On Wednesday 30th October 2024, after 7 long years of campaigning, the Port of Liverpool Access Road was finally cancelled in the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget. Despite this having been a possibility, the news still came as a shock to both the campaign team and the public and took some time to sink in.

Once the dust had settled, the community gathered on Rimrose Valley on Sunday 17th November to celebrate the news together, to hear from local politicians and environmental groups and to give thanks that the shadow of the road project, which had hung over the area for so long, had gone away.

This episode of ‘We Said No’ captures what was said on the day, what it means for the campaign, and the work that is still to be done. It also touches on what the decision means for the future of the park and the work that Rimrose Valley Friends wishes to do in the future.

On Sunday 28th July, the Save Rimrose Valley campaign staged “Liverpool’s Most Wuthering Heights Day… Ever” at Rimrose Valley Country Park.

The event, which celebrated Kate Bush’s birthday, saw hundreds of people from across Liverpool and beyond gather on the park to recreate the iconic contemporary dance routine which accompanies “Wuthering Heights”. The song that launched her stellar career in 1978.

Similar public performances are held across the globe each year, but this was believed to be the first time Liverpool has hosted the event.

Every year, we try to do something a little different to bring people together, to raise awareness of our wonderful park and to highlight our campaign to save it from destruction. This year, we went for something VERY different and were blown away by the response.

Events like this are not only fun; they’re incredibly important to local communities as they bring people together, break down barriers and get people active in the great outdoors. None of this would be possible if National Highways’ plans to bulldoze Rimrose Valley Country Park were to go ahead.

This episode of ‘We Said No’ tells the story of how the event came together. The preparations, the people involved, and how this amazing coming together of communities happened.

In this special edition of our podcast series we are revisiting the topic of air pollution. We last covered this in 2021 and heard about just some of the impacts the poor air quality in our part of Sefton has on people’s lives.

In this episode, we delve even deeper into the subject. Our charity, Rimrose Valley Friends, recently secured funding to raise awareness of this issue from Community Foundation for Merseyside’s “Breathe Better Air Fund”. As part of our “Let’s put the brakes on pollution” project we’ll be learning not just about the issues we experience today, but crucially, what we as individuals can do about it.

Here are some links for further information of some of the subjects covered in this episode.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-principles-policy-statement/environmental-principles-policy-statement#:~:text=The%20polluter%20pays%20principle,damage%2C%20or%20the%20wider%20community.

https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/what-is-the-polluter-pays-principle/

https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/regulations/polluter-pays-principle/

https://neweconomics.org/2022/12/making-polluters-pay