The historic quarry which became known as the Dell adjacent to the Hare and Hounds Pub has always looked like a beautiful natural haven, but a different picture has emerged, following the Friends of Maghull & District’s (FOMD) three years of consultation with environmental experts, evaluation of commissioned biodiversity reports from 2014, and the first three one-hour sessions which have revealed that the area has been treated as an open tip for decades.

So far, we have removed 60 bags of litter and mountains of debris, after the area was strimmed to explore the topography. The area has been overwhelmed by Irish ivy, partially hiding decades of litter not only unsightly but a hazard to the wildlife. Biodiversity reports from 2014 (1) which catalogued every form of flora, fauna and wildlife, alongside tree reports indicated even then that the ivy could become the dominant species which has now had the following effects:

  • Extinguished most of the biodiversity of plants and wildlife.
  • Made the historic protected trees top-heavy and reduced the trees resources and exacerbated by climate change and national tree diseases – challenge the trees to their limits, resulting in lost branches and danger to life.
  • It has obtained a damaging foothold into the sandstone perimeter wall, which has resulted in the wall already collapsing (with sandstone being replaced with unsightly breeze block) and obstructing pedestrians particularly those with prams, mobility scooters and wheelchairs.
  • Potentially leading to a situation of profound neglect that the area could well be considered an invitation for building development, evidenced by the For Sale sign opposite on Westway!
  • There is no doubt that Ivy looks beautiful and will harbour some limited wildlife but allowing it to continue is simply not sustainable.

Consequently, we will continue to remove the Ivy in key areas and will gradually develop the area to restore its natural biodiversity utilising wherever possible a comprehensive list of native species and wildlife habitat strategies, that will be evaluated for its biodiversity and sustainability by a local university.

We are enormously grateful to the volunteers who attended our third one-hour session in consecutive weeks, it is absolutely remarkable to have removed 60 bags of litter which has been obtained by simply raking the tenacious ground Ivy to reveal litter in every inch! (eg glass and plastic bottles, cans, binbags of collective rubbish, plastic and polystyrene from takeaways, with labels dating back decades), mountains of debris, six agricultural bags of invasive/damaging Ivy.

An Incredible outcome and huge thanks for helping to Make Maghull a Better Place to Live, for humans and wildlife!

Best Wishes,

FOMD. www.fomd.co.uk

#fomdcic #Maghull #environment

(1) https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3426093494368158&set=pcb.3426093921034782

Perimeter wall gradually being cleared of damaging ivy courtesy of Christine (B)

Many thanks to john, Paul, Chris (b) and Joanne Next to a mountain of twigs and branches that will form small wildlife habitats, once the Ivy and litter have been cleared.