Garden Festival site will be ‘help’ for wildlife

Nov 3 2007 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

AN ECOLOGIST has claimed wildlife habitats in the south Liverpool’s Garden Festival site will be improved if a proposed development is given the go-ahead.

During the fourth day of a public inquiry into the planning application for 1,300 homes at Otterspool, Paul Chester acknowledged the current ecological worth of the area, but said development by Langtree McClean would help to improve the majority of the site as the habitats would be managed.

But campaigners opposing the development claimed certain creatures, such as butterflies and skylarks, would be driven away due to the plans, a claim Mr Chester rejected.

Paul Slatter, representing the Mersey Estuary Conservation Group, said his organisation was also unhappy with the way preliminary work had been carried out.

However, Mr Chester told the inquiry the growth of flora such as Japanese knot weed was reducing the land’s ecological value and, if left, would cause more damage.

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He said: “My overall conclusion with regard to ecological value is that, whilst the former Garden Festival site is undoubtedly a habitat which is unusual and of high value in the context of North Merseyside, it is, nevertheless, a habitat which is declining in value and which is in urgent need of restoration.”

He added: “While the proposed development will result in some permanent habitat losses, the implementation of such measures (land management) within the remaining parts is, in my opinion, fundamental to the retention and enhancement of biodiversity.”

The inquiry will conclude on Friday, November 19.