Issue 93 / October 2018

SAY
THE FINAL
“You can’t depollute
the air. You
can rebuild houses,
but you can’t
rebuild homes”
North Liverpool’s sprawling Rimrose Valley parkland is home not just to flora and
fauna, but now also a fight for its very future. Matty Loughlin-Day explains why he
is invoking his deep-seated spirit of protest – and why you should, too.
“From each according to his ability…”
Do you remember the first time you, with a resigned
shrug, sighed and muttered, “Well, what can you do?”
The first seeds of learned helplessness taking root.
It wasn’t always like that, was it? You were going to
change the world. But the boy kicked out at the world and the
world kicked back a lot fucking harder, didn’t it? What can you
do?
For those in the corridors of power, it’s the oldest trick in
the book; simply put, injustice thrives on apathy and apathy
flourishes in powerlessness. Although the 15-year-old, Morning
Star-reading me would be horrified to learn, that’s exactly what
happened to me as the years ticked by. The rallies, protests and
meetings I was attending weren’t changing anything; the bankers
were still getting away with it, ‘dem forriners’ were still being
blamed for everything, Everton were still crap. Why bother?
Well, luckily, I live in a city that reminds you why to bother.
Disclaimer: I’m in a band. We’re called The Shipbuilders. You
might have heard of us, you might not have, but over the past
few years, we’ve been lucky enough to know the good people
within the creative ranks who get up and stand up. We’ve been
part of nights that have raised money and supplies for homeless
charities, fundraisers for cancer research, even gigs to save the
bees. I don’t say this to paint us as saints (believe me, we’re far
from Heaven), but to demonstrate the power of music. What can
you do? Well, you do what you can, and in this case, we play gigs.
Much has been written about Liverpool’s spirit of protest; from
1911 and gunboats on the Mersey through to chasing fascists
out of Lime Street to the Benny Hill theme song – it’s a (rightly)
well-worn yarn and, thankfully, one that resonates through the
city’s independent art channels.
Which brings me onto the reason I write this piece. Chances
are, many reading this fine publication won’t have heard of
Rimrose Valley Country Park – I hadn’t before I moved north of
Old Swan, but on stumbling upon it, I was taken aback. Here is
a green space, tucked away between Bootle and Crosby, that
stretches for miles, with a canal running through it. It is home to
an array of amphibians, flora, birds and mammals – in the past
few months, deer have been spotted there. Deer, in Litherland!
Jays, the shimmering, secretive members of the crow family,
rarely seen, have recently taken nest there. It’s a green route for
families, runners and cyclists, a space for sports and is a genuine
haven of quiet in the middle of a busy, built up area.
You can guess what’s coming, can’t you?
In late 2014, following the expansion of the Port of Liverpool,
Highways England began considering ways to manage the
increased traffic from an already busy port. Why the expansion
of the port was given the green light before this was sorted
presents the first of many questions,
but let’s not focus too much on that bit
yet. Despite local protest, Highways
England opted that rather than a tunnel,
or expansion of any existing routes, the
best (read: cheapest) option was to build
a dual carriageway through Rimrose
Valley. Naturally, this is distressing in itself
– green spaces are sacred and diminishing
at an alarming rate, you don’t need me to
tell you that. Yet the wider implications
are more worrying – a recent report
examining the quality of air in areas near
busy ports and coastal towns estimates
that levels of air pollution are four times
higher than previously thought. Given that
the Port of Liverpool is already one of the
busiest in the country, the idea of further
contribution to pollution, at the expense
of a precious natural reserve, is simply
heartbreaking.
It gets better.
Throughout this period, Highways England were adamant
that this option was the only one that could ensure no houses
would be demolished and no families would be displaced.
Residents were assured in person. You’re probably ahead of
me here, but sure enough, come Summer 2018 and nearby
residents are advised to ring a hotline to discuss CPOs. CPOs are
compulsory purchase orders. Basically, you’re selling your house,
we’re knocking it down, and there’s naff all you can do. Trebles
all round. Mercifully, local MPs are against the road (although
Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham is notable by his silence) and
the decision to build the road has been taken back to judicial
review on the grounds that other options weren’t given enough
consideration; but the threat of concrete over grass still looms all
too large over the Valley. Rumours abound that staff have already
been hired to start work; Highways England are digging their
heels (and machinery) into the matter.
Of course, the situation is all too familiar on Merseyside,
with developers casting greedy eyes over Sefton Park and
Calderstones Park and property valued more than parkland,
with scant regard for the people who
use them and, you know, breathe in the
oxygen from the trees – yet this one
feels different. This is a dual carriageway
through a Country Park. You simply can’t
replace that. You can’t de-pollute the air.
You can rebuild houses, but you can’t
rebuild homes.
Yet thankfully, as insinuated earlier,
there are more than a bunch of us in
this city ready to fight this. No less than
Mick Head spoke about his disgust at the
plans at his recent gig at the Museum
Of Liverpool. An online petition has
garnered over 10,000 signatures, protests
have been well-attended and plans
are – naturally – afoot for gigs to raise
awareness and support for the Valley and
the cause, which I have been involved in
organising. Plans are not set in stone (or
Tarmac) yet, but genuinely big names from the music scene have
pledged their support and the numbers are growing by the day.
Information on the campaign can be found on Facebook
(Save Rimrose Valley) and updates regarding these gigs will be
posted on there; but before then, I’d urge anyone to jump the
train to Waterloo and take a stroll through the park and see what
we stand to lose.
What can you do? Plug in and make a fugging great big
racket about it, that’s what you can do. !
Words: Matty Loughlin-Day
Photography: Gary Young
saverimrosevalley.org
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