Southport MP DamieMoore attacks Sefton Council nature crime

Damien Moore, MP for Southport, has attacked Labour-controlled Sefton Council’s alleged “nature crime [and] potential tree massacre” on Preston New Road in the Chamber of the House of Commons. 

In Environment Questions, when discussing biodiversity and rewilding, Mr. Moore raised constituent concerns that Sefton Council is planning to cut back the greenery along Southport’s pavements and replace it with concrete blocks for cycle lanes.

In the consultation document released by Sefton Council last year on the North-South Southport cycle lane extension plans, the Council included designs and measurements indicating how Southport’s roads and pavements will look if these cycle lanes were added.

On tree-lined Preston New Road, the Council stated that they intended for there to be 1.5 metres of green space on either side of the road. A team from Southport Conservatives went to Preston New Road to check the figures for themselves and found that the green spaces on either side currently measure around 4.5 metres.

This means that the Council would need to reduce the width of Preston New Road’s green spaces by around three metres on either side of the road.

The Minister, acknowledging Mr. Moore’s strong history in Parliament of calling for the protection of green spaces in Southport, pointed out that Sefton Council could replace these concrete blocks with hedges, which could have the added benefit of helping to tackle air pollution too.

Damien Moore, MP for Southport, said: “I share the view of residents that this nature crime and potential tree massacre would be completely unacceptable. It goes against the environmental principles on which I was elected, and as MP it is not something I can sit idly by and ignore.

“These cycle lanes are widely opposed by local residents, who rightly want to protect local businesses as we bounce back from Covid, not harm them by preventing access. If matters weren’t bad enough, we now find out that Southport’s biodiversity and greenery will be harmed in the process, which is simply unacceptable.

“It is clear that Labour want to press ahead with cycle lane plans following the local elections, supported by fence-sitting Lib Dems. Only by electing a strong team of Conservative councillors can we stop this from happening.”Rebecca Pow, Minister for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment, said:“Through our Environment Act 2021, we have a strengthened duty on local authorities to assess what they can do to further conservation and biodiversity, and we have placed a duty on designated authorities to produce these local nature recovery strategies.

“We also have that world-leading target to halt the decline in nature. So I urge him [Damien Moore] to work with [Sefton] Council and get it to do more.”

James Cullimore, Nature Spokesman for the Conservative Environment Network, said:

“Halting nature’s decline starts with small things like protecting verges and hedgerows. If we keep concreting over our precious green spaces, we not only damage local wildlife and biodiversity but make our communities less attractive places to live. I am delighted that Damien Moore MP raised this issue in Parliament.”