Seven Maghull parks and two schools will be sharing 112 large 4m trees following year-long negotiations to successfully secure two outside sources of investment through DEFRA’s Urban Tree Challenge and the Northern Forest scheme, and both organised by Mersey Forest.

Alex Spencer (MTC Outgoing Amenities Manager), Ben Greenway & Carl Smethurst (Mersey Forest), Cllr Dr Frank Sharp (FOMD CIC Director) have all worked tirelessly to make this a reality. Collectively, this externally sourced investment of £44,000 represents one of the largest green investments into our parks, and provides countless benefits for our community.

Local residents have expressed their delight that the following green spaces have already received their trees: Moss Park 20, South Mead Park 10, Moss Side Cricket Club 10, Dodds Park 10, and Mersey Avenue Park 10. Whilst the remaining trees will be planted in October 2022 at Pimbley Field 13, Hall Lane Park 15, St Georges Primary 13, and Hudson Primary 11.

In addition, MTC has funded nine standard trees on Claremont Avenue (adding to 10 match funded trees from last year), FOMD has planted nine standard trees on Bobby’s Wood (adding to the nine funded by the Tree Council last year), and the Maghull & Aughton Rotary (mainly funded by the Tree Council) have planted nine standard trees near the Medical Centre. All the trees have received a Queen’s Green Canopy ‘virtual plaque’ and can be seen on the map link: https://queensgreencanopy.org/map-education-hub/qgc-map/#/

Massive Playground Upgrade.

The green investment in the parks is being complemented by a major refurbishment of children’s play equipment in six parks, taking place between March and May, utilising approximately £107,000 of the town councils reserve funds, in the absence of any other forms of support. The upgrade has commenced at Hall Lane Park and will also include Mersey Avenue Park, Moss Park, Balls Wood, Moorhey Park, and Lathom Park.

Community Parks Initiative.

We hope this can be a catalyst, to a MTC initiative being organised by Phil Dillon (MTC Community Services Manager) to encourage local communities/schools near various parks to form friends of groups to support decision-making and belongingness. The lottery fund encouraged MTC to submit a £40,000 bid to facilitate this process, which the Lottery put on hold during the pandemic priorities, but we hope to resurrect this brilliant initiative in the very near future.

Sad Farewell.

Finally, we are sad to report that Alex Spencer (MTC Amenities Manager) who has been responsible for the smooth running of our parks maintenance for many years and an integral part of the tree bidding processes and playground procurement, will be leaving Maghull for a well-deserved promotion at Prescott. We would like to express a huge thank you and congratulations on behalf of our grateful community, he will be really missed but is leaving a fantastic legacy.