Bus lanes suspended from Monday

I've blogged before about the Council's plan to suspend all the bus lanes in Liverpool.

It starts on Monday and you may see people out and about this weekend removing signs or covering up lines.

The Mayor says this is to deal with congestion.  He claimed there was lots of evidence of lanes causing problems.

He seems to have back pedalled a bit now and is saying that this is in fact a trial with people having the next six months to send their views in.

The Council website does not, as yet, have a link for people to do this.  When it appears though,I'll make sure I put it on the blog.

Frankly to suspend the lot without proper evidence strikes me as a pretty dangerous and ill thought out thing to do.  Surely lanes could have been reviewed in groups.

I was cycling along Childwall Valley Road the other day - in a bus lane.  If you live in Netherley or Belle Vale and commute by public transport, this is your only option (no trains here).  I wonder how much slower that bus journey (from a deprived area in to where the jobs are) will be.  Its certainly not going to be faster for those without a car.  And the cyclists?  Well if that bus lane becomes a busy jostling mix of cars and buses we can take a risk or be on the pavement. And no amount of press releases about "sustainable transport plans" will make a difference.

New houses - Garston Park Church grounds?

A planning application's come in for the church hall at Garston Park Church to be demolished and for a small number of houses to be built there.

You can see the details and comment on plans at this link.

The comment deadline's in early November

Bonfire night events

There are some big organised bonfire night events in Merseyside this year.

Here's a link to a list of some of them.

Bin service changes - update

People  all over Liverpool are this week being told their bins will only be emptied once a fortnight (purple bins).

It doesn't affect everyone but it does affect  a large proportion of households.

At the same time the Council's come up with a new policy on bin collections which has been a lot less publicised than the collection frequency.

You can read the whole document at this link but  the key points are:

* bins are supposed to be out by 6 45 am and back in by 8pm on collection day (good luck checking up on that one!)

* if your bin is damaged or stolen you may have to pay for a replacement (there's an element of discretion here but it would be wrong to assume it's all going to be free)

* if your bin is "too heavy" or the lid won't go down, the binmen won't take it  Instead there'll be a sticker or a note to say its not been collected because of this.  It's then up to you to reduce the load before the next collection .  Given the move to once a fortnight, it's not clear exactly where anyone will put this waste in the meantime.

* you can get an extra bin if you have special circumstances.  It sounds like these are very limited.  (Interestingly a resident in South Liverpool with very special circumstances phoned about the problems fortnightly collections would cause them and instead of being told about this potential option was told to buy a composter.  A bit of consistency would be nice)

Some of the things in the policy make sense, but if the Council thinks its a good idea to not empty very full bins on the assumption that the refuse will disappear over the next fortnight it is very, very  wrong.  Flytipping anyone???

Update on school expansion proposals

Fuller details about proposals to expand Gilmour Infants and Gilmour Junior schools are now available at this link
http://liverpool.gov.uk/council/consultation/gilmour-infant-and-junior-schools-expansion/

This web section will also tell you what consultation is taking place and how to comment.

Cycling in Liverpool

If you a cyclist, or potential cyclist, in Liverpool there's a chance this month to give your views.

The City Council is drawing up a new "cycling strategy" and it's looking for views on the draft by 28 October.

The link to the document (its nearly 50 pages but it really is a quick read) is at this web address
http://liverpool.gov.uk/council/consultation/consultation-on-draft-cycling-strategy-for-liverpool/

The draft was written in the summer so there are no mentions of the suspension of bus lanes but that doesn't mean you can't comment on the implications of that decision for cyclists if you want to.

Campaign to Save the Meadowlands - update 10 October

I've blogged previously about the Labour City Council's persistent desire to sell off this piece of land at Sefton Park and the campaign to stop that happening.

Tomorrow (11th October) sees the next stage with the Council's Cabinet meeting to make a decision in the light of the more than 1,200 objections sent in and the Regeneration Committee's support for the sale.

However the campaign to Save Sefton Park Meadows has also moved on with an attempt to get the piece of land given Grade 1 listed status.  This could put a spoke in the wheel of the rush to sale.

I'll update again when I have more news.