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).

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 week, from customers until April, which has amounted to Morrisons (£4) Home Bargains (£13), and (£60) from a relative totalling £77 from our five home-made collection containers. Once again, many thanks for everyone’s continued brilliant support, it really all helps. Over the last week - we have just finished weeding most of the neighbouring Home Bargain store borders and spread tons of wood chippings (as a weed suppressant) courtesy of Paul Richards. I have been on site every day this week and it was a pleasure to get so much positive feedback from so many people, which I have passed on. The picture shows - the left border with 28 m of mixed wildlife friendly hedging and are covered with wood chippings, and a holly tree in the foreground with six wildlife friendly flowering fruit trees in the border eg damson and Morello cherry, under planted with 750 bulbs (bluebells, daffodils and a mix), and are covered with wood chippings. Community Art - Sefton Council kindly removed, on our request, two tired looking litter bins from (1) Stafford Moreton Way and (2) in front the Halifax, and delivered them to me to clean up and have been dropped off at Maricourt and Maghull High schools who are going prime, paint, and varnish -themed with (1) wildflowers and (2) saving the world respectively. Can’t wait! A huge thank you to Ms MacKinnon & Mrs Eborall and their students for taking on this community art initiative as part of our project. In further recognition - of our amazing Ashworth Hospital gardeners FOMD is also nominating them for a Maghull Civic Award.

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 week, from customers until April, which has amounted to Morrisons (£6) Home Bargains (£9), and (£5) from an anonymous neighbour (!) totalling £20 from our five home-made collection containers. Once again, many thanks for everyone’s continued brilliant support, it really all helps. Over the last week we have been undertaking some tidying up, including weeding and litter picking the neighbouring Home Bargain store borders and ongoing spreading of tons of wood chippings (as a weed suppressant) when it becomes available. Our flowerpot men have returned in festive mood (see picture) with a surprising number of people taking pictures with them and social media comments about how they have been missed! Finally, thank you to Andrea Watkins (Manager of Morrisons) who donated selection boxes for each of the twelve school children from St Georges and Green Park Primary schools, who helped with the planting two weeks ago. FOMD also gave our amazing Ashworth Hospital gardeners a couple of boxes of biscuits as a small token of our gratitude for all their hard work.

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 week, from customers which has amounted to Morrisons (£4) and Home Bargains (£17) totalling £21 from our five home-made collection containers. Once again, many thanks for everyone’s continued brilliant support, it really all helps. Since last week’s fantastic community planting day we have been undertaking some tidying up including edging borders, spreading tons of wood chippings (as weed suppressant), local litter picking. In preparation for stage 2/2 in April we visited the Castle Foundry in Liverpool to discuss plans to construct and install our planned recycling rhinoceros sculpture, including a site visit in the New Year. In a separate capacity as part of WW1 Statue Steering Group, we were also able to view stage 2 of 3 involving an amazing computer laser cut backdrop to the WW1 statue at Maghull North train station, which is planned to be installed in the New Year. I also had the opportunity to discuss another initiative involving the construction of a plinth in Maghull Square to install an annual exhibit, on similar lines to the initiative at St Nicholas’s church near the Strand. As previously mentioned, we are hoping to have the tired looking litter bin on Stafford Moreton Way temporarily removed and painted in wild flower art as part of the overall project. Now, Sefton Council Recycling Department has kindly agreed to support the idea by removing and delivering two local bins. In addition, we are delighted to confirm that Maricourt High School Art Department will undertake the wildflower painting, and Maghull High School Art Department will paint the other bin themed around ‘saving the planet’. It should make the area much more interesting and will provide a lovely opportunity for the children’s work to be recognised and celebrated by the community.