Welcome to the fourth update from the RVF Road Action Group, to bring our supporters up to speed on what’s been going on since our last update.
What’s below:
1. Leaflet Drop Update
2. Sefton Council and our Elected Representatives
3. Campaign for Better Transport
4. Upcoming further Ground Investigations on Rimrose Valley
5. Media Engagement
6. Push to apply National Political Pressure
7. FAQ Document
8. ‘Grow your Tenner’ Fundraising Campaign a great success!
9. Public Activities
1. Leaflet Drop Update
The leaflets for our first leaflet drop are now fully distributed. It’s been a great success with over 20,000 homes leafleted to raise awareness of the threat to our green space and it brought us some press coverage. It’s been startling to see just how many people weren’t aware of the plans to build the Dual Carriageway through our precious Rimrose Valley, but it’s great that so many more people are now aware.
Huge thanks to all the tireless volunteers who pounded the streets, plus a special thanks to both Tracys who organised the whole thing, and to Sally who designed the flyer. Brilliant work, and as a result thousands more now know what’s going on and are ready to throw their support behind us.
You can download the leaflet here if you’d like to print/share any copies yourself.
2. Sefton Council and our Elected Representatives
A group of representatives from Rimrose Valley Friends met with some of our local councillors and Peter Dowd MP on 21st October. Also present at the meeting was The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, The Campaign for Better Transport and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a common strategy, to share and discuss the various views and opinions from the groups present, and to agree actions.
It was crystal clear that everyone present is wholly against the threat of a surface road through Rimrose Valley, and the sense of urgency in pushing our cause forward was shared by all.
The key factors that came out of the meeting are as follows:
- Sefton Council will initiate a judicial review (see our article here where the leader of Sefton Council, Ian Maher, announced the council’s position on the matter).
- A judicial review is a legal process by which a judge reviews the process carried out by Highways England and decides whether it’s been done properly. If the judge determines that the process hasn’t been carried out properly Highways England can be sent back to the drawing board. The basis of the court case will be the fact that other options were ruled out (eg a tunnel) on cost, but the assertion will be that no analysis into the true cost to the communities and health services took place, and also that the return on investment was calculated over too small a period of time.
- The announcement brought some welcome media publicity, including a prime time BBC Radio Merseyside interview
- To initiate the Judicial Review process, Sefton Council has written to Highways England citing the lack of a tunnel appraisal and flaws in the consultation exercise. H.E. has unsurprisingly written back with an opposing view. On Wednesday 8th November Sefton Council’s legal team will be meeting to plan the next step, which is to make a written submission to the Court.
- Separately to that judicial review, we’ve been assured that Sefton Council will commit all the resources needed to our cause, including ensuring appropriate public and environmental health impacts get accurately evaluated and costed.
- Our elected representatives made it clear that they will be fighting as hard as possible for better options to be tabled, with a tunnel being their leading example of another option that should be reviewed and put forward.
- We’re going to be meeting with our elected representatives again in December to see how things have progressed.
3. Campaign for Better Transport
CBT, the national organisation with years of experience fighting new road developments, has spent time with the Road Action Group and shared learnings and past successes, whilst reviewing and guiding us on our strategic approach.
The key advice given was to make sure we avoid getting ourselves bogged down by detail. The message being that if we’re not careful, we could get so caught up in technical, planning, political and legal details that we’ll cease to be effective as a community organisation with precious little time and scarce resources. There are other groups and organisations that will focus on the detail and our role is to not become overly concerned with it. CBT explained to us that regardless of any faults that may be found with the Highways England process, it’s only the political will at Westminster that can bring a halt the process, any technical reasons that may be found to frustrate the process are only going to cause delays but based on past experiences it won’t bring the process to a halt.
Therefore the advice we’ve been given is to:
- focus on keeping the communities together by communicating, coordinating and putting on activities and events in Rimrose Valley. This will keep us all pulling in the same direction whilst maximising the value of Rimrose Valley and the momentum of peoples’ strength of feeling, so that we can build a positive campaign that keeps Rimrose Valley and the communities at the heart of our actions
- involve the media – get as much press, radio and TV coverage as we can. Build stories that the media will be interested in and push the stories out to generate local, regional and national interest
- keep the campaign political at local, regional and national level. Using the work we do locally and with the press, we need to build a momentum that will soon enough reach Westminster where we can start to apply pressure on the decision makers.
4. Upcoming further Ground Investigations on Rimrose Valley
As reported in our last update, Highways England has previously told us that they will be carrying out further borehole drilling on Rimrose Valley in the near future, similar to what they were doing back in the autumn of 2015 (see our September 2015 information on that here). They have said they want to have it completed by Christmas 2017. We’ve asked them to tell us when it will happen and exactly where on Rimrose Valley the work will be carried out as soon as possible.
We’ve very unhappy about Highways England interfering with Rimrose Valley in this way, and we’re concerned about what toxins and carcinogens the exercise may release, possibly exposing people and animals to undesirable materials. However, we’ve learned that Highways England doesn’t need planning permission to do this, we and Sefton Council do not have a legal right to object.
5. Media Engagement
We’ve put together a panel of speakers who will be available for radio and TV interviews when needed. There will be some basic training provided so that each one knows what to do and say, and we’re in the early stages of engaging with a marketing and PR company to help us with our communications and to get our message out to the national press.
6. Push to apply National Political Pressure
Whatever else may be done to challenge the Highways England decision, we’re clear that if the desire in Westminster remains to build the road then it will happen, no matter what we do. The system has been set up this way, where the local people and politicians are powerless to directly do anything about it. The only real chance we have of turning things around is to change the will of the decision makers in Government. Chris Grayling is the current Secretary of State for Transport and he has the power to decide whether or not the scheme will proceed. He has other politicians around him who also bear influence, so we have to reach out to Mr Grayling and all the relevant Westminster minsters and politicians to bring about a change of mind and heart. This will not be easy but it’s possible, and that’s where the Road Action Group has its focus. Everything we are doing is about raising national and Westminster awareness in the hope that we can connect with the decision makers and apply the pressure needed to change things. When we carry out local activities it’s to build the size and strength of our local support. When we reach out to local and national media it’s to push our message and our plight forward in the hope that it gains traction and national awareness.
7. FAQ Document
We’re putting together a Frequently Asked Questions document for publication. We will then refine and add to it over time. It’s in the early stages, but you can click here to read it in its current form.
8. ‘Grow your Tenner’ Fundraising Campaign a great success!
On 17th October we launched our ‘Grow your Tenner’ fundraising campaign through Local Giving. Local Giving had secured £200,000 of funding to be shared amongst all the good causes it works with nationally, and for every £10 donated they matched it with another £10! The campaign has now closed, and we did really well. Throughout October our supporters donated £871, on top of that we got another £129.25 through gift-aid and a further £676 of matched funding. Additionally a few very generous people set up monthly direct debits which will be match-funded over the next six months, which is going to bring in another approx £500. The total raised in October including monthly direct debits over the next six months is therefore £2177.90! This is going to be an amazing help, and it shows how much people want to stand up for Rimrose Valley. Thank you so much to everyone who donated. We will be contacting by email everyone who gave their contact details individually to thank them.
Also please rest assured that every penny of this will go to protecting our Rimrose Valley. Not a penny will be spent frivolously and the cash is essential for us to spend wisely as needed. We are a registered charity and as such we’re completely transparent with the figures and are quite rightly accountable to the Charities Commission.
9. Public Activities
The RAG team has explored all options for public activities and has a very long list. The following will be worked on as quickly as possible:
Hands Across the Valley
We’re just about to start working on this. It will take a few weeks or longer, but the plan is to create a spectacle in Rimrose Valley, with thousands of people joining hands in solidarity and to protect our communities, our air and our essential green space. We have ideas to make it a sight to behold. We want it to go viral and reach the whole of the UK via both social media and the traditional media. Watch this space, we’ll report back at the right time.
We’ve had some great ideas put forward from our supporters, and to those of you who suggested this one – thank you very much for such a great idea!
Santa Dash
Pencil in 17th December. Yet to be confirmed, we’re planning to put on a Santa Dash in Rimrose Valley. The aim is to get people out into Rimrose Valley, get some fresh air and exercise walking or running, get to be with others who share the love of Rimrose Valley and crucially, to show how special Rimrose Valley is to us all, and to create an opportunity for some media coverage.
Nature Walks
20-30 people at a time will be able to sign up to take part in one of a series of gentle strolls through Rimrose Valley, where you will be able to learn more about the wondrous flora and fauna as well as find out about some of the history Rimrose Valley is steeped in. We’ve put these on in the past and they’ve always been really enjoyable and well attended. We’ll advertise these walks when we have dates firmed up.
As always, thank you for your support
