So Much Possible in Maghull, with a little help and kindness from your friends. We are very grateful to the following:

Parkhaven Trust Incredible Support to Local Community.

  • Men in Sheds Could Be Coming to Maghull. Some years ago, FOMD tried to unsuccessfully support the fantastic Bootle Toolshed Charity led by Eddie Flynn to open a satellite group in Maghull, where we identified a great need and they were extremely keen on branching out. More information about their great work can be found in the link: http://www.bootletoolshed.org.uk/

However, since our recent contact with Parkhaven which led to a successful home in a win-win for the B-Troop veterans to develop a 600,000 bee Apiary, they were also keen to meet with Eddie to see if they could create another win-win scenario, so it is with great delight that we can report that Parkhaven have been enormously supportive and receptive to accommodating a men in sheds group for Maghull, with more information to follow about how the community can help. Their renowned community kindness has also extended to supporting FOMD for an official address and meeting venue and MTC for a meeting venue, since the prolonged closure of the town hall following the tragic fire.

FOMD’s NHS Rowlands Dell Health and Wellness Project (Maghull’s largest ever environmental cleanup and green investment).

Plant Donations. Following the planting of 2500 trees this planting season we are now focusing on the race to plant shrub donations to Rowlands Dell before spring growth.

  • Abbey donated a huge Camellia but unfortunately it’s too big to move.
  • Gemma has donated multiple shrubs which is an ongoing gift which keeps on giving.
  • Jean donated a large amount of London pride which Graeme kindly picked up and planted.
  • Chloe and Gary dropped off a Mediterranean Spurge today which we planted near the viewing area.
  • Alison – has a fantastic array of manageable woodland shrubs which we hope to pick up this week.
  • Hayley has donated a small apple tree, to be picked up this week.
  • Jim called in to donate various rocks
  • Sarah and Luke (Saxon Tree Services) kindly transported a couple of the larger donations from Gemma, with others just fitting in to my estate car (pictured)!
  • Bog Garden (Basically an 8×3 m pond with slow release holes in the bottom). Our partners The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) are using our £8000 successful grant from Morrisons to create two water features hopefully before April. The TCV volunteers (pictured) are led by highly qualified rangers and supported by volunteers who are often social prescriber referrals. They dug out the huge hole three weeks ago and returned on Thursday (13.3.25) to insert the pond liner, backfill, and are returning in early April to populate with bog loving plants and fill the area with water. They are hoping to bring barrels of water and utilise our local water butts, but we amazingly do have the fire service on call if needed.
  • Logs for the Westway Neuro Diversity Awareness Archway Entrance. Huge thanks once again to Sarah for her continued support in providing bespoke sized logs to populate the archway. We are not fully there yet but it won’t be long.
  • Bulb Planting. Frank has donated thousands of bluebells and lilies and transplanted the bluebells along the new upper pathway and the lilies are a new backdrop to the developing bog area (pictured) .
  • Great Kindness. Every time I go to the Dell we are overwhelmed by absolutely everyone who stops and makes a positive comment often up to 20 people on each occasion. Last Saturday, the newly elected Cllr Liam Stoddart (15.3.25) popped in with a warm hello and positive feedback but was also gathering information about recent antisocial behaviour. On Sunday (16.3.25) I had been working a little longer due to my lift forgetting about me (!) and a good Samaritan miraculously out of the blue, in the form of the super friendly and supportive Cllr Phil Hart appeared with the tastiest invigorating chicken and bacon wrap and a large bottle of water!
  • Amazing Cash Donation. Completely out of the blue, we received a phone call from Sefton Cllr Mike Desmond on behalf of his colleagues Chloe Parker, and June Burns as representatives of their Park Ward, with the astonishing news that they are donating £1000 from the ward funds towards planting in the Dell. In addition, Mike and his family made a very generous personal donation. All of which will help us make a massive difference over the year for which we are immensely grateful.
  • Astounding In-Kind Donation. On Thursday (13.3.25), following our initial contact in October, Winvic Construction and their subcontractors Huyton Asphalt (pictured) spent a whole day installing new kerbs for the old pathway prior to a resurfacing of the whole tarmac path in the near future. The support is beyond our wildest expectations as it is not only a huge investment financially but will provide an incredible safe accessible legacy for a whole community. Their staff could not have been more friendly and professional.

Parkbourn Square Trees, have been decimated due to disease, with no replacements from the landowners, so we have planted 19 small oak trees (pictured) last week, which the local residents are really happy to see.

Our previous one-hour session & Thanks – on Saturday (15.3.25) was yet another brilliant outcome in which we were able to:

  • Litter picked and emptied two bins.
  • Removed and transferred the second of two mountains of woodchip around path borders to suppress weed growth. Courtesy of Joan (G), Colin, John (W), Ken, Dorina and Frank. Huge thanks to Paul and Harry Richards (Richards Tree Surgeons) for the second crucial huge donation of woodchip.
  • Watered 225 Yew trees. Tirelessly undertaken by Joan (S)
  • Planted a variety of donated London pride plants around the rockery areas. Transported and planted by Graeme.
  • This was a beautiful day blessed by much kindness from passers-by including Ken and the contractors who gave us bottles of water and a local resident after a chat about the Dell returned with a ice coffee and Mars bar!

Background.

This beautiful haven for wildlife has unbelievably been treated as an open tip for decades, where every inch has revealed a variety of pollutants harmful to wildlife. In our three-stage plan, stage I has resulted in Maghull’s biggest ever 46-week cleanup in which FOMD have removed 266 bin bags of litter and 25 tons of debris. In the two months of Stage II, that was completed in November, with our NHS landowner partners (expertly installed by subcontractors – PR England Landscapers) using a health and wellness grant fund (representing Maghull’s largest green investment) have installed an amazing legacy array of hard landscaping installations to provide accessibility for the whole community (accessible path, viewing/picnic area, sunken garden, bins, 10,000 bulbs and planting at small junction points, bug and bird boxes, and a dry waterfall feature). We are now engaging in stage three to repopulate Rowlands Dell with woodland planting and need your help.

Pictured: (1) FOMD Graeme, Joan (S), John, Joan (G), Ken, Darina (Colin and Frank not pictured), (2) TCV volunteers in bog garden), (3) Huyton Asphalt Team (in yellow), Parkbourn Trees and various pictures of donations.

Huge thanks to one and all,

Friends of Maghull and District (FOMD)

Together making Maghull a better place to live.

More information at www.fomd.co.uk including: (1) Events tab for everything about the meeting and (2) Projects tab for the project background.

More information. www.fomd.co.uk

Contact: admin@fomd.co.uk

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