60ft water tank 'is a catastrophe for whole community'

NEIGHBOURS' ANGER OVER TWO-YEAR FLOOD PREVENTION PROJECT IN HISTORIC PARK

- By DAVID HUMPHREYS

A MASSIVE water tank reaching 60ft deep is to be installed in one of Liverpool’s historic parks in a building project which could take up to two years and which has prompted a backlash from neighbours.

Survey work has begun on the installation of a huge underground storage tank at the Mystery in Wavertree.

United Utilities is undertaking a £30m project that the water company says will help reduce flooding in the area.

This has been met with anger and frustration by those living across from the 104-acre site who claim the project has been “dropped on” their community.

Work to install the tank - which will hold 5.5 million litres of rainwater, the equivalent of more than two Olympic-sized swimming pools - is expected to get under way in the new year for a period of up to two years.

Damon Revans-Turner, who has lived opposite the Mystery for a decade on Grant Avenue, described the project as a “catastrophe for the whole community.”

Plant equipment has been set up on the Mystery across from Grant Avenue, surrounded by a series of fences. United Utilities is completing survey work and ground investigation this month.

The 104-acre park was given to Liverpool Corporation in 1895 by an anonymous city well-wisher - the reason why it is affectionately known as The Mystery.