Author: Ollie Cowan

An appeal has been launched across Sefton to help families from Afghanistan who may find themselves resettling in the Borough in the coming weeks and months.

Sefton Council, Sefton Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) and Sefton 4 Good are working in partnership to coordinate a Borough-wide response.

New life

This will be similar to those taking place throughout the UK, to help Afghan people starting a new life in the North West.

All funds raised through the Sefton Afghan Appeal will be used to purchase bespoke items including appropriate clothing, toys and household items such as kitchen utensils.

Donations of newly-bought goods, sealed clothing, children’s shoes and toiletries are also being gratefully received and will form a ‘welcome pack’ to be distributed to families.

Due to COVID-19 control measures, organisers are unable to accept donations of second-hand goods or un-sealed items.

The Borough-wide appeal will see eight locations across Sefton set up as donation drop-off points, while a dedicated fundraising platform has been created where kind-hearted residents can contribute.

Drop Off Locations are: 

• Marie Clarke Family Wellbeing Centre, Linacre Lane, Bootle
• Bootle Library, 220 Stanley Road, Bootle
• Netherton Family Wellbeing Centre, Magdalen Square, Netherton
• Sefton Carers Centre, 27-37 South Road, Waterloo
• Crosby Library, Crosby Road North, Waterloo
• Formby Library, 17D Duke St, Formby
• Talbot Street Family Wellbeing Centre, St Andrew’s Place, Southport
• Southport Library, 112 Lord Street, Southport

Forced to flee

Cllr Trish Hardy, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing, said: “We are all too aware of the devastation and conflict taking place right now in Afghanistan and, like many others across the UK, we are doing all we can in Sefton to help support displaced families who have been forced to flee their homeland.

“The Council and its partners at Sefton CVS and Sefton 4 Good have immediately sprung into action and launched a dedicated fundraising platform to help in these coming weeks and months.

“We know the people of Sefton is a welcoming Borough that cares for their fellow humans in need and I am confident that our communities will give as much as they possibly can do the Sefton Afghan Appeal, whether that be via a financial contribution or via a donation of much needed goods and clothing.

“Sefton Council have offered eight of its buildings to act as donation points for the appeal and we continue to work closely with partners to ensure we are doing everything in our power to help.

“Please, if you can, give generously to this appeal and lend your support to these families many of whom have arrived with very few belongings but the clothes they are wearing.”

Devastating

Angela White OBE, Chief Executive at Sefton CVS, said: “Following the devastating situation in Afghanistan, Sefton CVS are working in partnership with Sefton Council and other voluntary, community and faith (VCF) organisations to coordinate and provide welcome to Afghan families resettling in Sefton over the coming weeks.

“The Sefton Afghan Appeal will enable us to provide bespoke items to directly support families when they arrive in Sefton. We are also encouraging local residents to donate newly-bought sealed items such as clothing and toiletries which can be dropped off at a number of designated donation points across the borough. We know how generous and welcoming our local residents and businesses are, and your vital support will make such a difference in resettling Afghan families into our communities.”

Find out more information about the Sefton Afghan Appeal  and how to donate.

For all enquiries about the Sefton Afghan Appeal, please email afghanappeal@seftoncvs.org.uk.

Sefton Council has hit out over a ‘dangerous and baffling’ decision by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate to allow a housing development that would see its occupants deprived of private outdoor amenities.

In November 2020, Sefton Council’s Planning Committee officially refused proposals to build a four-storey building comprising of 39 apartments at the former Central Buildings on Church Road, Crosby.

Making its decision, the Council cited ‘an unacceptable level of private amenity space, which would have a detrimental impact on the living conditions of the future occupiers’.

This is in line with conditions supplied to developers prior to planning submissions, in which Sefton Council makes clear it will not, under any circumstances, agree proposals lacking amenity space or space that is significantly below the standard. This is ‘to protect and improve the living conditions of its communities’.

However, the developer appealed to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate, which overturned Sefton Council’s decision.

In its ruling, the Planning Inspectorate stated that the development’s occupants will be able to grow plants indoors or walk to a ‘nearby’ park to make up for a lack of outdoor space. And, residents will have to use energy- consuming tumble-driers supplied, owing to the lack of an outdoor drying area. where they would live.

In a scathing letter to the Planning Inspectorate, Sefton Council’s Chief Planning Officer Derek McKenzie has criticised the Planning Inspectorate’s decision and its ‘blithe acceptance’ of the developer’s position.

He claims that by dismissing the local authorities’ concerns, the Planning Inspectorate’s Inspector ‘completely dismantles all prospect of residents in Crosby benefitting from amenity space in future developments.’

The decision gives developers the encouragement to forgo the provision of basic facilities and create development well below minimum standards expected by Sefton’s Local Plan and indeed the Government’s own planning and housing policies

Cllr Daren Veidman, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning and Building Control, said:
“These proposals are for 100% affordable housing, for people who would otherwise struggle to secure a home.

“Forcing these disadvantaged people to use expensive tumble dryers to dry their clothes risks driving them into fuel poverty, which is at odds with the basic principles of human rights.

“To flat out deny occupants a right to private outdoor space in any development is baffling and we are stunned that the Planning Inspectorate has dismissed our concerns.

“We have written to the Planning Inspectorate to express our grave concerns over this decision and we will continue to approach any future similar applications with the safety and security of our communities in the forefront of our minds.”

Cllr Veidman continued: “In its Annual Report, the Planning Inspectorate states that ‘sustainable development is at the heart of the Government policies that set the framework for its decisions and recommendations our Inspectors make’.

“All Inspectors’, the report claims, ‘are aware of their duty to ensure the planning system contributes to the achievement of sustainable development’.

“To be honest I am struggling to understand how forcing residents to use energy-inefficient tumble dryers and leaving them with a 30-minute walk to enjoy the benefits of a green open space, meets any of these claims.”