Valley park’s orchard plan comes to fruition
VOLUNTEERS and students from schools and colleges have joined West Lancashire Borough Council rangers and the Friends of Tawd Valley Park to create a new orchard.
The trees have been planted after the creation of a path from Manfield to the River Tawd.
The rangers and the Friends organised for groups to come along and plant heritage varieties of fruit trees to turn what was a plain field into a community orchard, with the community able to come along and pick the fruit from the trees at harvest time.
A new hedge was planted around the outside to define the area and provide cover for wildlife and bulbs were also put into the ground during the planting sessions, which were rounded off with a weekend with activities for the local community.
Students came from West Lancashire College’s opportunities and supported internship courses, Lathom High School, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Pontville School and West Lancashire Community High School working with the My Bright Futures project. There were also children from local primary schools through the SHARES Lancashire scheme’s Pupils Parliament.
The orchard and the path are part of the Tawd Valley Park Project to make Skelmersdale’s green oasis an even more pleasant place to visit.
In Ormskirk, the Friends of Coronation Park donated and planted an apple tree to the Community Orchard at the park. This adds to the collection of 26 orchard trees there for the local community to benefit from their autumn fruit harvest.
The orchard is relatively young having been introduced to the park in 2013 and includes various apple species, Victoria plum, cherry, pear and damson trees.
In partnership with West Lancs Ranger Service the Friends of Coronation Park are volunteers who work to make their award winning park even better through projects, community conservation and assisting with events.
Cllr Yvonne Gagen, portfolio holder for leisure, said: “I am really pleased to see so much great work being done in our local parks for the benefit of the local community and thank all the students, teachers and volunteers who helped with the orchard creation.
“The council is ambitious for West Lancashire to have a good quality environment and these projects fit right in with that. The council is also grateful to the friends groups for their hard work in the parks.”
If you are interested in joining the Friends of Coronation Park contact Anne on 01695 570258 or e-mail anne.faulkner@ westlancs.gov.uk and for the Friends of Tawd Valley Park call Paula on (01695) 585144 or email tvp@ westlancs.gov.uk.