West Kirby’s newly formed Friends of Sandlea Park swung into action this week to tackle the neglected flower beds in front of Sandlea House.
Sandlea is the only park in West Kirby without a Green Flag award, and the aim of the Friends group is to bring it up to the standard to win this benchmark national standard for publicly accessible parks and green spaces in the UK.
On Thursday, a team of volunteers put in four hours of hard work turning over the beds and putting manure on them to improve the soil. The manure was donated by Dawn Snowden, from Greasby.
The Friends of Sandlea Park aim to plant out the renovated borders this October, which they hope will bring pleasure to local residents who use the park.
The group are aiming to thin out the dense tree canopy, which makes some parts of the park gloomy. This will allow light through to ground level to help the plants grow.
Jane Kennedy, acting secretary of the Friends of Sandlea Park, said of this week’s dig: “This is a good start to help get more shape into the park as well as working towards the Green Flag award.
“We had help from Skipton Building Society, Incredible Edible, West Kirby Rotary and Soroptimist International Hoylake and West Kirby.”
Any free to enter park or green space can apply for a Green Flag award. To win, a park has to demonstrate that it hits eight key criteria, including being welcoming, healthy, safe and secure, clean and well maintained, sustainable and having community involvement.
The judging takes place in April and May each year and the winners are announced in July. The winning parks can fly a Green Flag for a year, but have to apply again annually to retain the award.
To find out more about the Friends of Sandlea Park, you can visit their Facebook page here.