Imitation is the greatest form of flattery
They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. And this week Vision Kirkby feels very flattered – by Knowsley Council no less!
Knowsley Council has unveiled an exciting new masterplan for Huyton Village Centre this week, although there are two important things to note…
- It includes a large number of ideas proposed by Vision Kirkby, for well, Kirkby!
- It involves demolishing a lot of things first – sound familiar?
However, what a wonder it must be to have a clear Town Centre Master Plan in Huyton – for Kirkby bewilderingly does not have one, despite everything that has gone on for the past 20+ years. Where’s the transparency and accountability after all the delays, demolitions and relocations?
They have a cunning plan!
Huyton had a town centre master plan back in 2015 (Council PDF), then a master-master plan in 2017 (Council PDF), followed by this latest master-master-master plan in 2020 (Knowsley News). Alas, the plan does not seem to be readily accessible yet, just the press release. Still, it is good to know Knowsley Council has so much time on its hands to keep planning!
Speaking of which, Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council was formed in 1974, as part of local government reorganisation across many parts of the UK. Since that time Knowsley Council has been controlled continuously by the Knowsley Labour Party. Now, Vision Kirkby is not a party political organisation – we are open to all in the community – but we have been left asking the question: what has the council been doing for the past 46 years if they only now have a final (?) master plan for Huyton Town Centre?
What a great idea!
One element that leaps out of the page is the great idea for Huyton to have a commercial district including a hotel, office space and residential properties – part of stimulating the local economy and attracting visitors into the heart of the town. Vision Kirkby proposed all of these in February 2020 for Kirkby Town Centre. Specifically, we proposed a commercial district for Kirkby in the currently extensive wasteland left over from the demolition of social housing south of Cherryfield Drive, bringing businesses, single-bed housing, hotel guests and more to within spitting distance of the planned cinema and the Kirkby Centre. This would be tied with reinvesting in the old Kirkby College site to create a further education and innovation hub, right alongside the new commercial spaces.
There is talk of the Huyton Village Centre plan including an enhanced leisure and residential offer, which will also provide space for community events, and for families to socialise and play – forming a new ‘garden village’. This is much like we proposed in Kirkby Town Centre, although not on the same scale as our proposals for linking the vast and varied green space south of Kirkby Town Centre. We certainly agree on the value of green space, especially at the heart of large urban communities such as the towns of Kirkby and Huyton, but we can’t help but wonder if Knowsley Council is joining up its ideas across the borough.
Huyton Town Centre is already surrounded on pretty much all sides by housing and a train line. But perhaps Lord Derby Academy should keep an eye on their playing fields, whilst Huyton Cricket and Bowling Club should perhaps have a check on their title deeds! The aspiration for some much-needed greenspace at the heart of Huyton Town Centre are to be applauded, but with a bit of imagination a grander vision could be (quite cheaply) realised for Kirkby by securing the old All Saints school and playing fields sites for community sports and recreation use, at the heart of our town, and not instead use it for house-building.
The question then is: if it makes sense to have these things in the heart of Huyton, why not at the heart of Kirkby?
Where’s that wrecking ball again?
Once upon-a-time in the mid-2000s, Knowsley Council wanted to demolish Kirkby’s multi-storey car park, although it was spared, perhaps due to its importance to staff at Barclaycard, or perhaps due to changing plans. Huyton’s multi-storey car park though appears to be for the chop, despite Knowsley Council also planning to build over most of the ground level car parking in Huyton that isn’t privately owned. We’re all for a green economy, but creating major barriers to transport doesn’t seem like part of the solution to reinvigorating our struggling town centres.
If a multi-storey car park does not grind your gears, spare a thought for Huyton’s civic facilities. As an echo of what happened to the Kirkby Suite, Huyton’s ‘The Venue’ (formerly the Huyton Suite) is set to be demolished (PlaceNorthWest) even though the outline master-master-master plan for the redeveloped town centre includes ‘expanded’ community and cultural facilities. Generally when you expand something, it gets bigger, not flattened. Even more unfathomably, Huyton Library is apparently set to be relocated – but how on Earth is it economical or even sensible to relocate a relatively new library to a currently unspecified location? In Kirkby, the original plan was to build a new library, but this plan was junked and it ended up taking over the Kirkby Suite instead – Huyton has no such backup plan!
If all this sounds familiar to the people of Kirkby, you might join us to alerting Huyton to the promise of ‘jam tomorrow!’ Tomorrow can be a long way-away…
Get on-board!
There was also an interesting idea of creating a Huyton Village Centre Board – great idea! Why not a Kirkby Town Centre Board as well? With representatives from the council, the town centre managers, store holders and representatives from the wider community to ensure future development meets the needs of our local community?
Beware councillors bearing gifts!
Knowsley News quoted Kirkby Councillor Tony Brennan as saying “Our plans will deliver a range of economic, social and environmental benefits and seek to put the Village Centre at the heart of the communities it serves. To help achieve this as proposals progress, we will be seeking the views of our community throughout the process to shape and inform further development in the Village Centre.” – this is a familiar line from most council press releases. However, if it is anything like the rushed 3-day consultation in Kirkby last year – a couple of weeks after Vision Kirkby launched its proposals – then the value of the consultation is questionable at best.
Our message to the good people of Huyton during this Festive Season is simple: beware Tony Brennan bearing public consultations!
Why have consultations to allow the people of Kirkby to be heard. Why allow Kirkby people to put forward ideas what they would like to see in their town. Kirkby was once a vibrant town so why can’t we have our vibrant town back. This last year & especially these last few weeks you have seen on Facebook pages the stories of the good people of Kirkby coming together in times like these. There is such compassion, empathy, courageous & dedicated people in this lovely town called Kirkby. So why can’t Kirkby have a town, a place that deserves just as much as Huyton if not more. God does it deserve it & the Kirkby people deserve it. VK worked hard on designing a town that people of Kirkby wanted. All them ideas that people had put forward where put down on these plans because Vision Kirkby gave their word that they would show Knowsley Council what Kirkby people wanted so give Kirkby People their ideas back or where these consultations just for show for the media.