A unique recreational area, called Southern Grasslands, has been created in Liverpool. It is the largest transformed urban green space opened in Liverpool in the 21st century. Soil from the Festival Gardens development zone, has been used to create this eco-haven for wildlife.
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00:00 A unique recreational area called Southern Grasslands has been created in Liverpool.
00:06 It's the largest transformed urban green space opened in Liverpool during the 21st century
00:12 and one of the largest in England.
00:15 Situated just three miles south of Liverpool city centre, it was officially opened by Mayor
00:20 Steve Rotherham.
00:21 Well I've already met somebody who's travelled here from the north end of Liverpool on his
00:27 bike and he's come to have a look around and that's what we want.
00:30 We want people now to use this facility, to enjoy the facility and to take in what is
00:36 not just an actually stunning place with great views but somewhere that will help us to achieve
00:42 our net zero carbon targets and you can have a look around at how that environment works
00:48 and the biodiversity and all of the wonders that nature brings.
00:52 Over the past two years more than 400,000 cubic metres of soil and waste has been removed
00:59 from the Festival Gardens development zone, land that was used as a waste deposit facility
01:04 for more than 30 years.
01:06 Part of this has been used to create this eco-haven.
01:08 At 24 acres it's almost five times as big as Shavass Park.
01:13 We've got this fantastic new extra green space, 24 acres of extra space here that's now open
01:18 again connecting the Festival Gardens park with the other green space further down just
01:22 behind us here as it runs down to Otterspool Prom.
01:24 So we've got a really, really big area of green space, accessible space and hopefully
01:30 encouraging biodiversity and really sort of helping our natural environment.
01:34 The planting has involved the formation of new areas of woodland and meadow to create
01:39 new habitats and enrich the biodiversity in this coastal environment.
01:44 We want people to enjoy this and if you can get a development right on this doorstep then
01:51 you'll see people starting to use it for walks and cycling or taking the dog out or whatever
01:56 it might be.
01:57 But that then starts to ensure that this place becomes somewhere that's user-friendly.
02:04 You can imagine what it's going to be like on a beautiful day here.
02:06 There's loads of places for picnics and all sorts of things and really that's what we're
02:10 trying to develop on behalf of the people here alongside Liverpool City Council who
02:16 by the way have come up with all the ambitious plans here.
02:19 Situated at just a 10 minute walk to St Michael's train station, Southern Grassland also contains
02:24 a series of new public benches and picnic tables.
02:28 We declared a climate emergency in Liverpool four years ago.
02:31 Really important that we start trying to decarbonise and work towards net zero as you say.
02:35 But we've also got an ecological emergency on top of the climate emergency so we're losing
02:39 species, we're losing insects and so on.
02:42 It's really important that we have those green spaces so that we encourage that wildlife
02:47 and that those green spaces are big enough to sustain that wildlife.
02:50 The radically re-landscaped green space which now rises by more than 30 feet features more
02:57 than 5,700 new trees and shrubs as well as two kilometres of walking paths near the shoreline.