kids won’t kick a ball around, old fellas won’t sit with their dog to see who is about, locals won’t throw a picnic in a bag and lay on the grass for an afternoon, office workers won’t read their book over lunch in areas like that.
They are merely stylish corridors linking one area of a city to another, and not places where people meet, chew the fat, swap phone numbers and arrange to have a beer together.
I completely understand the need for jobs and wealth creation through tourism and hosting corporate headquarters. I completely embrace evolution and progress to improve the prospects of the individual.
The very fact that in middle age I live in a city centre rather than the suburbs, surely illustrates that I am one who can adapt and accommodate change with pragmatism.
But while an expectation of hundreds of acres of forest in a city centre is unrealistic, having perfect pockets of green space, mature trees and wildlife is not.
Being a city centre resident does not negate our need for this or our right to it.
Sensitive, well thought out, considerate development is to be welcomed, and there are plenty of bombed out areas and waste land in the city where it would be a distinct improvement to what is already there.
But what is being proposed here is in no way an improvement on what we have. Bixteth Gardens and the natural eco system of birds, bees, rabbits and bats is simply being decimated, to make way for yet more forgettable urban homogenisation.
And here’s the thing.
No matter how much money someone earns, no matter how successful they might become in their job, no matter how much wealth a corporate outfit generates or how “glossy” a city looks on the outside, if locals suffer through lack of connection, if employees chained to their desks cannot feel the sun on their face and the air in their lungs at some stage during the working day, the net result is a decrease in happiness and an increase in stress and unhappiness.
This then impacts on the stretched resources of the NHS as more people with mental health issues need treatment, as well as associated conditions that result due to self – medicating with alcohol and substance abuse to fill the void.
And as for the corporates who apparently require their Grade A office space, watch their productivity decline as their workforce feel dislocated and imprisoned with nowhere to have a complete change from their office during their breaks. See that business suffer as staff need time off due to the resultant stress, not to mention the filth, noise and massive disruption the existing workforce in our neck of the woods will have to endure for the foreseeable future.
In real terms rather than progressing, we become a sick and poor society.
Developers will make a lot of money off the backs of this project, fact. Liverpool city council will too. Perhaps - and with Brexit looming and the existing vacant office space, there is no guarantee of this - some of those office buildings will take on new tenants and a few jobs will be created.
But as yet I have not seen one shred of evidence to illustrate how local residents and council tax payers, how existing local employees and how the PEOPLE of Liverpool will directly benefit from this behemoth of a development.
No, no evidence at all. And that’s because there is none, as we won’t benefit. That’s why.
I moved to Liverpool when my life collapsed.
Old Hall Street had been home to me many years before, but I relocated to Wales with my then husband to keep a menagerie of animals.
My life imploded without warning, demanding massive change. Strangely, it felt completely natural to return to Old Hall Street, not least because of Bixteth Gardens which would provide me and my old dog with some greenery, some outdoor space, a little city centre haven.
I believe with all my heart that Bixteth Gardens played a massive role in my healing.
Looking back it’s clear that I was struggling with depression, as a consequence of my abrupt change in circumstances. Were it not for my darling old canine pal, I doubt that I would have left my bed on many a day.
There were undoubtedly times when I wondered whether my life was even worth living anymore. I was a crushed human being.
At the time I didn’t know a soul in Liverpool, but after a few weeks of walking my dog in the park that soon changed.
Some of the people I met and had a lovely chat with I never saw again. Some were in fact my neighbours. Some became friends. All of them, and the interaction that we enjoyed, were critical to my personal healing, and it’s questionable that I would be where I am now without it.
Tragically as a nation – as one of the richest nations on the planet - our society is riddled with a disease called loneliness. A potentially life -threatening disease. But unlike many diseases there are some simple, non-invasive, free treatments.
Company. Conversation. Social interaction. Neighbours. Community.
Bixteth Gardens provides all of this in abundance.
Five - star hotels, anonymous office blocks and synthetic, over designed concrete piazzas don’t even come close.
People don’t sit and get to know each other in areas like that. Kids won’t kick a ball around, old fellas won’t sit with their dog to see who is about, locals won’t throw a picnic in a bag and lay on the grass for an afternoon, office workers won’t read their book over lunch in areas like that.
They are merely stylish corridors linking one area of a city to another, and not places where people meet, chew the fat, swap phone numbers and arrange to have a beer together.
I completely understand the need for jobs and wealth creation through tourism and hosting corporate headquarters. I completely embrace evolution and progress to improve the prospects of the individual.
The very fact that in middle age I live in a city centre rather than the suburbs, surely illustrates that I am one who can adapt and accommodate change with pragmatism.
But while an expectation of hundreds of acres of forest in a city centre is unrealistic, having perfect pockets of green space, mature trees and wildlife is not.
Being a city centre resident does not negate our need for this or our right to it.
Sensitive, well thought out, considerate development is to be welcomed, and there are plenty of bombed out areas and waste land in the city where it would be a distinct improvement to what is already there.
But what is being proposed here is in no way an improvement on what we have. Bixteth Gardens and the natural eco system of birds, bees, rabbits and bats is simply being decimated, to make way for yet more forgettable urban homogenisation.
And here’s the thing.
No matter how much money someone earns, no matter how successful they might become in their job, no matter how much wealth a corporate outfit generates or how “glossy” a city looks on the outside, if locals suffer through lack of connection, if employees chained to their desks cannot feel the sun on their face and the air in their lungs at some stage during the working day, the net result is a decrease in happiness and an increase in stress and unhappiness.
This then impacts on the stretched resources of the NHS as more people with mental health issues need treatment, as well as associated conditions that result due to self – medicating with alcohol and substance abuse to fill the void.
And as for the corporates who apparently require their Grade A office space, watch their productivity decline as their workforce feel dislocated and imprisoned with nowhere to have a complete change from their office during their breaks. See that business suffer as staff need time off due to the resultant stress, not to mention the filth, noise and massive disruption the existing workforce in our neck of the woods will have to endure for the foreseeable future.
In real terms rather than progressing, we become a sick and poor society.
Developers will make a lot of money off the backs of this project, fact. Liverpool city council will too. Perhaps - and with Brexit looming and the existing vacant office space, there is no guarantee of this - some of those office buildings will take on new tenants and a few jobs will be created.
But as yet I have not seen one shred of evidence to illustrate how local residents and council tax payers, how existing local employees and how the PEOPLE of Liverpool will directly benefit from this behemoth of a development.
No, no evidence at all. And that’s because there is none, as we won’t benefit. That’s why.
A little city centre haven
A small sanctuary in the heart of the city, Bixteth Street Gardens is the last remaining green space in Liverpool's commercial district. Frequented by local residents, workers and dog walkers, not to mention the extensive animal population of birds, bats, bees, squirrels and rabbits, this space is also home to 52 large, mature trees.
This thriving community space is in danger of being lost forever as Liverpool City Council along with CTP and Kier Property, plan to destroy and redevelop the area. With the proposal of four new multi-storey buildings and allocated "public realm" intended for the site, the current green space will be cut by a third. This is, of course, if the development even materialises - all that is currently being pushed though is the complete remediation of the land!
We need your help to demonstrate that the people of Liverpool matter and that our opinions count. Hundreds of city centre homes are currently being developed in the area; they want people to buy into the urban lifestyle and live in the city centre, yet no consideration has been given to the quality of this lifestyle - the mounting evidence of the health implications of the eradication of urban green space is indisputable.
Please get involved with the campaign and help save to our green spaces!
#SaveBixtethStreetGardens #SaveOurGreenSpaces #SpaceForAll #HealthAndWellbeing
This thriving community space is in danger of being lost forever as Liverpool City Council along with CTP and Kier Property, plan to destroy and redevelop the area. With the proposal of four new multi-storey buildings and allocated "public realm" intended for the site, the current green space will be cut by a third. This is, of course, if the development even materialises - all that is currently being pushed though is the complete remediation of the land!
We need your help to demonstrate that the people of Liverpool matter and that our opinions count. Hundreds of city centre homes are currently being developed in the area; they want people to buy into the urban lifestyle and live in the city centre, yet no consideration has been given to the quality of this lifestyle - the mounting evidence of the health implications of the eradication of urban green space is indisputable.
Please get involved with the campaign and help save to our green spaces!
#SaveBixtethStreetGardens #SaveOurGreenSpaces #SpaceForAll #HealthAndWellbeing
The campaign
Bixteth Street Gardens, along with St Nicholas’s Gardens, are the only green spaces in the ‘commercial district’, a name that belies the fact that many people live in this part of the city too.But the garden also provides respite for hundreds of local employees who use it during their lunch break.
The park is home to a thriving population of rabbits, bats, birds and squirrels, and bees have been seen in abundance this summer.
Liverpool City Council have instructed Kier Development to come up with a scheme for the area, arguing that the city lacks Grade A office space which is an impediment to progress. The scheme also includes a 5 star hotel.
The park is home to a thriving population of rabbits, bats, birds and squirrels, and bees have been seen in abundance this summer.
Liverpool City Council have instructed Kier Development to come up with a scheme for the area, arguing that the city lacks Grade A office space which is an impediment to progress. The scheme also includes a 5 star hotel.
If permission is granted, Willmott Dixon will begin the land remediation early in 2019 and the current plan will see a reduction of the green space by 30%.
Cllr Nick Small, who is supporting the campaigners, said: “It was great to see so many residents lobbying councillors at the Town Hall, joining with other green space campaigners like ‘Save Caldies’ and ‘Save Oglet Shore’. ‘Save Bixteth Gardens’ seems to be gathering momentum.”
Bixteth Park is the latest green space in the city region to be earmarked for development, but this is against a backdrop of worsening air quality.
According to World Health Organisation statistics, Liverpool is one of the worst cities in the UK when it comes to air pollution, with a measurement of 12 PM2.Fs per cubic volume of air. The healthy maximum is 10.
Alex Beavan lives in nearby flats. He said: “The gardens are the heart of a growing residential community and walking my dog there has not only led to new friendships, but also a sense of belonging and connection with the city. Without places like Bixteth Street Gardens the city will lose its personality, taking away the essence of what draws people to this wonderful city.”
Cllr Nick Small, who is supporting the campaigners, said: “It was great to see so many residents lobbying councillors at the Town Hall, joining with other green space campaigners like ‘Save Caldies’ and ‘Save Oglet Shore’. ‘Save Bixteth Gardens’ seems to be gathering momentum.”
Bixteth Park is the latest green space in the city region to be earmarked for development, but this is against a backdrop of worsening air quality.
According to World Health Organisation statistics, Liverpool is one of the worst cities in the UK when it comes to air pollution, with a measurement of 12 PM2.Fs per cubic volume of air. The healthy maximum is 10.
Alex Beavan lives in nearby flats. He said: “The gardens are the heart of a growing residential community and walking my dog there has not only led to new friendships, but also a sense of belonging and connection with the city. Without places like Bixteth Street Gardens the city will lose its personality, taking away the essence of what draws people to this wonderful city.”
Our green spaces are disappearing. Help us change that. |