As most members will already know - thanks to the yellow banner displayed on Acrefield Road by a concerned resident - a planning application has been submitted by David Wilson Homes to build a total of 28 flats and 10 houses on the site of E.H.Williams' Gateacre Garden Centre. These would be partly accessed from Acrefield Road and partly from an extension of Glenville Close.

We have lodged a lengthy objection both to the loss of the existing nursery and to the form of new development proposed. We feel that the planned three-storey houses on the Acrefield Road frontage are too tall and too close to the road and would also threaten an existing horse chestnut tree. We feel that, overall, the site can comfortably accommodate no more than half the number of dwellings currently proposed. And we believe that, if residential redevelopment has to occur, the vehicular access should be from Hunts Cross Avenue rather than Glenville Close or Acrefield Road.

We asked David Wilson Homes for permission to reproduce their layout plan in our Newsletter and on our website, but they refused, saying that it is company policy not to make drawings available - except at Council offices. In this case they can be inspected at Millennium House, Victoria Street, Liverpool, the application reference number being 04F/1882.