Help Bootle Build Back Beautiful

Help Bootle #BuildBackBeautiful 
Eco-friendly, affordable homes and thriving communities 

We believe that everyone deserves to live in a happy, healthy neighbourhood. That’s why we created Destination Bootle, the UK’s largest community-led housing project. And now we need your help to make it happen.
 
SAFE began life as a small creative arts collective in the late 1990s. We won commissions from hospitals, schools, public services and private contractors across Europe, to engage communities in the co-production of public artwork.
 
Alongside our community business hub – which houses 13 social enterprises – we own and manage our local pub, the Lock and Quay and care for five acres of public space adjacent to the Liverpool-Leeds canal.

Our neighbours have told us what they want and need, and we’ve turned our attention to community housing. Destination Bootle is the UK’s largest community-led housing project – a £38m project, designed to bring genuinely affordable, eco-friendly and future-proofed homes to Bootle. 

In March this year, our local council turned down planning permission for it. Alongside 187 homes, an investment of £38m and 110 new jobs for local people, it would have created a fossil fuel-free site, with geothermal heating and solar photovoltaic panels providing electricity to homes and businesses. Not only is it good for the planet, it’s good for the people that live and work there, lowering energy bills to reduce fuel poverty and give residents a better quality of life. 

Destination Bootle is designed by award-winning Ellis Williams Architects, which ranks in the Architects’ Journal top 100 for successful and innovative architectural practices. The site features five electric cars for residents and workers to hire, and is close to train services from Bootle New Strand and Oriel Road, alongside local bus stops and a cycle network that takes cyclists straight into Liverpool city centre. 

Yet the council rejected the application because its highways policy dictates two parking spaces per home – in spite of approving other plans that don’t include even one space per home, in an area where only 5% of households in the area own two cars and only 29% own one. Now it’s time to fight back. 



Appealing the planning decision to make sure local people can access affordable, good quality homes that are cost effective to heat and run will cost in the region of £35k. This covers:

Planning consultant £15k
QC Barrister £10,500
Campaign consultants £5k
Architectural support £2,500
Transport consultant £2,500

We have a generous partner who will support us with £10k, but we’re asking you to support us too. Help us make sure that our community – which has shown huge enthusiasm already for Destination Bootle – gets the homes and jobs it deserves. 

Now that we've reached our deadline, our planning consultant has already begun poring through the planning application, to make sure we can properly represent community support for the project, answer questions and argue our corner.  We will then submit the appeal to the National Planning Inspectorate this month, which is where our QC barrister comes in – and are hopeful of an outcome this late this year, or early 2022 – which backers will know from the updates you've received. We have some money allocated in the budget too for architectural support and a transport consultant. They are both helping us deliver a development that is environmentally sustainable, future-proofed for its residents and reflects the transport needs of our local community. 

AND, we promise that – should we win the appeal (which means our costs will be covered by the council) – we’ll create a fighting fund for communities. We’ll put the money back into a pot for other community-led housing plans to challenge planning decisions. This is just the beginning! 

Supporting our community is supporting your community, too.




Why eco-friendly homes matter
Our climate crisis has a greater impact on those who have less. A move away from an energy-intensive future is essential, not just to protect the planet for future generations, but to guard against higher living costs and energy costs for us all. Research by Ofgem says that households in lowest income groups spend almost twice as much (7.5% as opposed to 4.2% of their total money) on energy. Energy is essential for our health and wellbeing – consuming less, or having to choose between heating and eating – not only has health consequences, but worrying about paying fuel bills can have psychological effects.*

Government stats tell us that one in ten households lived in fuel poverty in 2018**. Creating a development equipped with geothermal heating and solar photovoltaic panels to provide electricity means residents and businesses at Destination Bootle can look forward to lower energy bills. A pool of electric cars to share, alongside travel by train, bus and bike means residents will be part of Liverpool City Region’s pledge to become carbon-neutral by 2040, a crucial part of our fight against climate crisis. 


About us
SAFE took up residence in a disused school in Bootle in 2007. We’ve grown fast – and sustainably – establishing ourselves as a key community hub in South Sefton. We support thousands of residents and help hundreds of small businesses, social enterprises, creative and social organisations to start up and grow. We’ve become the conduit between a ‘family’ of social organisations and micro/SMEs based within our hub, and major anchor institutions.

In 2015 we also took on our local pub, the Lock and Quay, which we own and manage. It’s a live music venue and the region’s only community micro-brew pub – where ALL profits are reinvested back into community projects. Our home in St Mary’s Complex has become a community business hub, housing 13 social enterprises. And we care for five acres of growing/public space adjacent to the Liverpool-Leeds canal.

Our work supports a range of opportunities for people locally, from apprenticeships and volunteering to business support and creative programmes. And soon, we hope, housing. 

Our community is widely recognised as one of the most deprived in the UK. The government’s Indices of Deprivation says that our neighbourhood is among the worst 0.5% in the UK with high levels of unemployment, anti-social behaviour and crime, poor health, educational achievement and housing. We don’t see it like that – this is a community of friends and neighbours, good social business, community support and spirit. But they deserve the best we can offer them. And we need your help to do that.