The award

The Land Trust has been awarded £67,000 through the Rethinking Parks Programme to assist and enable Friends of Everton Park to increase their capacity and formalise their status in order to take on a more formal management role at the site.

Rethinking Parks is a jointly funded programme between the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Big Lottery Fund (England) and Nesta.

The idea

The Land Trust and the Friends of Everton Park are developing an innovative and sustainable solution for the long-term management of the 43 hectare Everton Park, situated in one of Liverpool’s most deprived wards. Everton Park will be transferred from Liverpool City Council (LCC) to The Land Trust (LT), together with an endowment created through sales of specific areas of land to be used for new housing in the surrounding area. The endowment will be invested by the Land Trust and income generated will be used to manage and maintain the park in perpetuity in accordance with the Land Trust’s established model. The Land Trust is working with the Friends Group to improve and maintain the park for the benefit of the local community.

The Rethinking Parks project aims to assist and enable the Friends Group to increase their capacity and formalise their status in order to take on a more formal management role at the site. It will provide new and additional resources, including training and tools to carry out physical works. It will also seek to increase volunteer numbers and expand the skills set of existing and new volunteers - enabling them to effectively play a key role in taking on elements of park management into the future. This project will add value and enhance community engagement, while supporting the Land Trust’s model to provide a sustainable, long-term solution to green space management.

The desired impact

• Friends of Everton Park to have increased capacity and structure enabling them to work effectively with partners to sustain the park
• Wider local community engagement with the park and increased use accompanied by a feeling of local ownership of the site
• A larger pool of volunteers who are regularly engaged with the park  A plan for the partners to inform and enable successful delivery of the long term aim to transfer the site to the Land Trust

The team

The project is being led by the Land Trust and the Friends of Everton Park. It is supported by a number of partner organisations whom are working together to deliver the desired impacts they include; Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision, West Everton Community Council, Landlife and Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group.

"Everton Park is a beacon project that can make a significant contribution in finding new ways to sustain our treasured urban parks in a manner that responds to the needs of local communities."

Contact

Paul Scragg, Project Coordinator: [email protected] 07766 364196