A cormorant - a Liver Bird - on Newsham Park Lake. Photo by the excellent Richard Milligan

There was a letter in the Echo on Thursday 4th April which was critical of Newsham Park

I did write one in response but it must not have arrived in time for inclusion - and it was time limited, so it wont be printed thereafter. For completeness I wanted to reproduce it here anyway in the hope that the writer might come across it at some point. The offer to join the Forum still stands - to any of you who are interested - just email me

With the reference to the letter of April 4th 2013 in respect of Newham Park

I would like to extend an invitation to the anonymous writer of the letter (and anyone else who is interested) to meet members of the Newsham Park Forum on Saturday April 6th at 10am at the Sheil Road/Gardners Drive entrance to the park for our twice yearly walk about.

The Forum is made up of local residents, councillors, council staff, the model boat lake club, the Citysafe team and representatives from Glendale who garden the park.

We meet every couple of months to discuss progress on many exciting initiatives within Newsham Park and the letter writer would be very pleased, I am quite sure, to hear about those.

If he or she wants to come along and meet us, and join in on the walkabout, we can point out the new Pavilion that has recently opened, with the kiosk serving refreshments (and indeed ice-cream). We can see the special changing facilities for disabled park users; have a go on the new exercise equipment; admire the enhancements to the Boating Lake (now the home of Liverpool Model Boat Club); we can look at the site of the new fountain in the main lake and the floating refuges for the ducks and other water birds. We will certainly want to look at the new cricket strip and perhaps there will be someone playing there. And we can talk about where our new benches are going to be placed. I am sure we will want to look at the progress with the new cycling facilities too. There is so much good happening in Newsham Park that I can only assume the critical letter writer has not visited lately.

Do come on Saturday and if you like what you hear, you are welcome to join our Forum and play a full part in making decisions about other future improvements.

Best wishes

Councillor Louise Baldock
Chair of Newsham Park Forum