THE future of hundreds of trees in Liverpool's Sefton Park is expected to be sealed soon when a multi-million pound restoration plan is unveiled. Park users fear that up to 500 mature trees and seedlings could be at threat as part of a project to restore the park to its Victorian splendour. A team of experts drawing up ambitious plans, backed by Lottery funding, admit that a number of trees will have to come down, but say the final number has yet to be decided.
The trees at risk are decayed or dying, pose a health and safety hazard, or are not part of the original park landscape. A number in front of the Rath-bone monument are earmarked for the axe because they prevent the statue of the famous city benefactor from being seen from the Aigburth Vale end of the lake, as originally envisaged.
A walk-through was held yesterday to enable the team charged with drawing up the plans to hear the views of local organisations and park supporters. Next month, a public consultation exercise is likely to be held to give the general public a first glimpse of what will happen as part of the £6.5m restoration initiative. The plans will then be submitted to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for final approval, with work likely to start next year.
The threat to many healthy trees has concerned green-issues activist Lou McVey. She said: "I was brought up in the Scotland Road area and as children we came to Sefton Park to enjoy the spring blossoms every year and to enjoy the open air. It was a great experience for us to be brought here. Now I live closer to the park but I have no back garden and look upon the park as my own back yard. I accept that some of the trees will need to be cut down, but I want to make sure that as many healthy specimens as possible survive. Some have been standing for 50 years and deserve to survive.
I was shown a report which indicates that as many as 500 trees could be taken down. That seems a high number, but following representations by people like me it appears that a compromise may be on the horizon and some trees will be left to live out their natural lives. Until we see the precise numbers, we must remain alert to what is happening."
The council's parks development officer, Nigel Sharp, said: "We have been looking at three aspects of the park, its natural environment, access and security as well as events. There has not been a management plan for the park which has meant that no controlled maintenance has been able to take place. "We will be compiling a plan for the park looking at things such as a new kiosk and café and learning centre close to the lake, restoring the Peter Pan and Eros statues. The original water courses and features, such as the waterfalls, will also be restored. "Our hope is that the majority of the work will be finished by 2008 in our Capital of Culture year.When people talk of hundreds of trees coming down, it is scare-mongering.Some trees will go, but there will also be new tree planting schemes.We lost 750 trees to Dutch Elm disease some years ago and we have seen trees planted that were not part of the layout 130 years ago when the original designs were drawn."
The city's tree expert Giles Nance, team manager in the parks and environment directorate, said: "We are very conscious of the views of local people and will be as responsive as we can. The number of trees that do have to come down will be a very small number compared to the overall number. A lot of trees have self-seeded and in a normal management situation many of those would have been taken out."
It is likely that, when the final draft plans are unveiled, the number of trees under threat will be under 1% of the total number. The Lottery cash will mean that as many of the original features of the park as possible will be restored.
