Southport residents encouraged to cast their vote

SOUTHPORT residents are being asked to vote for their favourite local community gardening project to receive support from Dobbies, the UK's leading garden centre retailer. 3 deserving community projects, in Southport, have been chosen by team members at the Southport Dobbies store to make the shortlist for Helping Your Community Grow, Dobbies' landmark community support initiative. The scheme, launched earlier this year, aims to work with existing groups to create 69 new or revamped green spaces around the UK, one for each of its mainline stores.

The 3 Southport projects have been shortlisted as they best represent an opportunity to create an enhanced green space that will benefit the local area, but the final choice is now down to local residents as they are encouraged to have their say and vote for their favourite on the Dobbies website.  The 3 local projects competing for votes in Southport are:- Merefield in Bloom, Friends of High Park Green Spaces and Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust's Garden of Reflection.

Merefield is a School for children and young people from 3 to 19 years old with disabilities and life threatening complaints, and as part of the curriculum, gardening has been introduced for those who are able to participate. The pupils are now representing their community of Ainsdale in the North West in Bloom (Britain in Bloom) competition and would really appreciate support from Dobbies with gardening equipment and plants. Their project will see their grounds improved and the creation of a sensory garden for wellbeing; the benefits of gardening for pupils are the main reasons it's now on the curriculum year round. Not only do the pupils benefit from gardening, but their parents and visitors together with the wider public who support this School benefit too.

Friends of High Park Garden Spaces aims to brighten up local parks and help the community get involved in their development and protection. The project would love Dobbies help in providing some gardening tools and plants which the community could harvest to eat.

Once a very neglected courtyard garden in the Hospital, Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust Garden of Reflection has been transformed during the Pandemic, into what 1 patient described as:- 'a beautiful oasis of tranquillity.'

During the Covid19 Lockdown, Hospital staff have not been able to consume their meals in the restaurant, so many use the garden. Pre-arranged visits have been made possible for patients to spend time with their family in the garden, including ICU Patients during a time where visiting wards was not allowed. However, despite the garden's progress over the past year, there is a lot of dead space in the garden. Staff would like Dobbies' support to provide raised beds to grow vegetables, herbs and fruit, which patients and staff can enjoy. The trust has a space in the shade of a Cotoneaster tree that would be perfect for a garden feature. There is also a second project in the planning stages for a dementia garden in the opposite courtyard which would benefit from support and donations of plants.

Graeme Jenkins, CEO of Dobbies, said:- "Through Helping Your Community Grow, Dobbies is delighted to be supporting so many gardening projects in the areas around our stores. It's a landmark initiative for us and we are so proud to be helping so many community projects across the country to create a green space that benefits their local area. The team at our Southport Dobbies store understand the needs of their neighbourhood and have chosen three extremely deserving projects for the Southport community to choose from. We're very much looking forward to finding out the results of the public vote, and we're excited to help the winning project achieve its aims in the months to come."

The winning project will receive support from Dobbies, including products, equipment and even team support from the staff at the Southport Dobbies store, to help them create a green space that the local community can be proud of. The project with the most votes, from all areas across the UK, will be the national winner and receive additional support from Dobbies.  The public vote is now live and will close on:- 29 August 2021. The winners will be announced in September 2021.  Votes can be cast at:- Dobbies.Com.

Naked Peak delighted to be part of new Beales department store in Southport

A shop gaining a growing reputation for its natural, organic and vegan friendly candles and body products is now a part of the new Beales department store, that has re-opened, in Southport, on Thursday, 12 August 2021.

Naked Peak opened its 1st shop in Cambridge Walks, in Southport Town Centre, in 2020. Since then, their unique products have become an increasingly common sight on shelves in shops across the UK. Now they are getting ready for the official opening of their second venture, with a concession inside the new Beales store, on Lord Street.

Owner Lynda Parsons said:- "It's all very exciting! Southport needs its department stores back. We were in Beales on Sunday, supposedly to put our stock out; we spent more time looking at the clothes! The support from the owners of Beales and of Wayfarers Arcade has been brilliant. We started this venture in December in very uncertain times. We never thought that we would be doing so well and it just keeps on building. It's fantastic. We have so many loyal and lovely customers and followers, it's overwhelming at times."

For years, Linda had wanted to create her own business in candles and organic products. This led her on a road of discovery into yoga, meditation and the use of essential oils.  She said:- "Essential oils are a powerful natural force, changing your mindset and body, having the ability to trigger emotional, mental and physical reactions within your body. They can be used in all areas of your life to help you relax, sleep and focus on the events of life. My passion for animals is part of why I have created Naked Peak. For every item sold, a donation is made to a nominated animal charity. My other passions are health, lifestyle and wellbeing, three very important elements, and life changing."

When Beales in Southport opens this Thursday, it will include a number of local concessions, including:- Remedy, Lucy Lou's Boutique, Plaza Cards, Molloys Furnishers, In Time, Miss Attire, Naked Peak and others, in addition to well known national and international brands including:- Forever New, Jack Jones, Craghoppers, Carabou, Shuropody, and many more.

It is a store that really does support local businesses. Beales CEO Tony Brown said:- "My message to people would be;;please use us, or lose us! We have shown with our investment the huge confidence we have in this Town. Now we hope that people will support us, and the local businesses that we have in here."n