I am Fiona, the Nextdoor Nature Officer. I am based in the Seaforth Office in North Merseyside, working in Bootle, Seaforth, Litherland, Netherton & Waterloo.
Since starting in November, I have been getting to know the communities in these areas and chatting to them about nature and wildlife found locally. There have already been some great conversations and work has started with several groups.
Here’s a little more on how they are taking action for nature:
- A group of residents wanting to improve their local alleyway in Bootle made a great start and have cleared the rubbish and installed a couple of planters ready to plant. They are now looking at ways to make it a better space for themselves and wildlife.
- Residents in Bootle improved their alleyway over lockdown, however interest has waned as people’s lives have returned to normal, so they are keen to get it looking fantastic once again. Working with one of the key residents we are going to ask what people would like to see and do in the alleyway and then I will support them to make this happen – maybe bring an artist in to give them ideas on being more creative – we’ll see what they say!
- A local community centre wants to do more with their outdoor space. An initial chat with the centre organiser and some of the volunteers, revealed they are improving their kitchen facilities to offer community cooking sessions – so an idea they had was to grow things they could use in the kitchen. Over Easter I had a great time working with some of the children who use the centre to gather their ideas about how the grounds should be developed – we had a couple of fun sessions, making plasticine models of what they’d like to see in their garden!
