Liverpool, United Kingdom
City population: 1060068
Duration: 2010 – 2015
Implementation status: Completed
Scale: Micro-scale: District/neighbourhood level
Project area: 7500 m2
Type of area: Residential
Last updated: October 2021

Everton Park is one of the city’s precious green lungs, but it has been underused in the past. This area once housed a district of 60,000 people and was densely developed. In the 1980s, it was transformed into Everton Park (Reference 1). The Everton Park Nature Garden is ¾ hectare walled garden located within Everton Park and is a well-kept treasure of wildlife and tranquillity. It is an established natural habitat that includes two small lakes, grassland meadows and woodland, rock types of interest to geologists and a heritage trail with guided walks available (Reference 1). The project is part of the Nesta’s Rethinking Parks Programme which ran until 2015. It has a 1M pound national lottery funding that supported 11 separate pilot projects across the UK. The programme explored a variety of new business models to fund resource park services in the future. Everton Park is one of the pilot projects of Nesta. The Everton Park project was led by the Land Trust with Liverpool City Council and the Friends of Everton Park. The aim was to put in place a strategic plan for community management which will be part of a wider development plan for Everton to regenerate the area, provide new housing and, at the same time, secure the long-term future of the park. (Reference 2)

park
Park
Source: http://www.activenaturalist.org.uk/mbb/node/160

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Parks and urban forests
  • Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces
  • Botanical gardens
  • Blue infrastructure
  • Lakes/ponds

Key challenges

  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)
  • Inclusive governance
  • Effective management
  • Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
  • Social cohesion
  • Social interaction
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation

Focus

Maintenance and management of urban nature, Improved governance of green or blue areas

Project objectives

The goals of the intervention are as follows: -Increase of capacity and structure of Friends of Everton Park to enable them to work effectively with partners in sustaining the park. -Widen the local community engagement with the park and increase the use and establish local ownership of the site. -Engage a larger pool of regular volunteers in the park. - Create a plan for the partners to inform and enable successful delivery of the long term aim to transfer the site to the Land Trust (Reference 5).

Implementation activities

The park has been renamed Everton People’s Park, giving a chance for people to reconnect again with their roots with more social engagement, (Reference 1). The Friends of Everton Park, a group of over 380 members, has been working together to make the space a visitor attraction in the city (reference 4). -Cass Foundation supported some health and well-being events for the community -In 2014, activities such as improvement of a pathway through the wooded area in the park, replacement of derelict benches, installation of new bins and bollards, etc were led by Cass Foundation (Reference 6)

Main beneficiaries

  • Local government/Municipality
  • Citizens or community groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Local government/municipality
  • Citizens or community group

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Co-management/Joint management

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

Liverpool City Council manages the park. The Friends of Everton Park, formed in 2010, is a group made in partnership with the Council, Liverpool Biennial, The Land Trust and many others. The Land Trust and the Friends of Everton Park are developing an innovative and sustainable solution for the long-term management of the 43 hectare Everton Park, situated in one of Liverpool’s most deprived wards. (reference 4, 5) Heritage Lottery Fund, the Big Lottery Fund (England) and Nesta. - provided the funding for the project and led the Rethinking Parks Programme (Reference 5)

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Yes (It is maintained as part of the city’s Green Infrastructure Strategy which in turn is in response to existing national regulations in the UK. (reference 3))
... a local policy or strategy? Yes (The Green Infrastructure - green spaces strategy for Liverpool City is the governing document. The Liverpool City Region Parks Study mentions the Nature garden as a Priority park. (reference 2))

Financing

Total cost

€50,000 - €100,000

Source(s) of funding

  • Public national budget
  • Funds provided by non-governmental organization (NGO)

Type of funding

  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)

Non-financial contribution

Unknown

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area
  • Restoration of derelict areas

Economic impacts

  • Unknown

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Improved social cohesion
  • Improved access to urban green space
  • Increased opportunities for social interaction
  • Increased involvement of locals in the management of green spaces
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Improvement in people’s connection to nature
  • Increased sense of place identity, memory and belonging
  • Increased appreciation for natural spaces
  • Education
  • Increased knowledge of locals about local nature
  • Increased awareness of NBS and their benefits

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts, Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References

1. BDeed. 2015. Hugh Harris: Everton Park Nature Garden. Accessed from: Source link. August 5, 2020.
2. Rethinking Parks Task Group. 2015. Liverpool City Region Parks Study. Accessed: Source link
3. Liverpool City Council 2016. Strategic Green and Open Spaces Review Board - Final Report. Accessed: Source link
4. Friends of Everton park. n.d. Nature Garden. Accessed: Source link. August 5, 2020.
5. Nesta. (no date). The Land Trust: Everton Park. Available at: Source link. August 5, 2020.