Tempers flared at a fractious meeting as the planned closure of Churchtown Botanic Gardens aviary was discussed
Cllr Daniel Lewis speaking at the Sefton Council meeting(Image: Emma Morgan)
The decision to close Churchtown Botanic Gardens aviary was taken because aviaries are “unnatural” and “inhumane” environments, Sefton Council’s leader said at a fractious meeting.
The decision was described as “crazy” by community volunteers last week as the furious reaction to the news continued at a public meeting attended by around 200 people. David Cobham, who runs the Botanic Gardens Community Association of volunteers with his wife Ann, told the ECHO: “This park, and especially the aviary, people go back years and years when they brought their children here, when they came here themselves as children with their grandmas.
“It’s really awful.” He described the decision as “crazy”.
The council said the aviary is not keeping up with modern animal welfare standards expected for birds in its care and the costs associated with maintaining its infrastructure are too great. Some £60,000 a year is needed for day-to-day running costs and the council said it is concerned further capital funding is needed to modernise the attraction.
The council said it is one of the last councils in the country to manage a facility that houses animals. But it has no statutory duty to do so and it is now no longer possible.
The council also said the nature of the challenges the aviary faces in terms of infrastructural improvements and meeting welfare needs would make it difficult for any voluntary organisation to take over running the attraction.
An online petition set up by the Botanic Gardens Community Association has been signed by nearly 3,000 people. Activists collecting signatures in the Botanic Gardens ahead of last Friday’s meeting told the ECHO a paper petition had also secured around 5,000 signatures.
Meols ward Liberal Democrat councillor Daniel Lewis submitted a motion to Sefton Council ahead of its meeting on Thursday, noting the Botanic Gardens Community Association is bidding for Heritage Lottery match-funding for up to £5m.
A pair of birds in the Botanic Gardens aviary(Image: Emma Morgan)
Under the scheme, every £1 the community raised for the Botanic Gardens would be matched with an additional £9 from the National Lottery.
Cllr Lewis was calling for the £176,000 raised from the sale of a lodge at the edge of the gardens to be allocated towards the bid so that the aviary could stay open.
David Rawsthorne, who founded the Make a Change for Botanic campaign group which raises funds for repairs and maintenance at the gardens, previously told the ECHO: “The aviary has been there for 85 years. It’s part of the heartbeat of the park.”
David said: “We want to know exactly what’s going on with this match funding bid. We just want answers.”
At Thursday’s council meeting, Lib Dem councillor for Birkdale Simon Shaw asked why the council didn’t carry out a public consultation on the decision to close the aviary when such an exercise could have uncovered considerations that hadn’t occurred to the council before.
Cabinet member for health and wellbeing Joanne Willias responded: “There was a great deal of thought given to the decision. It wasn’t taken lightly.
“With regards to consultation […] it had to go through the budget process as well, therefore it’s an operational decision, so we wouldn’t consult.”
This was met with mutters of “outrageous” and “rubbish” from the public gallery, where a group of volunteers from the Botanic Gardens Community Association were sitting.
Cllr Lewis then put forward his motion, saying: “The work done by the Botanic Gardens Community Association is often underestimated. People don’t know just how much those guys do to keep the jewel of the north of the town alive and going.
“It is a fantastic asset. I’ve been going there since I was a kid, since I was a toddler.”
He said the match-funding is an “incredible opportunity. If we can get that, that’s so much money into Southport.”
He said he is “disappointed” the proceeds from the sale of the lodge did not go to support the Botanic Gardens, adding: “However much it was sold for, that could have been leveraged 10 times. That would be a massive amount of money.
“[Botanic Gardens community groups have] already raised tens of thousands of pounds, we can’t ask them to do it alone.”
He asked if the decision was based on funding pressures or on animal welfare.
“This isn’t difficult to do. If we want to save the aviary we can save the aviary. It requires a tiny amount of political will, tiny.”
Responding, council leader Marion Atkinson thanked Botanic Gardens volunteers for their work. She said funds from the sale of assets are shared across the borough.
Cllr Atkinson added: “This closure is not about money. […] This is all about the welfare of the birds,” to shouts of “load of rubbish” from the public gallery.
“The animals are currently held in captivity in cages that are far too small. On average, each bird has the equivalent space to fly of four washing machines stacked two by two. The aviary is an unnatural habitat. Aviaries are a legacy of an era that did not care about birds.
“None of these animals were put on earth for the pleasure of human beings to look at them,” she said, to a shout of “it’s a sanctuary” from the public gallery.
“We should not encourage future generations of birds to be confined to those kinds of facilities. It’s simply inhumane.
“Sometimes nostalgia gets the best of us and we forget what the right thing is.”
Lib Dem councillor Simon Shaw queried why Cllr Atkinson was saying the move was not about money when earlier Cllr Williams had said it was a budgetary decision.
His colleague Iain Brodie-Browne said: “If it was an animal welfare decision we could have had a report to us about the animal welfare decisions. If we are to rehome them, are we to fly them to Africa?
“It is nothing other than a smokescreen […] You sneaked it in the back door.”
Green councillor Neil Doolin said he has read research suggesting that: “If animals have been born into captivity, sudden freedom or change is not the correct approach.
“Birds – parrots in particular – are as intelligent as five-year-old humans […] that is their home and everything they know.”
Concluding, Cllr Lewis said that if it is not about money: “Give them £60,000 a year. Anyone going to do it? No, because it is about the £60,000.
“You just called the people who work for the aviary animal abusers […] it’s an animal rescue centre. They are saving birds.
“We can do the right thing here, but I’ve given up on the Labour-run Cabinet. […] The Labour council will not listen to people in Southport.”
In the end his motion was narrowly rejected by 32 votes to 27.
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