We were delighted that Hudson Primary School were able to spend the morning (8.12.20) in the torrential rain helping the Friends of Maghull and District (FOMD) plant 72 trees to future proof the old trees, whilst other volunteers planted 1350 wildlife friendly hedging whips around the whole perimeter of Bobby’s Wood/Woodend near the junction of Liverpool Road South and Northway.

Benefits: Dr Frank Sharp (FOMD Trustee) stated, “that it represented a wonderful opportunity for the school to be involved in this lovely practical and educational experience towards ‘making a difference to the climate for the children and the children’s children’, as quoted from a nationwide appeal launched in the brilliant BBC Country File (6.12.20) program to plant 750,000 trees (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t0bv) Every tree planted will be recorded on their postcode map. The 750,000 planting total is also symbolic because it represents every child who will be starting primary school in the UK in 2020”.

The Woodend Community Woodland Project is an initiative that successfully involved raising £28,000 through crowdfunding between April and October 2020 during a pandemic (https://www.spacehive.com/woodend). The aims is to: ‘reinvigorate the historic woodland entrance to Maghull, with a welcoming, accessible, iconic and engaging wildlife friendly space, focusing on enhancing the environment, history, community, legacy’.

The planting was collaborative process with Sefton and Maghull Council’s, The Conservation Trust (TCV), and the Tree Council. Last year we undertook a smaller ongoing project on Stafford Moreton Way (https://www.spacehive.com/stafford-moreton) planting 180 trees and 1500 bulbs, with the support of the local St Gregory’s and Green Park Primary schools reported in (https://www.champnews.com/papers/pdf/M4919.pdf). On this occasion we shared St Gregory’s Primary School and neighbouring Bumbles Nursery disappointment that the weather was too bad for them to come on site. Nevertheless, St Gregory’s will be using 20 of our trees to plant in their school this week and the nursery hope to be involved in the future border planting which we are currently crowdfunding for at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/woodend or join our partner Co-op membership scheme at https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/53065

How You Can Help?

Michelle Rossiter (FOMD Member & Managing Director of Home from Home – a support service for isolated older adults) said that, “the initiative is part of a larger Maghull project to plant 8000 trees that we have stored, for planting between now and March, most of which will be planted in local parks but we hope to plant others in local schools and are looking for expressions of interest? It is an enormous undertaking, consequently we would be very grateful if the community is interested, for further volunteers to come forward and express their interest to Phil Dillon, MTC Community Services Manager on 010515263705”.

Val Bridges (FOMD Member & Leader of Maghull Parish Hall) added that, “we would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved, particularly the following:

• Paul Pruden and his Ashworth Hospital Gardening Team for several hours rotovating some of the perimeter and planting some of the hedging.

• Neil McMahon (Senior Project Officer for TCV) and his team who stayed for the whole day. Neil was fantastic in providing a magical experience for the children in his presentation and support.

• Hudson Primary School’s brilliant children and teachers for all the work in their morning and Andrea Watkins (FOMD Member & Morrisons Manager) for their generous offer of a thank you present to all the children involved.

• The cheerful and hard-working local morning volunteers: James, Mark and Stephen, and in the afternoon – Dave.

• Alec Spencer (MCT Amenities Manager) and his two colleagues Rob and Paul who did a fantastic job of the hedge in the morning rain.

• St Gregory’s Primary School and Bumbles Nursery for being so supportive but could not make it as planned due to the worsening weather in the afternoon.

• Finally immense gratitude to Mersey Forest, The Tree Council and Yates Construction for the trees, and thank you to MTC for the border rope and stakes (to be installed later by Ashworth Hospital)”.