THE official unveiling of a notice board entitled:- 'Rowlands Dell,' in Maghull, occurred on 13 April 2024. The area is Located at the junction of Westway and Liverpool Road North (L310DJ)

This video helps to give you some history about the location and explains the background to the unveiling and the renaming of the area by Friends of Maghull & District.

The group is well known locally for its transformation project within many parts of Maghul into functional and environmentally friendly areas for the benefit of the local community. As part of a new NHS Wellness Dell Project, next to scrap land at the side of the Westway Maghull Health Center, the Friends of Maghull & District CIC started to transform the area into such a location.

Following permission from the NHS landowners (NHS Property Services Ltd), the Friends of Maghull and District (FOMD) on behalf of the local community have since, as you will see in the video, this new project has been dedicated to the late Dr John Rowlands, for his contribution to Maghull, by the unveiling of a notice board entitled:- 'Rowlands Dell.'

After 3 years of consultation and in partnership with the landowners NHS Property Services, FOMD identified the area for a 3 year restoration project to transform the Dell into a safe, accessible haven for wildlife and health, along with an area for wellness that the community can use. The project aims to use evidence based wellness principles by bringing together blue and green (water and vegetation) along with many well know methods to help local wildlife.

In preparation for this event, volunteers took 25 consecutive weeks to:- strimmed, flailed, and continue to rake out 173 bin bags of rubbish, mountains of Ivy and rubble debris, 30 agricultural bags plus 2 ½ tons of dominant damaging Irish Ivy, and created a wildlife friendly hedge utilising 300 trees (Mersey Forest) and power hosed this path (Mersey Jet Wash).

At the event, the Mayor of Maghull, Councilor Ken Hughes, performed the unveiling, along with the late Dr John Rowlands family.

Also attending were representatives of the following organisations who have part funded the notice board to provide a legacy, historical context, updates, information, and invite support and engagement:-

• Dowhigh Construction (represented by Steve Petche - operations manager) donated £500 of which half contributed to the notice board, whilst the other half part funded our absolutely invaluable website. Without this contribution, we simply could not communicate to our community to achieve the successful support we need. More information:- FOMD.Co.UK.
  
  

• The Local Co-operative Store (represented by Steve Booth - member pioneer and store manager) who have partnered with us during the whole of last year, to also part fund the notice board. In addition, they have also kindly partnered with us for a further year and are currently raising funds to provide a temporary neuro diversity art umbrella installation and a legacy of lanterns for this path. More information:- CoOp.Co.UK.
  
  

• The Merseyside Police Commissioners Resilience Fund Grant is also a significant funder for the notice board. More information:- MerseysidePCC.Info.
  
  

• Tony from Lemon Landscapes, and John and Henry from Maghull Town Council amenities team, for the free professional installation of the board.

Dr Frank Sharp (FOMD) has also announced that:- "Later this year (2024) we are going to start the creation of a sunken garden and picnic/viewing area, creating a dry waterfall feature and a natural path that will provide a walkway partially around the circumference, thanks to funding provided by the NHS. We still hope to raise further funds to populate the whole Dell with zones of woodland planting. Please go to our website to find out how you can help us to help your local community. Our website address is:- FOMD.Co.UK."

What are your thoughts about this project, located within the heart of Maghull? Email our Newsroom at:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com or send us a message on:- Mastodon, Facebook, or Twitter, and let us know.