A FAMOUS Liverpool family's bequest to the city has halted plans for a bus turnaround in Hunts Cross. Enid Tushingham, the 91-year-old mother of film star Rita, has signed a sworn statement saying the land was intended for use as a community library. Mrs Tushingham, who lives in Woolton, joined Hunts Cross residents in a campaign to stop the proposed Merseytravel turnaround near Ashton Drive that would accommodate buses from Hunts Cross to Liverpool Airport between 5am and midnight. Liverpool City Council officers had recommended the proposal be approved but as a result of Mrs Tushingham's revelation, the decision has been put on hold while the planning committee conducts a site visit. A search is now under way for the original transfer deed, believed to have been drawn up in the 1960s, as the first three pages of the current copy are missing. Mrs Tushingham said: "When the land was given over to the city it was supposed to have a library built on it but they didn't do that. They've had a mobile library there for many years. "Quite frankly, I think a bus turnaround is a very bad idea. There is such a lot of traffic congestion there. I would like to see a library built for the Hunts Cross people." Mrs Tushingham thinks the land belonged to her late husband John's family as far back as the 1700s. It was part of a larger block of farmland owned by the family in the triangle of Speke Road, Hillfoot Road and Ashton Drive. The land included a clay field from which the family made a new-style of metallic brick in the early 1900s and some of the houses built with it are still in existence today along Ashton Drive. The site was originally occupied by a cottage and legend has it that highwayman Dick Turpin stayed at the house and stabled Black Bess there on his way back to York. Mrs Tushingham said: "I could never understand why they pulled that house down. I thought it was a listed building. It must have been my husband's great-great-grandfather's. "There is a legend that went through the family. One night they gave a man a bed for the night and he said 'I've got a black horse'. They fed him and put his horse in the stable. In the morning he and the horse were gone. It was Dick Turpin." Ashton Drive Residents Group claim the bus turnaround will increase traffic and create more road crashes, putting children and elderly people at risk. Residents are also worried it will encourage groups of people to loiter, resulting in crime. Mrs Tushingham's daughter Rita, who starred in the classic 60s film A Taste of Honey, has supported her mother's step into the spotlight. From her London home she said: "She's a very feisty lady is mum. It's great because far too many people feel passionate about something but feel their view won't be heard. "If there are things you feel are not right you have to be able to have your say. A lot of people of my mum's age think 'no-one will want to listen to me'." Shaun Fitzpatrick, of Merseytravel, told a meeting last week that the proposal was part of long-term plans for transport in Merseyside and that it was a temporary application until the Allerton interchange had been completed. Coun Flo Clucas has proposed Garston Station as a more suitable site. | 
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