A campaign group has called upon local residents to object to a plan by Peel Holdings to develop over 100 acres of Green Belt north of Liverpool.
The proposal surrounds a scheme to change agricultural land in favour of commercial industrial units at Switch Island.
The campaign group, Melling, Maghull and Aintree Against Peel Plans – known as MMAAPP – was made aware of Peel Holdings’ proposals when the site, next to the M57/M58 intersection, was put forward to be included in Sefton Council’s local plan – a blueprint earmarking which land in the county will be developed in the future.
Peel, which runs the port of Liverpool, is already marketing the land, which is less than 30 minutes away from the city centre, for 1.5 million sq ft of development floor space, offering development packages on the basis of a strategic future location.
A spokesman for Peel said: “The project could bring around 1,000 additional jobs for residents of the area. The aspirations for Switch Island are part of Ocean Gateway – Peel’s strategic vision for the North West – which incorporates more than 50 projects over 50 years with £50 billion of private investment.”
A spokesperson for the MMAAPP group said: “If this plan were to succeed, it would have a devastating negative impact for considerable numbers of local businesses, on traffic in an already pressured bottleneck and destroy prime food-growing amenity land – as well as leave wildlife without a hope.”
Denise Mullan, head of PR for the MMAAPP group, told JMU Journalism: “We’ve already submitted one petition in excess of 2,000 signatures, around 2,400 in fact, for the initial consultation. We set up the new petition and within half an hour had 200 signatures. The council have to listen to the voice of the community… we’re the people who elected them.”