Focus of work
With FIT’s support, Rimrose Valley Friends campaigned to protect the park and surrounding communities from the impact of the government’s proposed Port of Liverpool access road for seven long years, leading to its cancellation in October 2024.
However, no alternative plans have been put forward to improve access to the port in a sustainable manner. Without these, Rimrose Valley remains at risk of the road proposal being revisited, while the the dependency on road freight and HGV use through a predominantly residential area is perpetuated.
This project will produce a technical report on port transport data and travel patterns to stimulate consideration among key stakeholders of non-road options. Once complete, the report will be widely publicised in both digital and print format.
Impact
Issues around access to and from the Port of Liverpool have dogged the local community for decades. Ideally, the port would be directly connected to both the national rail and road networks. However, in Liverpool, this connection is problematic because of the presence of residential zones and industrial buildings, forcing the vast majority of freight onto a road network that is struggling to cope.
Rimrose Valley Friends is seeking for Liverpool to become an exemplar in how to innovatively tackle this problem in a way that protects surrounding communities and the environment, but also facilitates the port’s ambitions for growth.
This project seeks to demonstrate how a reduction in road freight is possible through more efficient use of the existing rail network, greater use of the River Mersey and other potential options. If successful, it will deliver transformative change for the port and local communities, as well as create a template for other UK ports to follow.