Photo: Michael Fahy
Save Rimrose Valley campaigners are hitting the road on Friday 26th August [1] in the latest action to highlight their opposition to National Highways’ controversial A5036 Port of Liverpool Access Road proposal [2].
They will travel from Sefton in Merseyside to Manchester before marching to National Highways’ regional headquarters in the city centre. Young supporters of the campaign will hand over letters and materials produced by local school children, requesting that plans to bulldoze Rimrose Valley Country Park be cancelled.
This latest protest follows last year’s mass demonstration at the Port of Liverpool itself, which saw around 1,000 people turn out to demand that the port access road be cancelled [3].
Already years behind schedule, National Highways recently confirmed that the scheme has been delayed by a further 12 months whilst it carries out new traffic surveys [4].
Speaking ahead of the demonstration on behalf of Save Rimrose Valley, Stuart Bennett said:
“We’re really excited to be taking our message direct to National Highways. We’ll be calling in on our friends at outdoor clothing company, Patagonia [5], who have supported our work for several years. We’ll then march through Manchester city centre to hand over some amazing letters and pictures prepared by local schoolchildren. These show just how much they care about Rimrose Valley so we hope they will strike a chord with senior management at National Highways.
“There are a handful of seats remaining on the coach, so if anyone wants to join us, they need to book quickly. This will be a positive and fun day out for old and young alike, but we’ll be delivering a serious message. It is completely unacceptable to be trashing a country park to enable more HGVs and traffic on our roads. We need better solutions which respect our local environment, our communities, our health and wellbeing and the planet. Roads do none of these things. Continued delays to this project are an indication of just how unpopular it has become, but we must keep up the fight until this scheme is cancelled.”
For more details on the action, including how to register for a seat on the coach from South Sefton in Merseyside, head to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manchester-demo-tickets-382820074147
ENDS
[1] Draft details including an approximate itinerary here
[2] Link to summary of Port of Liverpool Access Scheme and their latest update here:
[3] Press release on last year’s demo here
[4] The new traffic surveys are to take account of changes since Brexit, the new Freeport in the Liverpool City Region, changes in travel since Covid and other factors such as lower GDP and the high cost of fuel.
[5] Patagonia’s regional store is based in Manchester. Link to Patagonia Action Works page here