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.
Southport Flower Show Ltd owns a trading company ’Victoria Park Management’ which seems to run the show.
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 Ican 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 website 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, whereas 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.”
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
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