Looks like a plan to make a park utilising the old railway cutting through Birkenhead.
It is a bit vague like all the other proposed plans that just get mentioned and forgotten about.
I like the sound of this park and hope it happens but can't find any info on it, only this, which, as I say, is a bit vague.

https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/19065860.wirral-council-sets-ambitious-plans-birkenhead/
https://www.insidermedia.com/news/north-west/bid-submitted-for-45m-birkenhead-regeneration

Anyone else got more info on it?

There has been talk of filling it in and building on it, this would be a great shame as it could be a useful transport route which could be created without having to knock down any buildings.

It is owned by Network Rail who have hung on to it with an eye of opening it again. Peel Holdings have also shown interest in using it as a transport route.

I'd approve of its use as another linear park provided they don't fill it in to do so, below street level its difficult to believe you are going through a main part of the town.

I've lost track of the number of 'regeneration schemes' inflicted on Birkenhead. None of them have worked. The place is still as unattractive after completion as it was before, despite the enormous costs involved.

They'd be better spending the money on removing those dreadful eyesores, the flyovers to my mind. After which they could move onto the Pyramids. Again no asset to the charm of the place..

If i remember right a few years back, they spent 3 million pounds of grant money from Europe to do a cycle lane from Duke street bridge road down thought Beaufort road to link up with Green lane Railway station, took them around six months to widen the pavement and added a little strip of grass, only got as far as Beaufort road and stopped, fitted the post to inform cyclist of a cycle route but no other markings. The grass gets over grown or turned to mud when it rains, the road floods where it was altered as the grids are too high for the water to drain.
If they removed the railway track and turned this into a cycle lane from the Four Bridges up to the Penny Bridge, but who is going to keep it clean, litter free and safe, but the question you have to ask, with all the cycle paths and marked areas around Wirral already who uses them?, a handful at most, in my books just a pipe dream and a waste of money. Look what they had done to Tower Bridge road, and look what they are doing to Duke street Bridge now!
They would be better using the money to provide more litter bins in Wirral, as street cleaning is a joke! once a month they come round and clean, so for the rest of the month we are knee deep in litter, and fine people for dropping it in the first place, and get it right this time!

I also thought Network Rail only kept hold of it just in case they wanted to utilise it again.
Now this plan has come up, does that mean Network Rail have passed it on, or is it just another pipe dream?

They are planning to start this in Autumn 2022.

https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/19561061.chance-help-design-birkenheads-new-park/

https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/dock-branch-park

It is going to be a muggers paradise, out of sight and out of hearing range for any victims.

We've had enough trouble in parks that are in plain view from the surrounding roads and houses.

There is going to be an exciting addition to the Dock Branch Park with a transport museum incorporated into it. It will display items from National Museums Liverpool’s 250-strong transport collection.

There’s a new transport museum opening in Birkenhead
23/09/2021

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has shared news of its development of a new transport heritage attraction, as part of Birkenhead’s successful Town Deal funding bid from Government.

The Town Deal, which saw Wirral Council being awarded £25m for a range of transformative regeneration projects in Birkenhead, will allow NML to create the new 5000 square metre attraction as part of regeneration plans for an 800m stretch of the former Dock Branch Railway line, which runs through the heart of Birkenhead Town Centre.

I must say, I love this new idea.

https://theguideliverpool.com/theres-a-new-transport-museum-opening-in-birkenhead/

Ooh nice, another Transport Museum to remind us of the times when we could actually get around Birkenhead, before they made a load of routes one-way, dead-ends, bottlenecks for aggressive traffic where you can't even run across the road in the wee hours of the morning, before a vehicle 20 metres away buzzes past you because they're trying to get airborne. All routes from Queensway and the A41 were backed up for several hours last friday, but let's take a potential route for traffic calming and make it into another smackhead's paradise instead. I wish I could just stop forfeiting a chunk of my wages to the council, and instead put my money towards a properly mangaged Corporation that funds essential services instead of prioritising vanity projects and grimacing statesmen.

As usual, its not Council funded, its funded through a Government Grant (the competitive Town's Fund) and the Government decide whether to fund it or not. If the Council doesn't apply for every grant going then they are effectively penalised.

The Government sits very pretty these day, they totally control Council decisions, income and expenditure but the Council takes the blame while the Government boasts about how its helping everybody.

Give control back to our Councils!

Council mismanagent (particularly the reluctance to submit a Local Plan until they were threatened) is part of why the Government intervened, even though I am not a fan of the potential creep towards authoritarianism, I also abhor complacency. Frankie Field used to love getting his mush in the Globe every week, now I don't even know who replaced him. But I know about Steve Hayes and Pat Cleary, because they bothered to canvas voters and act on their concerns. I'm happy to support a Council that will do this.

The reluctance to submit a local plan was partly because of the Government's instance on using out of date and inaccurate figures that the Government had supplied in the past. Even when the Government had provided more accurate figures they banned Wirral Council from using them.

Plus, if you want to complain about wasting money, have you seen the amount of work that an entire local plan entails, it costs a fortune to produce. Its only purpose is to force the Council to write what the Government wants to be written so it can then be used against the Council. If the Government wasn't micro-managing Councils then a much more useful and accurate document could be produced for far less money.

And as I have said before, going door to door should hardly be a priority function of Councillors, there are numerous ways to contact your Councillors which are far more efficient - if you want your voice to be heard you have to speak, not wait until someone asks.

There are about 15,000 people in each ward, do you think it realistic to expect a Councillor visit around 7.500 households, that is something like 100 days full-time work if it goes smoothly, in my experience of canvassing it could be a lot more than that as you have to explain things like:-

"it is not your Council Tax that is paying for the Dock Branch Park"

or

"the Council does not want to build on Greenbelt, the Government have forced us to put our name to a document which forces us to allow building on Greenbelt Land because there is not enough land to comply with what the Government is forcing us to do based on inaccurate out-of-date statistics"

or

"I am a representative of your prospective Councillor, he cannot possibly visit every household in his Ward"

or

"I did knock on your door last year but there was no reply, I haven't possibly got the time to repeatedly visit every household until I find everyone in"

Which is the most counterproductive waste of time because never mind how many times you state it, they still won't bother to check the facts themselves but prefer to carry on moaning about it, not helped by other Councillors whose own parties are not in local power helping to perpetuate misleading statements.

Where was the Green Party's version of the Local Plan that complied with Government regulations? Perhaps they didn't produce one because they were too busy knocking on doors instead of doing the administrative functions that they should be doing.

I would be more than pleased if you could demonstrate any of the above is untrue.

Local plans are mandatory, every council must submit them, moaning about costs and having to do them is juvenile. Also, if a mere sample is enough for an Ipsos survey or a clinical trial, then why do you assume that local councillors must survey absolutely everyone?

Please don't turn this into another political debate. This is a good thing for Wirral. Down town is in a right state and this is a positive thing to turn that around ffs.

"The Town Deal, which saw Wirral Council being awarded £25m for a range of transformative regeneration projects in Birkenhead, will allow NML to create the new 5000 square metre attraction as part of regeneration plans"

Because many people say "I'm not voting for him because he didn't canvas me". From your own words ...

Its a positive thing if it is truly sustainable, if it isn't sustainable it is a waste of money (but the developers and financiers will do alright out of it).

Another museum opening despite our track record of closing many museums.

A new plot of land being tidied up despite our track record of them ending up as either drop-out zones or going unmaintained.

The majority of the problem is not the Council, its the micromanagement and cuts by Central Government whose prime objective is to extract money from wherever they can to pass it on to developers and financiers etc.

I'm not against the basic concept of this project by any means, but when other essential services are not only being cut but also devastated, this is clearly not a priority. We have loads of parks and green space on the Wirral, we apparently have a shortage of urban building land and transport routes.

It is going to be unpoliceable, it is going to be unsustainable, we can't magic money and policemen from nowhere when the Council is in a position of continual cuts and more compulsory spending.

Clearance work has started on the site of the new Dock Branch Park to allow essential surveys to be carried out.

Construction on Dock Branch Park is expected to start in autumn 2023, with the park set to be complete early in 2025.

I am still looking forward to this project and the new visitor attraction operated by National Museums Liverpool.

https://theguideliverpool.com/work-starts-on-wirrals-new-dock-branch-park/

I love the bit that says "The site currently provides a unique corridor for wildlife"

... the wildlife being copper thieves and the like.

The truth about this "Linear Park" development is now out, it appears they previously forgot to mention about the 1000 new homes that are part of this project. Is this going to be a park or a housing estate with a path through it?

These new houses around Hind Street have been talked about for a while so why wouldn't they connect them to the new park? It is part of the regeneration of Birkenhead.

As usual it is not going to plan, like the flyovers being demolished and Wirral Waters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aF7WSnlnsA

https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/regenerating-birkenhead-2

Hind Street and the Linear Park were previously stated as two separate projects but now they appear to be linking the two as one project which is a huge difference in the way the funding is attributed.

I still don't understand how the cross traffic is going to work without the flyovers, rush hour in the mornings could bring a new level of snarled up traffic. They can't plan Birkenhead/Wirral as a labour supply for Liverpool then cut the transport arteries in half.