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The Friends of Birkenhead Park community group marked its fiftieth year on 12 September with a special event at the park's Visitor Centre.
As reported by Birkenhead News, the event was attended by Deputy Lieutenant of Merseyside Susan Higginson and the Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Mary Jordan. The Mayor planted a Liquidambar tree outside the Visitor Centre to mark the occasion.
The group was established in 1976 by resident Percy Fry, at a time when the park had fallen into serious decline through dereliction and neglect.
Over the past fifty years, the group has worked alongside Wirral Council to transform the park by raising awareness of its unique position as the first truly public park in the world and the inspiration for Central Park in New York.
The park is now the subject of an application to UNESCO to become a UNESCO World Heritage site. Birkenhead Park has already joined the UNESCO Industrial Heritage Trail.
If successful, in the next few years, Birkenhead Park would join landmarks including the Tower of London, the Pyramids of Giza and the Taj Mahal on the prestigious list.
Chair of the Friends, David Eveleigh, paid tribute to the hard work of the group's volunteers, who help maintain and conserve the park twice a week throughout the year.
