Five trees that were felled for the reconfigured Maghull Town Shopping Centre, were hoped to be replaced following incredible work by local community groups but have finally been thwarted by the Property Management Company (Evolve).

Short Version.

In March 2023, in an unprecedented coming together of Maghull’s local charities and community groups who recognised the value of the trees to the community and had gone the extra mile with finite charitable resources to raise £1865 to purchase five drought resistant trees which included accessories, and professional planting, has frustratingly and seemingly been lost.

The charitable groups had worked really hard in a short period of time to raise the funding within the tree planting season, but when the Property Management’s maintenance team started the work the five tree grills when removed had not been excavated sufficiently of concrete and tarmac to undertake the work without machinery and they were also not confident that utilities were not under the surface even though Evolve had obtained the plans and permissions, so they could not proceed.

Consequently, we have strived to obtain support from a multitude of local house building companies to undertake the excavation, involving a myriad of communications, to no avail. We are hopeful that one construction company may help when they appoint their landscapers, but after waiting seven months for Evolve to pay their £250 towards the trees and no assurance regarding the utility plans which they claim to have had since March, and an extra permission from a colleague, we regretfully obtained refund from the tree nursery.

The whole process has been an extraordinary and considerable waste of immeasurable time and goodwill.

Long Version.

  • In March, Evolve gave tree planting permission and promised a non-forthcoming £250 contribution.
  • The Friends of Maghull & District (FOMD) completed a successful grant application to Maghull Town Council for £500, and FOMD also paid £250 in the expectation that Evolve would provide the promised contribution.
  • FOMD were invited to a whole evening event to provide a presentation requesting a donation from the Maghull & Aughton Rotary members meeting, who kindly voted to donate £500 of their hard-earned charity money, gathered in challenging weather from their touring Father Christmas float.
  • Maghull in Bloom voted at their meeting several weeks later to contribute over £600 to enhance their stunning flower displays in the Square with trees.
  • FOMD also negotiated a generous 5% discount from the tree nursery provider.
  • Mersey Forest advised on the best drought resistant trees that would be suitable for the Square.
  • Evolve negotiated with their subcontractor maintenance company (Marshalls Construction) for the five trees pits to be excavated to a depth of 70 cm x 100cm wide. However, on the day of the April excavation they realised that when they removed the grills from the tree pits, the amount of tarmac and concrete was too much to remove with hand tools and had not received sufficient assurances regarding the underground utilities from Evolve.
  • Consequently, we asked several of the local housing construction firms to help.
  • McCarthy & Stone (building retirement accommodation on Liverpool Rd South} were initially very receptive but after three weeks said they were unable to help as their build was so advanced they had no labourers on site any more.
  • Kier Construction (Rebuilding Deyes High School) promptly advised that they also had no labourers on site but have been really helpful with previous projects.
  • Countrywide Properties (housebuilding on Poverty Lane) were very receptive, but our request was never addressed due to a business amalgamation.
  • Persimmons’ construction company – MV Kelly assessed the job a month later and declined on the basis that it represented too much to commit at present but helped with another project.
  • Dowhigh Construction (Sefton Council’s highway subcontractors) who are always very generous had already committed to other charity targets. All I things yesterday before regarding game an invoice received which indicated that people
  • Vincente Construction (building low secure hospital) were initially very keen to help but two weeks later advised that they were unable to provide support as their site work was complete and their landscapers were unable to provide any support due to other commitments and completion on site.
  • Bellway Homes (building homes at Lydiate Gate) were generously receptive and advised that when a winning landscaping tender was ready they would seek for the landscaper to undertake the excavation, but sadly six months later they have not been in the position to undertake this tendering process due to a changing design. Despite Bellway’s earnest generosity, there would be no guarantee that the landscaper would undertake the work and potentially exacerbated by the lack of clarity from Evolve regarding underground utilities and the structures that may need removing.
  • We recently considered raising a further £2000 by applying for a heritage grant to pay for the CAT scan assessment of utilities, excavation and backfilling with topsoil, but in all honesty, we could not apply without the certainty of the underground utility plans that Evolve said they had obtained from their predecessors London & Cambridge in April, which nobody has been able to verify. A senior representative from Evolve contacted her colleague in May for further verification and despite countless non-responded requests from ourselves to Evolve they have now sent the same request to the same colleague on 9 October.
  • The tree nursery has patiently held onto the purchased trees since April but it is unrealistic to expect them to continue, so they have kindly offered to refund our money which we will in turn be refunded to the relevant groups.

The whole process has been a considerable waste of time and an insult to the incredible goodwill that has been offered simply because of abysmal communication, for a task that really should have been undertaken as part of the landowners original planning application responsibilities.

Speaking from a FOMD perspective (but I am sure this is shared by other groups) during our short lifespan as a community group that strives to benefit the community, we have achieved a myriad of remarkable award-winning outcomes, achieved through a generous spirit of cooperation, sadly poorly represented in this process.

A huge thank for everyone’s kind generosity and patience throughout this frustrating process.

FOMD

#fomdcic #environment #maghull #mtc