Victoria Park Covenant 'Binned' by Sefton's Bootle Bosses​

A hundred year old covenant with the people of Southport and Birkdale is being broken left right and centre. And Sefton Council's Bootle bureaucracy has simply been turning a blind eye.

The Victoria Park was gifted to the people of Birkdale and Southport​ for their enjoyment back in 1898​. When the Southport Council was created, the responsibility for maintaining this gift transferred ove​r​ - and eventually it was handed over to Sefton. When the Southport Flower Show was privatised, back in the ​1986, a contract was set up through which the Flower Show company promised to maintain the park for public enjoyment in exchange for being permitted to close the Park to the public for a total of 80 days per year.​ Once preciously guarded, (the former ​Birkdale Council ​refused a clubhouse for the Croquet Club in 1902 because they did not have the power to allow private clubs exclusive use of any part of a public recreation ground​ under the ​terms of the ​Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway Act of 1882.​), the park has now apparently been gifted to Mammon.​​ Southport Flower Show Ltd owns a trading company, Victoria Park Management

Research by town centre councillor Tony Dawson has unearthed the fact that the Park is being closed ​to the public far more often than the ​Flower Show Company ​contract permits - and no one 'in charge' in the Council seems to care in the least.

"It is totally blatant," says ​Councillor Dawson. "All you have to do is look on the Flower Show Company's calendar on their web-site. And, as far as ​I​ can tell, no one in this Council which is meant to look after the public's interest in the covenant for Victoria Park has even been checking, let alone dreaming of enforcing the 80​-​day closure ​limit ​rule."

Councillor Dawson has ​formally ​asked Council officers what they intend to do to keep the balance between the public and the Flower Show Company as what was originally agreed. He also wants a clearer public web page on the Council's website letting people know in advance when Victoria Park will be open and when it will be closed.

"It was suggested to me that the Victoria Park web-site http://www.victoriaparkevents.co.uk/events.asp might be useful but I do not find it so. It shows events when the park is NOT available​,​ whe​reas​ I think most local people are more interested in ​precisely the opposite information ie when the Park is ​going to be​OPEN. I think this information could also usefully be shared with local social media sites.​"​

"This year, the Victoria Park calendar appears​ ​to​ ​show the park ​to have been ​totally closed to the public​ ​for at least 71 days in the three months of July, August and September ​alone. I​ ​have also​ ​been​ ​told that the park does not always get opened to the public as soon as is advertised after various events ie the 'private' clean-up sometimes takes longer than it should do and this restricts availability of the park to dog walkers and others even more​. Also, ​​ that what access there is ​can sometimes be limited to certain entrances which can be highly inconvenient."

​"​It is not totally clear from the published Calendar, anyway, whether some of the events advertised on
Victoria ​P​ark involve the closure of all or most of the park to 'normal' use of the park by residents/visitors. What I seem to 'glean' from this year's present​ ​Calendar (presumably it might still be added to) is the 'official' closures advertised this year add up to​ 123 days​ ​with​ ​'other events'​ ​making up a further​ ​38 days​. ​This is just not acceptable."


​The Calendar shows:
​
March Officially 'closed' 0 days. 'other events' 3 days
April Officially 'closed' 24 days. 'other events' 3 days
May Officially 'closed' 13 days. 'other events' 5 days
June Officially 'closed' 6 days. 'other events' 7 days
July Officially 'closed' 22 days. 'other events' 0 days
Aug Officially 'closed' 31 days. 'other events' 0 days
Sept Officially 'closed' 18 days. 'other events' 4 days
Oct Officially 'closed' 5 days. 'other events' 6 days
Nov Officially 'closed' 4 days. 'other events' 9 days
Dec Officially 'closed' 0 days. 'other events' 1 day

Total Officially 'closed' 123 days. 'other events' 38 days

The park is one of, if not the best kept park in Southport and that is because it has a team of grounds staff all year round who look after the park. These staff obviously need a wage which the park must generate, through the use of the park for events.

Without these staff the park would be a mess like many of the other once glorious park in Sefton, who are looked after by a team who blitz the park quickly as they have too many to look after.

Lets not forget that this park no longer costs the tax payer any money to run due to it being taken over by the Flower Show, an event that brings people into our town each and every year. Any extra revenue goes into continuously improving the park.

This year I believe that the park had special permission to be closed extra days as it was used as a campsite for the Open, another event that brought people from all over the world into Southport. That event obviously wont be on for the next 10 years or so, so the park will be open for that time again.

The Park now has to be used for parking for the airshow because the beach is has turned into a mudhole. Perhaps Mr Dawson should try and sort out bigger problems than a park being closed a few extra days.

tony is quite right this park is for the southport people to enjoy and make full use of this has been taken away so people can make money out of our park

ITS JUST NOT RIGHT

visitors to a town expect attractions and services to be open , and not have to do a search to see what is open or available , bit like putting a sign in a shop window to ring up for opening times !!!

I don't think people make lots of money off the park, other than those who do a good job and take a wage:

The Flower show is a Charity that brings money into Southport
The Airshow makes money for the Council to improve our town
Woodvale Rally is a charity
Round Table bonfire raises money for charity
Fireworks is run by the council and brings people into Southport

Are these not all events for people of Southport to enjoy?

Lets not forget the council cancelled the Flower Show and had it not been set up as a charity we would have lost it.

Of course if you'd rather the park go back to council control we'd loose the flower show and the 10-15 people that it employs would be out of a job, the park would then be in a worse condition as there wouldn't be the ground staff to look after it, local businesses would loose trade due to a loss of visitors all so you can have somewhere else to walk your dog a few extra days a year.

People need to wake up!

Originally Posted by kelloggs

The park is one of, if not the best kept park in Southport and that is because it has a team of grounds staff all year round who look after the park. These staff obviously need a wage which the park must generate, through the use of the park for events.

Without these staff the park would be a mess like many of the other once glorious park in Sefton, who are looked after by a team who blitz the park quickly as they have too many to look after.

Lets not forget that this park no longer costs the tax payer any money to run due to it being taken over by the Flower Show, an event that brings people into our town each and every year. Any extra revenue goes into continuously improving the park.

This year I believe that the park had special permission to be closed extra days as it was used as a campsite for the Open, another event that brought people from all over the world into Southport. That event obviously wont be on for the next 10 years or so, so the park will be open for that time again.

The Park now has to be used for parking for the airshow because the beach is has turned into a mudhole. Perhaps Mr Dawson should try and sort out bigger problems than a park being closed a few extra days.

Far from the park being closed for a 'few extra days' it has been closed for almost a third of the year! Were the people informed that this was going to happen? Were there any discussions? The council is charging through Southport like a bull in a china shop and doing far more damage to the area. It is not just the Park, there are changes being made everywhere that the people of Sefton are not privvy to - this is completely wrong! Ainsdale High School, was supposed to be used for educational purposes only - against thousands of complaints, the area has been listed for housing proposals - bet those living in Ainsdale, in particular Sandringham Road will be none too pleased. There are proposals for two thousand more houses to be built across Sefton - land that could be used for Industry and employment will be consumed for housing - this is likely to COST the local authorities far more as many of these people will not have any employment in the area, they will have to rely on benefits.

If it's closed for an event that is free entry to the public is it deemed to be closed or open?

Originally Posted by said

Far from the park being closed for a 'few extra days' it has been closed for almost a third of the year! Were the people informed that this was going to happen? Were there any discussions? The council is charging through Southport like a bull in a china shop and doing far more damage to the area. It is not just the Park, there are changes being made everywhere that the people of Sefton are not privvy to - this is completely wrong! Ainsdale High School, was supposed to be used for educational purposes only - against thousands of complaints, the area has been listed for housing proposals - bet those living in Ainsdale, in particular Sandringham Road will be none too pleased. There are proposals for two thousand more houses to be built across Sefton - land that could be used for Industry and employment will be consumed for housing - this is likely to COST the local authorities far more as many of these people will not have any employment in the area, they will have to rely on benefits.

Since 1986 it has been agreed that the park can be closed for 90 days per years so I'm sure there would have been discussion then. Obviously as I said before, they had special permission off the Council to close for extra time this year for the Golf.

The park staff put notices up regularly on all of the gates notifying visitors of any closures coming up, if folk choose to ignore these then It is down to them if they are unaware of the closures.

Perhaps the only thing Victoria Park are guilty of is not being clear on their website, but regular users of the park, who seem to be the ones having an issue, should be aware by taking notice of the signs on the gate.

I agree fully with what you are saying about the council, however, Vicky Park, for the next 990 years is under Flower Show management and therefore not the problem of the Council.

Attacking a group of people who actually work hard to provide a good, safe park and good events that bring tourism to the town is in poor taste. There are plenty of other places to walk the dogs or have a picnic within 5 minutes walk of the Park so I don't see what the fuss is about other than a few bored people wanting to moan about something!

Often when it is 'Open' they make it difficult to access with very few gates open.

I don't hear Dawson complaining about the Egyptology collection, and other artefacts and paintings, that were gifted to Bootle Museum by Bootle residents for the benefit of Bootle residents, now ALL being in Southport. The Bootle bosses surely can't be all that bad.

Originally Posted by mike1979

I don't hear Dawson complaining about the Egyptology collection, and other artefacts and paintings, that were gifted to Bootle Museum by Bootle residents for the benefit of Bootle residents, now ALL being in Southport. The Bootle bosses surely can't be all that bad.

Dawson’s obsession with Bootle is holding the town back and may as well just replace “Bootle bosses” with “ineffective libs/exiled libs”.... three articles in a row about “Bootle bosses”, he should be removed for preventing an effective council as how can anyone think an egotist who wants to be constantly at war (by the language he uses) be good for the town....the town needs more people like Norman Wallis representing us.

At present we’re in Sefton, he should get over it and try and work with his colleagues inside and outside Southport to deliver benefit to the town rather than a constant stream of drivel that makes the town look like it has a chip on its shoulder.