Well at least a school will serve the local community, and it has to go somewhere.

If it was a supermarket I would share your concerns but this is actually something GOOD to happen to the area IMO.

The point over Kensington's new school should not be confused.

I think people recognise there is a need for a better standard of school for local kids and although I don't particularly support church based education, on balance this is a positive thing.

The actual issue is the location. How many brownfield sites are there in Kensington? Lots. Where is the school being built? In a park, and not just on the brownfield bit. The points made in the initial comment are relevant. Despite promises of protection and that there would be no encroachment, this is what is happening. Despite promises that the school would not be visible, it is now up to 4 storeys.

Political info (seeing it is an election). The Lib Dems supported this. Labour didn't turn up. The Greens and Liberal party both opposed this (unsuccessfully). There are mutual endorsements on Green / Liberal local websites suggesting that if local people want to protest about this then to use their vote effectively. There are mostly Liberal candidates up against Lib Dem and Labour in that area of the city.

There are similar developments going on all over the city, where little bits of the parkland are edged away to developments, both residential and social. The point is that we never get these areas back. It is about time that Liverpool started creating some green spaces where there is empty housing to improve the quality of life for the residents that wish to remain.

Labour did turn up at the area committees and at the planning committee one of their fellas spoke about the damage to the environment, traffic chaos (he was involved with transport he said) and lack of consultation. So it is unfair to say that Labour didn't turn up.

The Area Committee where we successfully sent back the initial plans (which made provision for just 18 car parking spaces), we had 3 Lib Dem councillors, 3 Liberal councillors and a Green candidate in the audience. The panel commented that no one from Labour had turned up. No one spoke up to say they were there.

In at least one area committee meeting, Labour did not turn up.

"And a Green candidate in the audience"

Who didn't mention the fact that they were from the Green party. I know because I was there too!

The secretary of the local Labour Party attends all area committees. Just because he wasn't recognised and he didn't shout out that he was from the Labour party doesn't mean he wasn't there!

And, before you ask, yes I am a member of the Labour party as well. And no, I am not an official within it!!

I don't seem to remember anyone standing up at the planning committee and stating they were from the Green Party. A lot of residents (speaking as residents), someone reading from nature and conservation organisation letters, Liberals, Labour and Lib Dems (though the latter were speaking for the Academy along with the developers and 1 local woman). No Greens though. At least, none willing to admit they were from the Green Party!

ONE ENVIRONMENTAL ACADEMY, ONE BULLDOZING BISHOP, ONE LIB DEM COUNCIL AND 450 DEAD TREES!

You have to realise that the land grab on Newsham Park is just one bit of a long running city wide asset strip of greenspace across Liverpool. It's been going on for 20 years now under both Labour and Lib-Dems. Hundreds if not thousands of acres have now gone. The current leadership promised in 1997 to stop this transfer and put the parks in trust for the people. This admirable promise they have since quietly dropped.

Along with Stanley Park, Princes Park, Springfield Park, Rathbone Park, Botanic Park, the Dixie Dean Playing Fields and others, beautiful Newsham Park is now under siege from developers encouraged by the city council to take away public spaces enjoyed by the community for over 140 years.

In Kensington we are all in favour of new schools and refurbished houses but not at the expense of our shared jewel in the crown, Grade II Listed Newsham Park.

We all know the council has a poorly hidden agenda to soften up the whole southern side of Newsham Park for lucrative commercial and housing development. In a BBC TV investigation for North West Tonight last year (August 7th), journalist Jim Hancock and Labour Councillor Paul Brant revealed that the council had shown a whole third of the park (between Prospect Vale and the railway) as zoned for development on secret maps sent to private house builders. Mr Henshaw promised answers but to the best of anyone's knowledge did not deliver any. /Building over much of the park is their real aim and people of all parties and none must be ready to fight it.

The Bishop of Liverpool has admitted to Kensington residents that the council actually asked the Academy Board to take even more of the park than they are currently doing. The planner’s report approving the Academy said the southern boundary of the park was at Gardeners Drive – that means the 100m wide strip of Victorian park in front of Carstairs Road is effectively no longer being protected from profit making developers by the planning system, despite being clearly covered by the council's own conservation area and historic park policies!

This attack on our heritage and recreation space is wrong, especially in Kensington where few people have back gardens and overall public health is below average. The public have not been consulted on these stealth policy changes, and no independent scrutiny has been given. All over Liverpool a pattern is emerging of council approved grabs on public space, while nearby derelict land stays an eyesore.

The Anfield Academy is to be built on the Dixie Dean Playing Fields in Everton, the new LFC stadium is taking away 50% of Stanley Park (going way beyond the car park area onto public sports pitches), bulldozers are right now ripping up Princes Park to build flats and Alder Hey is to expand onto the park next door. Liverpool Land and Development Company are said to be negotiating with developers over land on Botanic Park and Rathbone Park along Edge Lane.

Maybe some of these regeneration proposals are good in themselves, but why must we and our children pay such a heavy cost when so many better alternatives are available? Why can’t new buidlings go on long term brownfield land like the massive old Stanley Market or the former tram works on Edge Lane?

It is because plans like the Academy set a precedent that eases further building on lucrative green land that the council is pushing them through without proper scrutiny or criticism.

You may well wonder what happened to the council’s pledges that ‘city parks are safe forever’ and in a land trust beyond the reach of developers. Why don't you ask your local councillor?

Kensington residents fighting for Newsham Park sought legal advice from a firm of environmental solicitors called Earthrights and a top London barrister, Robert Maccracken QC. They were told there is an arguable case to seek to overturn the Academy planning decision – in other words, it may be illegal. The Bishop and the council have pledged that the public recreational value of the park would not be affected, but this is untrue given that part of it has been built on and part will be turned over to the school’s exclusive use as playing fields. These play areas will probably have to be fenced and floodlit in future to enable the school to get public liability insurance. Fenced or not, this changes forever the character of the park (undermining the original designers ethos of creating a ‘rural illusion' – i.e. bringing the countryside into the city) and makes further development far more likely – exactly the secret council agenda exposed by the BBC in August.

Newsham Park campaigners mustered very strong support, not least from national campaign group the CPRE (they have 200,000 members!), who have thrown their weight behind groups across the city fighting loss of greenspace. The CPRE wrote to the Bishop of Liverpool asking him to disassociate himself from being used in this way. National bodies the Victorian Society, Garden History Society and Save Britain's Heritage all lent their moral weight to the objections to the proposals, as did Liverpool's own Hollywood mogul Alex Cox along with decorated war hero and SAS man turned architecture Professor the late great Quentin Hughes! In the elections Labour, the Liberals and the Conservative candidates (!) locally also campaigned firmly against use of this parkland site.

In many people's opinion the 'Bulldozing' Bishop probably now realises the Kensington community cannot accept the school where it is, and that he has been unwittingly used to undermine city wide parks protection. There has been a terrible mistake. But even when confronted by unanimous objection from the Local Area Committee to the plans as submitted, the Church refused pleas to request urgently that the city council offer the Academy Board a genuine brownfield site not zoned for recreation and conservation. Bishop James has consistently and incorrectly denied the site is one zoned on the local plan as Historic park, undermining his and the Academy's credibility from the off.

To decide for yourselves please go up Balmoral Road (off Kensington) and take a look for yourselves at the fence now biting off a chunk of ancient public greenspace that had been accessible for over a century until 6 weeks ago!

Newsham Park Keeper's analysis of the situation in Newsham Park (and also other parks) is a great example of the debate we should be having here (as opposed to who turned up, who did not etc). Surely the real issue is the park itself and its innate value and not political point scoring. That said, it may sound like I am doing so when I say that the Lib Dems have let down not just the people of Liverpool today but our future generations when they allow our green spaces to be built upon.

The 3 Lib Dem local councillors in the ward (Doran, Kendrick, Marbrow) have shown a blatant disregard for the people of the area and, indeed, for their position as representatives of the people. They paid lip-service to the many impassioned protestors who stuck to the system when they turned up at area committees (ALL of them), planning applications and site visits. Where was the listening happening then?

It is true that building a facility as large as this in Newsham will have dire consequences for the health and well-being of local residents. And this is not NIMBYism. The residents wanted better schools for kids present and future and suggested far more sensible locations but to no avail. And it is a "creeping" mentality. As soon as one bit goes then the rest doesn't seem so sacred.
The consideration for traffic volumes was pitiful and I can guarantee that, unless something is done here, that local residents will suffer and Newsham Park will become a car park at peak school hours. That is scandalous. Public Health should not be jeopardised through some romantic notion that we are "helping the kids", especially when the truth is we are not.

ALL of the opposition parties (both large and small) were against this and had the backing of large parts of the community. Those in favour of the build showed that they cared little and wanted to emotionally blackmail people into agreeing because "it is a school for the kids". The Labour Govt would have given the money regardless of whether the school was situated at Newsham or Edge Lane or wherever. It is a blatant lie to say otherwise.

Far better that money was spent investing in our parks so that they become places people want to visit, places where people feel they are away from things, closer to nature and free from life's stresses once in a while. Tackle the safety issues and antisocial behaviour issues of parks and you begin to really tackle those problems on the street. Our parks are the lungs of the city and should be treated as such. Building on them sends out a signal that we just don't care.

This council will go on getting away with these practices as long as people keep voting them back in, time after time, failing to see through their spin and hollow words. Those of you who have seen my writings here will know that I am a Labour supporter, but I say here that in instances like this, vote for whoever as long as the Lib Dems are booted out. The sooner the better. The parks aren't safe in their hands and neither is the city.

I hope the campaigners are successful in their protests. It will be a fine day when Liverpool is able to actually say that the whole city is for living in, not building on or profiting from.

Thanks to Ed and many others for his/her support. The point about health is absolutely spot on and gets to the heart of why the current unspoken policy to build on public space is profoundly immoral whatever your political colour.

Kensington for example (and likewise Anfield and Everton) have mortality rates approaching twice the national average - that means in each age group twice as many people die per year as is normal for the UK. City of Culture indeed!

(Of course, the Academy will join the other great monument to the Bishop's shiny New Kensington - a Mcdonald's on a key site in the middle of the area!)

In such dense areas of terraced houses, flats and bedsits, most people have access to just small yards at best. The great green lungs like lovely Newsham Park keep body and soul together for many people of all ages, and have remained hitherto un-punctured by development through boom and bust, war and peace... until now.

The laughably branded 'Environmental Academy' with its warm 'green ethos' and 'Christian values' (but no penny of hard investment in the park's long promised regeneration!) will put intolerable pressure on this restorative tranquility.

Surely this is a disgrace in an area already burdened by complex health, housing, traffic and environmental problems?

Doubtless Bishop James meant well in building the school Kensington has long needed, but falling into the council's land grabbing hands has done the area and his reputation a huge disservice.

I wonder if the Bishop thinks about this as he wanders the several acre private park surrounding his wonderful rent free Palace in leafy Woolton?

Hopefully he is not too deep in prayerful contemplation about his next book on the environment or pious speech on Thought for the Day to worry about the health of those around the city's first major public park.

You could always ask him - his website helpfully gives his contact details.

Bishop of Liverpool
Rt Rev James Jones
Bishop’s Lodge, Woolton Park
Liverpool L25 6DT
Tel: 0151-421 0831 Fax: 0151-428 3055
Email:  Bishopslodge@liverpool.anglican.org

To see how much store you can place by his continuing pledge that no part of the open park would be lost and no trees felled you can visit the local community's campaign website at:

www.savenewshampark.org.uk

and please spread the word - we will be updating it very soon with new pictures of the appalling 10 foot fence and the tree felling.

We'll be holding another fund raiser at some point to follow up the successful ParkLIVE event where some 500 people turned up to enjoy bands, competitions and comics at the Dockers Club and raise money for the legal fighting fund.

The CPRE Liverpool is having a march for the parks soon too from the Pier Head through town, info from

 Terryh48@hotmail.com

Newsham Park users believed for too long the firm pledges from Lib Dem councillors and the Bishop of Liverpool that no park would be lost and no trees felled - rest assured, we won't get fooled again!

Help us make sure the Land Grab stops here.

Good debate about the park at last! Many Kensington people very much agree with the points made.

You might be interested to know that Liverpool City Council are being investigated by independent watchdog the Local Government Ombudsman for causing injustice through 'maladministration' regarding their drive to build on Newsham Park (You can see what counts as maladministration at the LGO website, www.lgo.org.uk - it covers all sorts of nasty and corrupt things!).

In the case of the Kensington Academy on Newsham Park, the ombudsman investigators are concerned about the way the city planners steamrollered this decision through against their own policies, and the pressure put on the committee to approve against the local statutory plan framework. They are also looking at whether the land transfer was carried out appropriately.

Residents have complained about inadequate consultation (even the Bishop and Councillor Marbrow admitted it was 'botched' and confused). They also feel it was unreasonable for the council to claim the development 'preserves and enhances' the park conservation area.

If you think the city have not been even handed or open in the way they've dealt with this you can still complain and add your voice to the ombudsman's investigation - write to or email:

Matthew English
Local Government Ombudsman
Beverley House
17 Shipton Road
York
YO30 5FZ
 st3york@lgo.org.uk

I AM IN THE PROCESS OF BUYING A FAMILY HOME IN BALMORAL RD. I HAVE FOUR CHILDREN AND ONE OF THE MAIN ATTRACTIONS TO THAT AREA IS NEWSHAM PARK.
IT WOULD BE DEVASTATING TO SEE NEWSHAM PARK DIVIDED UP AND DEVELOPERS CONTINUE TO CONSTRUCT WITH LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCILS APPROVAL EVEN THOUGH THE PROPER PROCEEDURES HAVE NOT BEEN ADHERED TO.