Gardens’ pride to be restored
A NEW custodian was appointed yesterday to look after Liverpool’s International Garden Festival site for the next 150 years. The respected Land Restoration Trust will become stewards of the 56-acre site at Otterspool after signing a deal with developers Langtree McLean.
The traditional Chinese and Japanese gardens – currently derelict and badly vandalised – will be given a facelift and new attractions added to the site.
Langtree and David McLean, who plan to build 1,300 riverside homes on the site, will provide a dowry of £2m that will be invested to help meet running costs over the years.
Two decades of neglect have left the garden site in a pitiful state, the vegetation has been allowed to grow wild since the site closed in the 1980s.
Saplings planted in 1984 when the IGF became the showcase for Liverpool have now matured into young trees, the pathways are in good shape and the man-made hills command stunning views of the river estuary.
Langtree McLean last week submitted the planning application for their planned £250m development.
As part of the project, the 56 acres of gardens will be transformed into a new waterfront park, which, following restoration, will be maintained as a vital green resource for the people of Liverpool. Langtree managing director John Downes said: “We will do the restoration work and then hand the completed gardens to the trust.”
It is likely that experts in oriental gardens will be hired to help rebuild the Chinese and Japanese gardens and the lake that links them.
The aim is to re-open the gardens to the public in the summer of 2008 as Liverpool celebrates being European Capital of Culture.
The Land Restoration Trust was only established in 2004 as a joint enterprise by English Partnerships, the Environment Agency, the Forestry Commission and Groundwork.
David Evans, of the LRT, said: “We restore derelict, neglected or under-used brownfield land and maintain it for people and nature in the form of publicly-accessible green spaces.
“We believe our partnership with Langtree McLean will be a highly successful one, turning the Festival Gardens back into something which the region can be proud of, connecting both the existing and new community.”
IC Liverpool