On an early freezing morning last Saturday, we had a really heartwarming surprise attendance of lots of children, staff and families from Hudson primary school and the neighbouring Air Training Corps cadets, who worked incredibly hard and cheerfully to help the Friends of Maghull & District (FOMD) make our environment a better place.

The Friends of Maghull & District (FOMD) organised our latest ‘Give One Hour’ for Maghull initiative at Hudson Primary School on Saturday morning at 10:30 hours on an absolutely freezing but sunny day, to do some follow-up tree maintenance on the 2000 trees planted last year, which received a Royal tribute as part of the late Queen’s Green Canopy Project.

The neighbouring Air Training Corp kindly suggested that maybe six of their group could attend but we thought generally most people would be hibernating. So imagine our surprise when what seemed like the whole ATC turned up resplendent in uniform and were joined by parents, grandparents, teachers and children from Hudson Primary School.

The ATC children were incredibly friendly, polite and hard-working and a real credit to their parents, and their Squadron Commander Flt Lt Ian Taylor. The young children from Hudson primary school were a complete delight with their cheerful enthusiasm throughout supported by their families, teachers and Nicky Craddock (Head Teacher). It may have been a chilly 1°C but the heart-warming community spirit more than compensated.

We moved 4t of a kindly donated mountain (courtesy of Paul Richards – local tree surgeon) of wood chippings and spread them around hundreds of wildlife friendly hedging tree whips. The wood chippings make an excellent and attractive mulch to enhance tree hydration throughout the year and suppress competitive weeds that can impede the growth of the trees.

Today was the sixth of our new ‘One Hour for Maghull’ initiative, where general invites are given out and people can choose if they wish to join in or not without any expectations. So far, we have had