“Empty promises and open hostility” – Lib-Dem councillors slammed over park campaign

Kew ward’s three Liberal-Democrat councillors repeatedly told local residents campaigning to save the Ovington Drive playground that they would donate funds to the project but failed to do so and now the contract to renovate the playground has gone out to tender.

Sefton Council Cabinet Member, Ian Moncur, vowed to commit £30,000 to help save the park after interventions by Southport Labour on behalf of the Kew Playground Campaign.

The women behind the campaign then repeatedly asked Kew’s three Lib-Dem councillors, Fred Weavers, Mike Booth and David Pullin for ward funds to boost this sum to help improve replacement facilities but despite the councillors’ claims in the media that they would contribute, they have failed to do so and have now “missed the boat” says the cabinet member.

This follows two of the young mums from the campaign attending the Area Committee to request the funds last September, where they subsequently described how they were rounded on, shouted at and berated by some Lib-Dem councillors and left feeling “bullied, humiliated and intimidated”. The incident resulted in several complaints to the local authority and a recommended change in the Code of Conduct for Sefton councillors along with mandatory retraining for all.

Now, Cabinet member Ian Moncur has revealed that the park renovation plan is surging ahead and has actually gone out to tender but without contribution from the ward councillors:

” The campaigners themselves have worked really hard on this and we have done our utmost to work with the residents and have stood by our word, unlike others.

“The empty promises and open hostility of the local Lib-Dem councillors on this has been little more than shameful. They’ve now missed the boat on making any meaningful contribution to the project as it has gone out to tender and we hope to start work on renovating the playground in the next six weeks or so.”

Labour’s Kew candidate, Janis Blackburne, says it shows just how poorly the ward’s current councillors serve local residents:

“Kew residents deserve much better than this. The Lib-Dems have actively opposed the Kew park campaign on the one hand, constantly trying to undermine it, while making the right noises in the local media and elsewhere on the other. It’s been this way for a long time and things need to change.”