Sefton Park Meadows

Will this be the last time that we get to see Autumn in Sefton Park Meadows? The Mayor of Liverpool wants to sell them for luxury house development. He argues that the council needs the capital that would be realised through a sale, and the revenue that would be generated by council tax from high value properties. Needless to say, local people are not happy. The Meadows lie next to Sefton Park itself, separated by the perimeter road. (You can just see some traffic on this road in this picture).

An interesting comparison with Berlin, where its Mayor wanted to sell off some of Berlin Templehof airfield for housing development. This had been Germany's biggest airfield, and was one of those used during the Berlin air drop, but has not been used for planes for a while given its location in the city. 30,000 people signed a petition calling for a referendum, which was duly held. Over 80% voted against and the plans were dropped. We cycled out there on an autumn Sunday afternoon, and although it has practically no facilities, it was being used by large numbers of Berlin residents engaged in a whole variety of pursuits. It is now Germany's largest public park.