BROOKIE creator Phil Redmond couldn’t have scripted it better, but today it was revealed eco-warrior and green campaigner Simon O’Brien is to chair Mayor Joe Anderson’s "Green" strategy group.
The group will be tasked with scrutinising green space usage and helping to formulate the
city’s Local Plan as well advising the council on how to make Liverpool a sustainable city going forward into the 21st century.
Over the next two years the committee will oversee the environmental aspect of all areas of the Local Plan as it is drafted for presentation to central government by 2017.
One green space excluded from the task is Woolton Woods, epicentre of a
campaign led by O’Brien to stop land being taken for the proposed new St Julie’s High School.
It was O'Brien who arranged for a pilotless drone to fly over the historic parkland to capture a shot of opponents spelling out the words "Not Here".
O'Brien spearheading the Save Woolton Woods campaign
Speaking his new appointment O'Brien said: “As a truly independent person with no affiliations or political axe to grind, just someone who is passionately interested about the future of our incredible city, I have decided that this is an amazing chance to influence the process from an ecological point of view which is often still lacking when grand plans are being formulated.
“I want Liverpool to be mentioned in the same breath as Copenhagen, Curitiba and Vancouver when it comes to sustainable development. I can’t wait to get started by finding the right people to form the committee which will then take a long hard look at the early draft of the Local Plan, ask relevant and awkward questions as well as bringing fresh ideas and thinking to the process.”
The Local Plan contains a list of sites capable of being developed in the future for housing or other schemes. The list includes the Meadowlands in Sefton Park as well as Walton Hall Park, earmarked as a potential new home for Everton FC.
Mayor Anderson said: "We are committed to producing a visionary Local Plan which will guide Liverpool's growth, economic development and regeneration while crucially protecting its heritage and green space.
"Therefore the city will proceed with gathering robust and current evidence and assess demand for new housing, employment, leisure, recreation, shopping and other uses.
As Damon Grant in Brookie"However, Liverpool's residents need to have the confidence that this process will examine the sustainability of our current green space for the future and I am pleased that Simon O'Brien has agreed to chair the independent review of our green space and the recommendations from the strategy group will help inform the process we are going through."
O'Brien became a household name as a teenager playing Damon Grant in Brookside, working alongside screen parents Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston.
He lives in Woolton vilage and away from his life as an actor, he is a respected environmentalist.
O'Brien spearheading the Save Woolton Woods campaign
As Damon Grant in Brookie"However, Liverpool's residents need to have the confidence that this process will examine the sustainability of our current green space for the future and I am pleased that Simon O'Brien has agreed to chair the independent review of our green space and the recommendations from the strategy group will help inform the process we are going through."
