We are pleased  to publish here a letter written by veteran community campaigner, and staunch supporter of Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital Campaign, Maria Oreilly

Maria writes to protest the idea of building,  on the grass area immediately opposite the hospital and building high flats on this narrow strip of land. Please give Maria and the local community your support

To whom it make concern

Re Parliament Street Planning Consent June 2019

I wish to raise objection to the decision to allow the high rise development on the grass verge, lined with eco-friendly trees, opposite the women’s hospital and on the same side as  Princes School the brain injuries unit , which is  overlooking the social housing estate of pensioners’ bungalows and multiracial young families social housing homes.

I believe this decision  is flying in the face of all the policy development the council is beginning to look at re climate change  environmental and clean air, in addition, the council’s responsibilities for the health and well-being of its citizens  is compromised  by this decision

This is a  multiracial area  set in a beautiful natural  environmental setting  which contributes immeasurably  to air quality and the impact of air pollution on residents young children   young newborn babies  at the women’s hospital and disabled children and  the brain injury disabled  residents

Parliament Street is a busy road which already has pollution from traffic travelling into the city, industrial sites Renshaw’s and  Parliament Business Park which adds to traffic accessing the sites it is the main thoroughfare for traffic and busy bus route into the city centre. This street coupled with Georgian residential buildings and tree-lined green space  is both attractive and contributes much to the air quality

In 2018  I submitted a report from American environmentalists to the then chair of neighbourhood and communities cabinet member Steve Mumby and Cllr  Natalie Nicolas which gave scientific evidence of the damage air pollution caused to the neurological development of children and the negative effects on the elderly and those with chest and heart and lungs problems.

I circulated this document as  I was concerned for the children at school on Laurence Road which( besides being open to passersby to converse with the children, which is a safeguarding issue, due to inadequate fencing)  has little tree or greenery to combat the constant air pollution caused by traffic which constantly travels within 5/6 foot of the playground

This  American report raised serious concerns for the neurological development of children and its findings showed that those areas most affected were areas  of deprivation and were predominately those of minority African American and Latino schoolchildren  were schooled

I understand Cllr Noakes now has clean air  responsibility and in a city with a confirmed health  threat already to our lungs  and the fact that a baby  born today in Liverpool will have thirteen years less good health than  a baby born in Richmond  we should be concerned

About building on a green space in this location on Parliament Street, removing mature trees and increasing pollution the city council planning permission awarded for this development, despite opposition from residents local councillors and the scientific evidence in the council’s possession. This flies in the face of good governance, and the logic of policy debate on climate change and doesn’t show joined-up thinking across Cabinet. One thing laughing at the other?

I also wonder, as a matter of equal treatment of its citizens,  if Liverpool City Council  had decided to grant planning permission in  Allerton, as an example, for a  high rise block to overlook a settled  homeownership community, on one of their  tree-lined grass verges, destroying trees, overlooking homes, invading privacy, increasing traffic next to a school and a brain injury unit, and opposite a maternity hospital,  thus  increasing air pollution,  would it have sailed through without call in? There would have been protest at that, even without the additional scientific aggravating factors of the effect of air quality and neurological damage on children etc

I doubt you would have even considered it!!!!!

I believe this needs an environmental health impact assessment given its location and proximity to those with disabilities and young children and this development’s potential  impact raises important social and health factors  so serious that an equality assessment  is needed urgently as  it raises  a poverty issue, disability and race equality issues

I understand the three councillors for the ward have objected and that  Cllr Emily Spurrell planning committee objected along with residents,   the issues I raise add to these objections and should be cause to reconsider and rescind this planning decision.

Yours faithfully

Maria O’Reilly