Garston News Views and Discussion

**Kev** · 05-20-2006

Opens up the village nicely

A.D.Williams · 05-20-2006

Was not a good sky day for picture taking, but I have added the rest of the photos I took here.

**Kev** · 05-30-2006

The Yellow Lamb Banana is moving to Garston - thats official

At the South Liverpool Business Leaders meeting on Thursday Garston Artist Alex Corina presented Council Leader Councillor Warren Bradley with a picture produced to Celebrate Liverpool Capital of Culture. The print Trojan Lamb Banana by artist Chris Vine is one of twelve Chris is working on for the Culture Capital of Culture Collection. The first four can be seen at 33-45 Parr Street.

Alex Corina who has led the campaign for the Lamb Banana to be returned to it's spiritual home asked Councillor Bradley when is it coming home to Garston?

Councillor Bradley responded

I think it's a great idea. I will go away and work on it with colleagues. We recently moved the Yellow Submarine to John Lennon airport. Garston will be the first, lets move it around the city so communities can benefit from what has become a city icon. I remember when the Lamb Banana first appeared people hated it and complained. If you tried to take it away now there would be a public outcry.

Professor John Ashton Director of Public Health for the North West and supporter of the campaign said,

It's fantastic, Garston would make a perfect home for the lamb bananaâ€ explaining â€œthat the ship owner Sir Alfred Lewis Jones responsible, was a pioneer who not only imported and popularised the banana as a nutritional source of food for the working classes but was a founder of the school of tropical medicine in 1899 and also gave his name to the hospital in Garston.

Alex Corina commented

I was surprised, its great news. The Yellow Lamb Banana has become an icon representing Garston and Liverpool's heritage of exporting lambs and importing bananas that combines both with humour. The other link is that not only was Garston docks the route for exporting importing, but that the sculpture was made in Garston at the old Bryant and May Factory.

The Tale of the Trojan Lamb Banana

I hope you enjoy the story

'The Trojan Lamb Banana has been wheeled into the City of
Liverpool and placed on St. George's 'Greek Plateau'. Like the Trojan
Horse it stands and waits.

In the dead of night the clocks of the Liver Building are twinkling and
the people of Liverpool are fast asleep. All of a sudden a yellow door
on the side of the Lamb Banana opens; a red ladder is pushed out and a bunch
of scaled-down copies of itself are released among the Corinthian and Ionic
columns of the Walker Gallery and St. George's Hall.

The frisky little lambs take a quick sniff around and, with much bleating
and excitement, disperse to create as much artistic havoc as is
possible throughout the City of Liverpool.

A Limited Edition of prints of this painting are available. For further information printsatartworks@aol.com or phone 0776 338 8509

A.D.Williams · 05-31-2006

Wonder where they would put it, Kev??

**Kev** · 05-31-2006

Old Garston Hotel

**Kev** · 05-31-2006

LIVERPOOL'S wandering Superlambanana could be on the move again, this time to what campaigners are calling its "spiritual home" in Garston.

The giant yellow sculpture, completed by Japanese artist Taro Chiezo in 1998 at a cost of £35,000, has moved to a number of city sites including Williamson Square and Wapping near the waterfront on its travels.

Its current home is outside the JMU building on Tithebarn Street, in the city centre.

Next stop, however, could be Garston.

Speaking at a meeting of south Liverpool business leaders in Speke, council leader Warren Bradley pledged that Garston would be the next place to have the Superlambanana.

He said: "I think it's a great idea. We recently moved the Yellow Submarine to John Lennon airport in Speke, so Garston could have the lambanana."

Cllr Bradley is following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Cllr Mike Storey, who said that it was always the intention that the work should be moved around the city for the benefit of all the community.

Cllr Bradley's remarks came at the meeting as he was given a print of Chris Vine's witty creation the Trojan Lamb Banana, which plays host to a number of smaller lambananas. It was presented by fellow artist Alex Corina who is also co-ordinator of the Garston Cultural Village campaign which has been pushing for Garston to be the sculpture's next home.

Mr Corina said: "It's great news. "The Superlambanana has become an icon representing Garston and Liverpool's heritage of exporting lambs and importing bananas that combines both with humour. The other link is that not only was Garston docks the route for exporting lambs and importing bananas, but that the sculpture was made in Garston at the old Bryant and May factory".

Another campaigner for Garston is Professor John Ashton, Woolton-born director of Public Health for the North West.

Prof Ashton said: "Garston would make a perfect home for the lambanana.

The local ship owner Sir Alfred Lewis Jones was a pioneer who not only imported and popularised the banana as a nutritional source of food for the working classes but was a founder of the School of Tropical Medicine in 1899 and also gave his name to the hospital in Garston."

The presentation followed the announcement of the results of a local referendum by the campaigners as to three potential sites where the sculpture should be sited in the area.

mikechapple@dailypost.co.uk

**Kev** · 06-08-2006

Merseyside’s newest transport interchange, Liverpool South Parkway opens its doors to travellers and commuters this week.

The £32 million transport hub will open on Sunday June 11th. The interchange is Merseytravel’s biggest project, and links bus and rail with Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

The new interchange is designed to be eco-friendly with a sloping roof that collects and recycles rainwater, and a wall fitted with solar panels to contribute towards the buildings energy needs.

The new building joins together the two stations of Allerton and Garston with a bus station and taxi rank. High frequency shuttle buses will run to nearby Liverpool John Lennon Airport. Merseyrail Northern line services will stop at the station as well as half hourly services to Manchester Oxford Road and Lime Street. There will also be hourly services to Crewe and Birmingham. Services to Sheffield and the East Midlands are expected to start later this year.

The environmentally friendly station has already won awards for its design and building techniques. Liverpool South Parkway was named national champion in the transport and freight category of the Green Apple Awards.

Merseytravel Chief Executive Neil Scales who was also the engineer in charge says the new hub was an innovative project “Liverpool South Parkway is a state of the art interchange that is breaking new ground not just nationally but internationally. It is unique, fit for purpose and is pioneering new forms of sustainability in transport infrastructure.

“We’re justifiably proud of what we have achieved at Liverpool South Parkway. We’ve set a standard which has now been recognised nationally and one we hope that others within the transport industry and elsewhere will emulate.”

David Finnegan Merseytravel’s Access Officer, himself a wheelchair user, has worked on the project ensuring that there are detailed access features incorporated in to the design. These include easy access doors, colour contrast design features to assist people with low vision, variable height ticket counters, accessible W.C’s and induction loop systems for people with impaired hearing.

A.D.Williams · 06-08-2006

Kev do you know when the 'old' Garston station is closing please? I MUST get some pictures of that old station!!!!

**Kev** · 06-08-2006

Originally Posted by A.D.Williams

Kev do you know when the 'old' Garston station is closing please? I MUST get some pictures of that old station!!!!

nope but I thought exactly the same - i'd get down there quick. the old house on the platform needs a pic or two.

A.D.Williams · 06-08-2006

I shall go to work on the train on the morrow morning.

**Kev** · 06-08-2006

Originally Posted by A.D.Williams

I shall go to work on the train on the morrow morning.

**Kev** · 06-08-2006

Some more details:

There will be 4 trains per hour from Liverpool, 2 tph from Manchester and 1 tph from Birmingham.

From December '06 there will be the above frequency plus (subject to negotiation) 1 tph from Scarborough (tbc) via York, Leeds and Manchester plus more trains to Liverpool via the City Line (the Allerton Arrow) and one to the Midlands (the present Norwich service, which will probably now terminate at Nottingham).

Virgin will not stop at LSP in the short to medium term. This is because they don't anticipate sufficient business passengers will want to use their inter-city service and the platforms are too short to accommodate a full Pendolino train (due to the Allerton Road bridge at one end and a junction at the other).

The station will have six platforms, (4 on the City Line and 2 on the Northern Line), 5 bus stands, 4 taxi stands, 240 car parking spaces (with provision for a deck to increase capacity), 37 cycle stands and a kiss and ride drop off point.

The station will be staffed from 05:50 to 00:33 (first and last train) on Monday to Saturday and for a shorter time on Sunday. There will be seven lifts, toilets and screens showing LJLA flight information.

The bus shuttle to LJLA will be provided by services 80A and 86A. These will have traffic light priority on route to the airport and will take around ten minutes for the journey. Several other bus routes will serve the station. There will be through ticketing on most popular routes.

Architecturally, the station has been much influenced by the style of the new airport terminal. It is setting a new standard for ecological design with use of recycled aluminium (old beer cans), rainwater harvesting, residual heat radiating (using the thermal mass of the building to both heat and cool it), high value insulation and geothermal energy from a hole drilled deep into the rock beneath the station.

The station will pioneer a new retail facility, which is an idea imported by the Dutch owners of Merseyrail. It will be called M to Go and will be a combination shop and ticket office with the shop staff also selling tickets. Merseyrail want to extend this idea over all the network and will be opening other M to Go shops at Moorfields, Maghull, Hamilton Square and Hooton.

Some other network plans were discussed. There are plans both to increase frequencies and extend the network. The existing trains are now getting on for 30 years old and replacement will be required in about eight years time. Also, projected passenger increases will mean that more trains are required.

Due to the tight curves in the tunnels, the trains may be replaced with ones more similar to the London Underground stock.

There is a plan to increase frequencies on the Chester line to one every 15 minutes, as on most Merseyrail branches, and extension of the electrification from Bidston to Wrexham is almost definite to go ahead and is in the Local Transport Plan for 2011. It will probably be carried out in stages, similar to the electrification of the Rock Ferry to Chester / Ellesmere Port line in the 80s.

**Norm NZ** · 06-08-2006

Many Thanks Kev, for the story re the South Parkway, Having lived in the area of Horrock Ave/Springwood Ave upto 1963, my wife and I find it hard to imagine what that area looks like now! Hope either yourself or AD Williams will be able to supply more photo's later, It really helps us keep in touch, and is most appreciated, Thanks to All, Norm G.

**Kev** · 06-09-2006

Originally Posted by Norm NZ

Many Thanks Kev, for the story re the South Parkway, Having lived in the area of Horrock Ave/Springwood Ave upto 1963, my wife and I find it hard to imagine what that area looks like now! Hope either yourself or AD Williams will be able to supply more photo's later, It really helps us keep in touch, and is most appreciated, Thanks to All, Norm G.