Victory again for Garston locals as planning committee confirms rejection of 1k lorries per day plan

Council officers had called second vote after first one rejected huge open-air container depot in working-class South Liverpool

The L19 Action Group in Garston, south Liverpool, won a major victory last month against Liverpool’s right-dominated Labour city council when councillors on the city’s planning committee, after hearing almost two thousand objections from local people, voted against an application by the company Peloton for a massive new container storage depot in the heart of a community already blighted by some of the worst respiratory disease rates in the country.

The rejected Peloton would have created a huge open storage area the size of more than six football pitches in the ‘under the bridge’ Garston housing estate, mere metres from homes and a school, creating additional traffic of around 1,000 lorries per day passing through the area, with obvious impacts on air quality, road surfaces, congestion and safety in an area already suffering some of the country’s worst respiratory health.

It was the first time in living memory that a Liverpool planning committee voted against a proposal recommended by planning officers and came as a literal breath of fresh air to residents who have already had a huge, highly explosive volatile waste recycling plant forced on them by the same planning officers and council – one recycling the same waste that caused the massive and lethal Flixborough disaster – but around six times larger than Flixborough and in the middle of a Liverpool housing estate instead of in the Lincolnshire countryside, and with an estimate blast radius of around 5 miles.

But the officers weren’t done, presumably on the principle of ‘if you don’t get the result you want, make them vote again’, and called a second vote on the issue, which took place this morning attended by large numbers of Garston residents. The residents were not allowed to speak, but neither were the council’s planning officers. The meeting was opened, a vote was held almost immediately – ignoring a ‘Powerpoint’ presentation prepared by officers supporting the corporate applicants – and Peloton’s application was rejected again, just as it had been the first time.

Gary Woollam said:

This is a victory for L19, democracy and the community against council officers and big business that don’t care about our community or know what’s going on in our area. We’re getting stronger and it’s great that the hard work and solidarity of local people was rewarded, and not just of Garston but from the whole of South Liverpool, because what happens in Garston affects all of us.

Garston is represented by the Liverpool Community Independents group who took both council seats from Labour in 2023. Garston councillor Lucy Williams told Skwawkbox:

We’re really proud of our community for this fight, it shows that we’ve got that community spirit in Garston and great that the councillors stood by their decision despite attempts to reverse it. Our whole community pulled together to achieve this and get what’s right for our residents. I thank Gary and the L19 team that’s been leading on this and Garston Community Independents are proud to have been part of it.

Her colleage Cllr Sam Gorst added:

The people of Garston have spoken in their thousands. Peloton’s planning application has been rejected for the final time. Planning department conceded. This is historic for Liverpool City Council to allow this to happen. Usually, councillors often give way to planning officer recommendations and legal opinion. This is the result of a community coming together and continuously speaking truth to power through impassioned dialogue and action.

We have said it before and will say it again. We are extremely proud of born and bred, adopted and all those that are Garstonians.

This is just the start of a long journey to change the Local Plan and in many cases, a fight back against the threat of unfair planning powers with impinge on the health and wellbeing of our constituents.

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