News Item

Fun Poets Park event in Bootle welcomes spring – March 2025

Bootle residents put the focus on fun at a recent community event to welcome spring.

More than 180 adults and children attended the celebration in the Poets Park as part of the Our Beautiful Grotspots project, which is transforming the surrounding area, co-ordinated by local social enterprise Regenerus and supported by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Residents were invited to come along for fun and games, pebble painting, poetry reading and writing and to enjoy the fabulous sight of more than 7,000 daffodils planted by the community last October which are now in full bloom.

There was also live music throughout the afternoon at the event which was blessed with beautiful spring weather.

Ruth Livesey of Regenerus commented: “It was delightful to see families spreading out their rugs and opening up their picnic baskets, really getting into the spirit of this community event.

“It was also very timely for one young girl who was celebrating her birthday on the day – her and her friends were able to enjoy their own party in the park at the event.’

Back at the start of the Our Beautiful Grotspots project residents said they wanted to see more flowers and colour in the park, so as well as the spring bulbs, new wildflower borders have been created at the three park entrances.

This has involved seeds being planted in a mix of recycled rubble donated by local firm Dowhigh Ltd, sand, peat-free compost and biochar which captures more carbon and helps to improve air quality.

This represented great work as ever from the Taking Root gardening volunteers and the Green Sefton Natural Alternatives team who tidied up the park on the day before the event, getting things ready for residents to sow wildflower seeds.

Natural Alternatives is an inclusion programme for people with additional needs who work on green projects across the borough alongside volunteers, community groups and Green Sefton’s core staff.

In addition, as this was Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean week, there were also litter pickers and bags at the ready for anyone who wanted to give a helping hand.

Meanwhile, as Poets Park is nestled in streets named after some of the country’s greatest-ever verse writers, it seemed only right for residents to create some new poetry that gives voice to issues that are important to people living here now.

As a result the park was decorated with more than 100 poems written by members of the local community with the encouragement of Collective Encounters.

Ruth Livesey added: “The community fun day was a huge success and enjoyed by everyone who attended, as well as being a great way for us to highlight the many improvements that have been made as part of the Our Beautiful Grotspots project.”

Work is now continuing on greening up the surrounding Poets Streets, and artist Madeleine Pires will be transforming drab bollards in the area into things of beauty.

Madeleine attended the event to talk to local people and collect ideas, with many residents saying that flowers and poetry should play a big part in her designs.