Volunteers have been sprucing up Southport’s historic bandstand and garden in a bid to turn the structure into a “focal point” for tourists and locals alike.
Lord Street in Bloom is running a crowdfunding campaign to raise £10,000 for more plants, a sprinkler system and power washer, which will help them continue to maintain the area, the ECHO reports.
Pauline Morris, who founded the group in 2010, said: “Every penny counts. People love coming here. They always say to us: ‘Thank you so much for doing what you do,’ and that they like coming to sit here to watch the world go by and to listen to the church bells.”
She said that she was chatting to one woman sitting in the gardens who told her: “I’m so lonely”. She added: “I told her to come along and join the group. That’s what it’s all about. None of us knew each other before and now we’re all friends.
“I feel very proud of what we have achieved. There has been nothing in the bandstand for a long time.
“This should be used more, it really should.
“We are hoping that the transformation of this area, once completed, will make it a community hub for local events, including concerts and dancing.
“The improvements will make the bandstand and its gardens the vibrant focal point for the many tens of thousands of people who visit Lord Street each year.”
The Lord Street in Bloom group -Credit:Emma Morgan
Having nearly completed two flowerbeds, the volunteers now want to turn their attention to the third, which will require careful weeding by hand and new topsoil because cables buried under the surface.
Sharon Gregory-Wareing, a community champion at Asda Southport, who has been volunteering with Lord Street in Bloom for around 15 years, told the ECHO: “We’re all really passionate. We’re gone from being a little group of four or five to 18.
“Part of my job as community champion is to enhance the town, and this is the perfect opportunity for me to make a difference. These gardens have not had anything done with them for about 33 years.”
Sharon said that eight weeks ago, the flower beds were overgrown and full of weeds, but now: “It looks really appealing. You can’t have a load of people performing when it’s not looking nice. I think it’s going to look so much better when we’re finished.
“You’ve got people that don’t have their own gardens and they can come here to sit and enjoy them. It’s nice as well because holidaymakers come past and say: ‘I wish we had you helping where we live’.”
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