Funding- Well amazingly, after one year of crowdfunding, today is the last day for collecting our cash donations and we are in the process of counting how much Morrisons, Home Bargains and the Esso petrol station customers collected, for our next post and formal letters of gratitude. Our last collection amounted to Morrisons (£18) Home Bargains (£31), totalling £49 from our five home-made collection containers which have now been withdrawn. SMW Update - we had been planning to deliver the final three components of the project in April but unfortunately we have been hampered by the national restrictions and have reluctantly made the decision to postpone the installation of the rhinoceros sculpture, noticeboard, and wildflower turf. It was really frustrating to be so close, we had actually ordered the delivery of the wildflower turf for the 2.4.20! Consequently, the wildflower turf will be re-ordered for September/October when the turf will not be exposed to excessively dry or frosty weather, the noticeboard and rhinoceros will be installed once we obtain further information from the foundry manufactures and the sign company. However, we expect to have this installed within this year. Fortunately, we were able to collect nine huge bin bags of plastic bottle tops from the three fantastic primary schools (Northway, Lydiate, and St Andrews). The competition between the classes in each of the primary school sounded brilliant, particularly the youngest class of proud victorious children who were the winners at their school in Lydiate Primary ('Top Class'!). My hope is that the children can all attend the eventual unveiling and insert the bottle tops they collected, and get a real sense of ownership for their fantastic engagement. With regard to anyone else who is collecting bottle tops, I would be very grateful if you could continue collecting and saving them yourselves, until the sculpture is available. Do not worry if we have too many bottle tops as we may consider making a community mosaic picture! The Next Project 2020 – at Woodend/Bobby’s Wood, near the junction of Liverpool Road South and Northway, is now gathering some momentum, despite these worrying times. Over the last three weeks we have been (1) seeking permissions and exploring ideas, (2) costing with three tenders for each aspect, and (3) exploring a variety of funding options and stakeholders involvement e.g. community groups. Physical preparation to date has involved (1) a free topographic survey (normally between £800 and £1,000) from Martin Monaghan, and (2) the MTC Parks team who have undertook some brilliant work clearing, and wood chipping a huge amount of vegetation to expose some huge old borders and blossoming bulbs, to provide a blank canvas for the community to work on in the future. Our crowdfunding websites is now up and running and can take pledges but it is still a work in progress whilst we are waiting for a video to be made available in one week (12.4.20), before we formally advertise the launch the website. www.spacehive.com/woodend Finally, the picture shows one of the Stafford Moreton Way borders with more of the 400 daffodils making an appearance. However, the 1000 blue bell bulbs remain conspicuous by their absence, so far but I understand that this can happen any time between mid April and mid-May! In the meantime, look after yourself and take comfort in nature.

Not only has Paul cut the Parkbourn Square grass in kind today, he and his team should be celebrated for the: * Wildflower Meadow behind number 45 Parkbourn Square 2019, * Environmental Citizen Awards nomination for the 2020 * New Crowdfunding Project - 'Woodend Community Woodland Project' 2020/21 ( www.spacehive.com/woodend ) he has pledged a major part in our Project, which can be viewed, minus the video so far, on the above link. The Woodend website is formally launching next week but maybe you could be one of the first to provide a minimum £2 pledge today? Please scroll down the journey timeline here, to see the newspaper articles about Paul and his colleagues community work.

Funding Although we have finished our online funding and are still waiting for the pledges to be processed, we are still collecting cash donations over the last fortnight, from customers until April, which has amounted to Morrisons (£19) Home Bargains (£23), totalling £42 from our five home-made collection containers. In addition, some of our first pledges are starting to come through amounting to £20 over the last three weeks. Once again, many thanks to one and all for the continued brilliant support, positive feedback, and offers of support. SMW Update. Everything has been a little quiet over the last few weeks regarding the developments on Stafford Moreton, mostly planning for the final stage in April, when the rhinoceros sculpture, noticeboard, and wildflower turf will be installed. Wildflower Turf - We will be ordering £2500 worth of wildflower turf as planned from the same company that was celebrated internationally for the fantastic displays all around the London Olympic Stadium during the Olympic Games. Rhinoceros Sculpture - I understand from the local schools that the bottle top collection is going amazingly well, and people on social media are conjuring up names for him/her! Although the plan is to install the sculpture in April, the project manager is returning from Venice this week! Next Project 2020 – Woodend/Bobby’s Wood? Currently, we have been planning the next project wearing the Maghull Town Council hat for some really exciting proposed plans for Woodend/Bobby’s Wood at the junction of Liverpool Road South and Northway. Although FOMD will also be involved in various aspects of the project. Over the last three weeks we have been (1) seeking permissions and exploring ideas, (2) costing with three tenders for each aspect, and (3) exploring a variety of funding options and stakeholders involvement e.g. community groups. Physical preparation to date has involved (1) a free topographic survey (normally between £800 and £1,000) from Martin Monaghan, and (2) the MTC Parks team who have undertook some brilliant whole week of work clearing, and wood chipping a huge amount of vegetation to expose some huge old borders and blossoming bulbs, to provide a blank canvas for the community to work on in the future. Finally, the picture shows one of the Stafford Moreton Way borders with more of the 400 daffodils making an appearance. However, the 1000 blue bell bulbs remain conspicuous by their absence, so far!

Funding Although we have finished our online funding and are still waiting for the pledges to be processed, we are still collecting cash donations over the last fortnight, from customers until April, which has amounted to Morrisons (£16) Home Bargains (£20), totalling £36 from our five home-made collection containers. In addition, some of our first pledges are starting to come through amounting to £23 over the last fortnight. A special mention to a lovely gentleman who handed me £10 on SMW. Once again, many thanks to one and all for the continued brilliant support, positive feedback, and offers of support. Maghull Community Radio. Frank made an appearance on Maghull Community Radio Station yesterday dinner time. Although it felt initially a daunting prospect, Dave Hughes the presenter is such a friendly person that in the end it was difficult to stop talking! Dave also added the great news that St Joseph’s Hospice charity shop has kindly agreed to collect clean plastic bottle tops for the local community to put into the recycling rhinoceros in April. SMW Update. Everything has been a little quiet over the last fortnight regarding the developments on Stafford Moreton, mostly planning for the final stage in April, when the rhinoceros sculpture, noticeboard, and wildflower turf will be installed. However, there was a bemusing story in the Champion newspaper this week from a local resident who simply must have thought that the project had finished, despite providing lots of information to the contrary, so hopefully the response provided some reassurance to him and possibly others. We will be ordering £2500 worth of wildflower turf as planned from the same company that was celebrated internationally for the fantastic displays all around the London Olympic Stadium during the Olympic Games. Next Project 2020 – Bobby’s Wood? Currently, we have been planning the next project wearing the Maghull Town Council hat for some really exciting proposed plans for Bobby’s Wood at the junction of Liverpool Road South and North Way. Trees for Maghull. Another brilliant SMW outcome from the contact with Mersey Forest/Northern Forest is that we are now negotiating the possibility of obtaining thousands of trees to be planted in November across seven parks in Maghull. Something, the whole community would venture out and support in terms of the big dig. Maghull has 15 Parks & 19 Open Spaces! The council are also looking at lottery funding to create Friends of Groups for our local parks with a large array of activities to generate interest. Finally, the picture relates to a great article I found on the Tree Council website about the importance of hedges, particularly in terms of being better than trees for cutting down on pollution. https://www.treecouncil.org.uk/Press-News/2020-is-Year-of-the-Tree-but-lets-make-sure-hedgerows-dont-get-left-behind

Funding - Although we have finished our online funding and are still waiting for the pledges to be processed, we are still collecting cash donations over the last fortnight, from customers until April, which has amounted to Morrisons (£9) Home Bargains (£28), totalling £38 from our five home-made collection containers. In addition, some of our first pledges are starting to come through amounting to £46 over the last fortnight. Once again, many thanks to one and all for the continued brilliant support. Bottle Top Appeal - Following on from our appeal in the Champion newspaper, for clean plastic bottle tops for the recycling rhinoceros sculpture we extended the appeal in two local social media accounts and received over 151 ‘likes’ in a couple of days! In addition, we have also received some amazing and enthusiastic confirmations from Northway, St Andrews and Lydiate Primary Schools to help with the collection. It is really heartwarming and motivational how this idea has been so warmly and positively received, and more importantly that the community values and recognises that it will belong to them. Generally, we have been: (1) gradually tidying up the road leading to the health centre, (2) exploring multiple Maghull Council Park sites and open spaces to potentially plant thousands of small tree whips later this year courtesy of Northern Forest, (3) exploring ideas, costs and funds for a larger but similar project to this current one in Bobby’s Wood (Liverpool Road South), (4) undertaking a presentation for Spacehive/Sefton Council next Tuesday in Crosby Leisure Centre, (5) met 10 Year 8’s from Maghull High School in Maghull Town Hall Chambers to discuss the councils various roles and our FOMD charity project, (6) MTC chose the civic nominations in Council on Wednesday which included two of our major helpers and although we cannot reveal the winners until late February everyone that was nominated should be considered winners and (6) received an invitation to talk on the Maghull Community Radio Station in a fortnight to talk about the project! Finally, the picture encouragingly shows, hopefully the first of many bulbs (400 daffodils, 1000 bluebells, 120 mixed bulbs) breaking through what we were concerned would be an impenetrable layer of wood chippings beneath the borders of planted trees on Stafford Moreton Way!

Funding - Although we have finished our online funding and are still waiting for the pledges to be processed, we are still collecting cash donations over the last fortnight, from customers until April, which has amounted to Morrisons (£20) Home Bargains (£7), totalling £27 from our five home-made collection containers. In addition, some of our first pledges are starting to come through amounting to £110 and £315 from Spacehive. Once again, many thanks to one and all for the continued brilliant support. Bottle Top Appeal - Following on from our appeal in the Champion newspaper, for clean plastic bottle tops for the recycling rhinoceros sculpture we have extended the appeal in two local social media accounts and received over 100 ‘likes’ in a couple of days! In addition, we have also had the appeal circulate through all the local schools courtesy of their network (MADCOS) and received our first collection confirmation from Northway Primary School, who really appear to be recycling experts already by collecting 14 stones of Christmas cards! Further Initiatives - Northway Primary School have also expressed an interest in the MTC ‘Green Trail’ proposed initiative to encourage local schools to design and support smaller recycling sculptures for their nearest parks. This project has the further aim of encouraging the creation of multiple Friends of (Their Respective) Park Groups. Phil is very keen to speak to you in much more detail than I have provided here to explain the initiative further. It would also fall within Sefton’s Borough of Culture 2020 Year Initiatives. Phil Dillon Community Services Manager Maghull Town Council, Maghull Town Hall, Hall Lane, Maghull, L31 7BB t: 0151 477 8609 e: Phil.Dillon@maghull-tc.gov.uk Info@maghull-tc.gov.uk Rhinoceros Sculpture Update - the Castle Foundry director visited the site this week to explore various ideas and updated us that he will start creating the sculpture, following the near completion of a bronze Bee Gees statue that is going to the Isle of Man! We also visited three other sites for potential unrelated installations in Maghull. The FOMD group met today and whilst we are waiting for registered charity status, we have been focusing on a wide array of potential projects, discussed future training and a website. For those interested Sefton Crowd is starting another funding round and are providing free training for two hours on 4 February: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sefton-crowd-crowdfunding-workshop-tickets-88681808677?utm_content=81748704&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8-coQiQ9Z59nJAk7Kf-yt1nCX-D-Zk3CeqQMKT6jYLv3bnoQhJ0D6WnaCJOVdV62wvxB5GxKFy9HTJWVWZZSWnxNVczQ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=hs_email&_hsmi=81748704

Funding - Although we have finished our online funding and are still waiting for the pledges to be processed, we are still collecting cash donations over the last fortnight, from customers until April, which has amounted to Morrisons (£17) Home Bargains (£21), totalling £38 from our five home-made collection containers. Once again, many thanks for everyone’s continued brilliant support. Over the last week: 1) We continue to have some difficulties processing 30 of our online pledges through Spacehive and Go-Cardless which may result in us contacting everyone individually to arrange an alternative method payment. 2) There was too much debris from the Home Bargain borders to dispose of so we have recycled it into the border leading to the medical centre, edging the kerbs to improve the appearance. We have also identified the owners of the road, who had not realised it belong to them, to request that the non-functioning 10 streetlights be repaired and cleaned to be undertaken this month. In addition, the council is exploring if it is possible to have this road named after a well-known individual who has possibly contributed more to Maghull than anyone we can think of. The picture shows - the right border with four deciduous trees in the background comprising of Birch, Crabapple, Cherry (donated by Mersey Forest) under planted with 750 bulbs (bluebells, daffodils and a mix), and are covered with wood chippings. Whilst in the foreground there is a Nordmann Christmas tree purchased from Jones nursery and has apparently been grown in Tuscany (Italy).