Works to Liverpool's Bigge Park on hold

STAGED upgrade works to Liverpool's Bigge Park have been put on hold while councillors bicker about funding.

Former mayor and current Liverpool councillor Wendy Waller said the security upgrades for the park had well and truly been costed and designed and should be completed as a matter of course.

"The issue of safety has been raised by many of our constituents," she said. "This is a community park. If people don't feel safe enough to enjoy the premises then we have a big problem.

"We made a commitment to our community and we need to show our community we're a council that can and will deliver on our promises.

"This zig-zag approach to service delivery is just not good enough. The money is there so there's no reason the job can't be completed."

Cr Waller said the park was used by hospital staff, TAFE students and the general community on a daily basis.

But come night, people were too afraid to be caught out in the crime hot spot. She said the source of funding for the upgrades came from council's Town Improvement Fund which raised an estimated $1 million a year.

"It's for this reason the project was staged over a few years. I understand the council want to explore different avenues of funding to complete the job but they need to realise this project has already been funded for," Cr Waller said.

"If it's affordable and within our scope then it's timely to fix it, timely to make it safe and timely to make it somewhere our community can enjoy."

So far the park's lighting and corresponding street lights have already been upgraded.

Road works around the park, extra disability access and landscaping are still on the agenda.

Bigge Park is on Crown land in the heart of the Liverpool CBD and has a valuable place in local history.

The park's 23,325 square metres was one of the first green spaces to be part of the city, a symbol of Governor Lachlan Macquarie's early urban plans for Liverpool.