John Pugh raises concerns over lamps and balustrades in Town Hall Gardens plans

Continuing with the announced aim of having civil and civic conversation about the Council’s new planned Town Hall Gardens development, Cllr John Pugh has released the first of a series of video talking points, starting with an issue which has been raised with councillors about the fate of the existing lamps and balustrades in front of the civic buildings  

The Council may consider mothballing them, but in reality they are doomed to disappear- a fact which has upset some residents. 

They were designed following a blueprint from famous Lancastrian landscape architect, Thomas Mawson, but have not been well maintained by the Council and lost some of their former glory.

Nonetheless, they are found right along Lord St and give a distinctive elegant style that characterises Lord St along its whole length.

“The new design makes few concessions to history and tradition,” says Cllr.Pugh,  " but in doing that everybody, including Sefton officers recognises that that creates a problem of fit and blend with the rest of Lord St - particularly as it is closely adjacent to the Bandstand garden still firmly with the Mawson vibe - balustrades, lamps and all. The Town Hall Gardens clearly will break a theme that runs the whole length of Lord St. 

The question can thus be asked whether it is entirely necessary to do so and so bin the balustrades and lamps in the middle of the sequence right in the front of the civic buildings. I am genuinely interested in what people think.  

As Sefton say on their website “community engagement is integral" and although the consultation period had a ludicrous time frame of two weeks , there’s plenty of time still for thoughtful consideration and a longer conversation and I would urge people to join it."