On Wednesday 6th May the Land Trust, for whom we manage Port Sunlight River Park, arrived for their staff team day. Staff had travelled from as far afield as Glasgow, Dover, London and Norfolk to join with colleagues from all the Land Trust sites, including Warrington. Some had stayed overnight for the occasion.
The weather forecast was rain and gales and more rain so it made for an interesting day from start to finish. They were not deterred by the weather though and most of the group of 30 spent the day outdoors. The tasks completed include creating a long passing place on the all access path to enable pedestrians, cyclists and dogs to step off the path safely when it is busy instead of using the adjacent road. One group worked on the lakeside challenge cutting back around 200m of herbage which was concealing a hedge. It proved difficult to strim this stretch last year so having it cleared now will help future maintenance. The car park team welcomed visitors and weeded a difficult herbaceous bed. Another pair was ready to welcome visitors at the Shorefields entrance but there were very few due to the weather but some very long distance runners were observed!
One member of staff undertook a breeding bird survey and instructed others in this method. The results will be a useful addition to our wildlife records. One of the rooms in the site office was cleaned and painted and now looks much better. A photographer took images of the work, and these photographs will support the future bids to turn the site office into a visitor centre and help with the bids for the footpath and cycle path connections from the Old Courthouse site.
Lunch was provided by the Bromborough Pool Coffee shop.
All of the team were enthusiastic and persevered in the face of the awful rain and worked well alongside our regular volunteers.
