Unique Wildlife Reserve Threatened By Massive Road Building Project - The Fight For Rimrose Valley

"...as is often the way with precious and beautiful places, Rimrose Valley Park has been earmarked for development by those who would nurture profit over nature...."

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot", wrote Joni Mitchell back in 1970, lamenting the loss of precious green spaces to development.
Now, in an era when we know the consequences of destroying our natural resources, those prophetic words of warning seem ever more poignant. Those in power continue to choose ignorance and greed over a moral and ethical obligation to preserve what little remains of our countryside. They release sacred green belt to dubious development, they chop down trees, cover hedgerows with plastic nets and build car parks and supermarkets over untouched countryside. 
They still 'pave paradise' in spite of everything.
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Rimrose Valley Park - a green lung in an industrial landscape
Recently I wrote an article describing the loss of a much loved urban park in Liverpool, England, recklessly bulldozed to make way for proposed office space, in spite of brave efforts from locals to save one of the last green spaces remaining in their city.
No sooner had I published that article than I was contacted by a member of another group of campaigners, from the same area, who are locked in a desperate battle to save their own precious natural resource. If the planners get their way, which is looking increasingly likely, locals in Sefton, just north of Liverpool, will see a massive six lane carriageway driven right through their treasured country park.
Rimrose Valley is a wonderful 300 acre parkland, which nestles amid the urban conurbations of north Merseyside, literally providing a breath of fresh air in the midst of a largely industrial landscape. Indeed it is known as the 'green lung' of Sefton.
This beautiful, natural wilderness is under imminent threat of being cut entirely in two by the huge new road project, which will destroy everything in its path.  
Rimrose is not your average park. Here, several diverse habitats, including ecologically sensitive reed beds, meadows and woodland, form a valuable space for nature to thrive and for people to enjoy. The valley itself was formed more than a million years ago and many rare and endangered species survive in this unique environment.
The current park was created from waterlogged wasteland in the early 1990's, and has since become a very important wildlife sanctuary of national significance.

Rare Natural Habitat
Rimrose is home to at least two types of Orchid, together with a host of rare birds including several types of Warbler and Bunting, along with Snipe, Water Rail and Woodcock.
The elusive and legally protected Water Vole has also made its home here, with a number of colonies of this endangered species having been identified within the park.
And more wildlife continues to move in to this unique habitat - locals have recently reported catching tantalizing glimpses of wild deer and red squirrels.
Accessible by public transport and wheelchair friendly throughout, this much loved park is not only a valuable ecosystem but also a priceless asset to the local community.

But, as is often the way with precious and beautiful places, Rimrose Valley Park has been earmarked for development by those who would nurture profit over nature.

Compromise Too Expensive Says Highways England...
The problems began when plans to expand the nearby Port of Liverpool highlighted a need for improved transport links connecting the port to the national motorway network further north.
A proposal had been put forward to improve and upgrade an already existing 'A' road which would have saved the park, but this compromise was rejected by the Government agency Highways England, who are overseeing the whole project.
Many of those fighting to save Rimrose recognise and accept the need to improve local infrastructure, and so they backed a second alternative plan that would have catered to both the logistical requirements of the urban transport network and the critical need to secure protection for the Rimrose Valley Park. Instead of ploughing a dual carriageway through the park, which would entirely destroy the habitat of hundreds of species of plants, animals and insects, it was suggested that a tunnel could be constructed for part of the route underneath the park. But Highways England rejected this compromise too, citing the cost to be an issue, in spite of similar multi-billion pound projects that have been approved in London and Wiltshire.... leading to accusations of North/South double standards. 
Now, unless protesters can somehow overturn the decision, the huge dual carriageway will be built right through the centre of the park and the unthinkable now seems inevitable.
There could have been a balance, addressing the needs of both the environment and industrial development. But it was ignored in favour of short term financial gain.

"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone".
For many of us, the thought of industrial expansion determining the survival or demise of our increasingly precious natural landscapes does not sit comfortably in an age when we all know that we are killing our planet. What we choose to do now will affect our world for centuries to come. 
So, Rimrose, in many ways, is a symbol of the choice we have to make between allowing human infrastructure to dominate and destroy - and taking a step back to see a bigger picture, where our own survival depends on the decisions we make today to protect the environment - and ultimately ourselves. We are, after all, a part of the ecosystem.
And it usually doesn't have to be a stark choice. We can accommodate both our needs and the needs of nature. Indeed we have to.
"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone".
Now, nearly 50 years on from Joni Mitchell's lament, we still find them taking our open spaces away from us, against our will.
We know the consequences and, however loud we protest, it feels like they don't listen.

Rimrose: The Fight Goes On
But the Rimrose Valley campaigners valiantly fight on, co-ordinating efforts to save their park and still ambitious with their plans to enhance this very special place. They are currently raising funds to create a wildflower meadow at Rimrose, which would be the biggest in the whole city region, you can donate to this project HERE.
Meanwhile, they have a petition aimed at stopping the dual carriageway HERE.
More information at: www.rimrosevalleyfriends.org and www.saverimrosevalley.org

Rimrose Valley Park - under threat from a massive road building project. photo © David Lawler