A LIVERPOOL-born star of Sex And The City has become embroiled in a row with Liverpool's mayor over Sefton Park Meadowlands after posing for a picture for campaigners during a flying visit.

New York-based actress Kim Cattrall, 58, paid a weekend visit to the city where she was born and visited Sefton Park.

There she spoke to activists battling to stop Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson from selling an area of meadow for an executive housing development and had her picture taken under a campaign poster.

The mayor is selling the tree-lined parkland off for "villas" which he says will raise money for the city treasury following drastic spending cuts imposed by the government. Redrow has been named as the “preferred developer”/

The actress, whose Liverpool family emigrated to Canada when she was young, told campaigners how she "loves Sefton Park and grew up playing there as a child”.

She said: "Sefton Park was a refuge for my mother during her childhood years because her father disappeared and she didn’t have much, so visits to Sefton Park represented every holiday she ever had.

"So it’s very sad what’s going on right now with the meadows, and I feel that my involvement with that, it feels from my mum as well. I first told her about it and she said ‘that’s just not right, this is the people’s land’ and I believe that as well.

"I was there [on Saturday] and we took some pictures. It’s so pastoral, it’s so beautiful and it gives people a place to contemplate and play and walk and we need that barrier between the houses and the park. So I’m very disappointed that the Mayor has made the decisions that he has.”

But Mayor Anderson hit back, asking: "what does a Hollywood superstar know of the issues that Liverpool faces?”

He added: "We’re selling off 11 acres, we’re putting in villas around it and the money we get from that will be invested in our city and our parks.”

The mayor criticised the actress and accused her of ‘shouting from the sidelines’.

He said: "She may have played in Sefton Park when she briefly lived in the city as a girl, but she left.

"I am still here and having to deal with massive and savage government cuts to our budget while devising ways to grow and sustain the city and protect its most vulnerable citizens.

'Ill informed'

"I’d be interested to hear what Kim Cattrall has to say on care packages for the elderly and disabled adults, mental health provision, crumbling schools or repairing our roads, for example?

"Her comments are totally out of context and ill-informed. The fact is that since I became Mayor we have created more green space and there is more of it now than at any time in Liverpool’s history.”

Cattrall responded to the mayor’s attack saying she was entitled to voice her views.

Meanwhile, campaigners were delighted with the superstar’s intervention.

“Kim's support for the Save Sefton Park Meadows campaign has been invaluable.” said Karen Rainford.

“Since September when we first contacted her on Twitter she has re-tweeted and favourited the majority of our tweets as well as independently tweeting her own thoughts. The result has been a doubling of our online followers and an awareness raising that only somebody of Kim's standing could achieve.  

“It was such a great thing for Kim to have her photo taken alongside one of our campaign posters  on the Meadows because a picture like this sends a powerful message of support.  

“We can only hope that those responsible for the indefensible decision to offer the Meadows for sale take heed of Kim and also to the city-wide ground-swell of opposition to Redrow's controversial development plans which are due imminently for planning submission.

Read Larry Neild's view here