An Assembly of Tiles: Part 5 - The Speckled Wood Butterfly

The speckled wood butterfly tile for the Butterfly Park's Jubilee Gates

The Speckled Wood butterfly tile is dedicated to the late Mel Roberts, the founder of the Park and the Park’s first secretary from 1993 until 2002.  Mel, a neighbour of the park since 1975, had the vision and confidence to get the Park going when its value as an urban nature reserve was less obvious than it would be today. At the time it was a site of antisocial behaviour and a problem to the community. In 1991 Mel produced a substantial booklet entitled “A proposal for the re-development of the Old Alma Street Goods Yard at Bebington and New Ferry Station.”  This was a 20-page booklet plus appendices, printed on card with photographs physically pasted in with glue. This booklet showed determination and that Mel meant business.

The front cover of Mel Robert's booklet with the proposal to create New Ferry Butterfly Park

The front cover of the booklet illustrated diagrammatically a railway line hitting the buffers of light industry and a branch line continuing on unimpeded into a nature reserve. Mel would be delighted by how the Park has developed and how the Opening Day is a regular feature of the New Ferry community calendar. Mel, with the considerable help of the late Frank Cottrell, convinced Cheshire Wildlife Trust to take the Park on board. With the help of the then local MP and the support of many members of the community it came into being. Mel, along with the first chair of New Ferry Butterfly Park, Gordon Reid, got the tool container installed, which is a key factor in the Park’s management. Mel died in 2002 and an apple tree was planted on the Park in his memory, near to his house and fed by his ashes, so that Mel could be recycled back into the Park. Mel was known locally as the “New Ferry Caterpillock”, though few would know that now.

Mel Roberts with Lyndon Harrison, now Lord  Harrison, and Mel's grandaughter
at the grand opening of the Butterfly Park to the public in July 1995

The Speckled Wood butterfly has chocolate brown coloured wings with yellow flecks. Its caterpillar eats tussock grasses in dappled shade. The Speckled Wood has two populations a year and is unique amongst British butterflies in that it over-winters in two forms, both as a caterpillar or chrysalis. As a result, it appears to be constantly breeding and on the wing from March to November, with only a small gap in June. It is therefore an `old faithful’, being consistently present on the Park in good numbers. 

Paul Loughnane
New Ferry Butterfly Park Reserve Manager

An Assembly of Tiles: Part 4 - the Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

 

The small tortoiseshell tile for the Silver Jubilee gates

The small tortoiseshell tile is dedicated to the late Frank Cottrell. Frank’s passion was butterflies, but there being no locally active branch of Butterfly Conservation he became chair of Wirral Wildlife (1989 - 1998) and was a trustee of Cheshire Wildlife Trust from May 1992 until June 2005.

Frank was the key person in 1992-3 in getting the Cheshire Wildlife Trust to underwrite the lease of “Alma Street Goods Yard”, as the Butterfly Park was then known. As Chair of Wirral Wildlife, he went over the heads of Cheshire Wildlife Trust staff and got the Cheshire Wildlife Trustees on board. At that time, urban nature conservation was a new idea and a new direction for the Trust. Nearly a quarter of a century later in 2017 Frank retired as a Butterfly Park warden, at the age of 94. Frank was a Sunday afternoon warden because `it was so much fun’. He told visitors what to look out for, whatever was seasonal such as a common blue butterfly or a bee orchid, and visitors would report back to him with delight that they had spotted the wildlife feature. Frank took much pleasure in how the Park has progressed over the years and how it has engaged large numbers of people with wildlife. He gave a substantial donation to the funding of the Silver Jubilee Gates. His family gave the donations collected at Frank’s funeral to the Park. These were matched by Wirral Wildlife to enable the purchase of the industrial history interpretive lectern by the Brick Pit.

The small tortoiseshell is a familiar butterfly. It is a beautiful bright orange and black butterfly; the upper side of both the fore and hind wings are bright orange-rusty red with three black spots interspaced with yellow on the leading edge of the wing. A ring of dull blue spots or crescents line the edge of both wings. The butterfly over-winters as an adult and is often encountered while hibernating in a garage or shed. Adults emerge from hibernation at the end of March or start of April. There are two broods a year, so it is on the wing until September.

Hilary Ash, Frank Cottrell and David Hinde in the early days of the Butterfly Park

Pictured are Frank Cottrell, Hilary Ash and David Hinde (Butterfly Conservation local representative) about 1993 when the park was just getting underway, and nearly a quarter of century later at a presentation by  Alison McGovern MP, marking when Frank stepped down as a New Ferry Butterfly Park warden. 

Frank was presented with a framed print by Alison McGovern MP
when he retired as a warden at the Butterfly Park

Paul Loughnane
New Ferry Butterfly Park Reserve Manager

Crown Commercial Services Corporate Day at Butterfly Park

Claire Hastewell from Crown Commercial Services has written a blog post for us, following their corporate workday at New Ferry Butterfly Park.

At Crown Commercial Services (CCS) social value and giving something back to our communities is important to us. Supporting and investing in our local communities' health and wellbeing, the improvement of the local environment, and strengthening community cohesion, ensuring the government is getting good value for money for its contracts.

The CCS team at the Butterfly Park

A team of volunteers from CCS came down to New Ferry Butterfly Park at the beginning of March. The local volunteers made sure they got good value from their volunteering. The team of six achieved so much and were a great boost to the park.

Four square meters of turf were removed from over the railway track beds to encourage carpets of bird’s foot trefoil, a key butterfly plant.

104 hedging stakes were harvested from Hogs Head Coppice.

An impressive number of hedging stakes

15 meters of hedge was laid in Charlie’s Field.

Laying the hedge

Hedgelayers at work!

A metal frame from a former park sign at the Brick Pit was recycled and relocated to the park’s entrance. This will be turned into a permanent mount for leaflet dispensers (and will be much appreciated by the summer wardens).

The last bit of landscaping at the lower pond was completed with the butterfly bench set back from the pond edge and sandstone blocks and turf used to cover the exposed membrane.

The pond landscaping nearing completion

A woven hazel picket fence was made from the freshly cut coppice material and was used to secure this area. It is an attractive feature in itself.

Last July we worked on the pond, puddling the protective layer of clay around the edges. We were delighted to see the progress from last time and knowing that the pond will now be open this year to visitors will be fantastic.

The butterfly bench is in place and the turf has been cut for edging the pond 

On the lunch time tour there was much interest in the mistletoe and a comma butterfly, the park's logo, was seen on the wing - the first butterfly record of the year. Lunch time provided a chance for employees to chat and make new contacts. Some of CCS team delegates did not really know each other as they came from across multiple teams but do now, with this shared experience.

The feedback from the volunteers was great, "fulfilled and amazing achievements all round, working with great volunteers. They all made us feel very welcome and made the day fun as well as a learning experience."

We look forward to returning with a team from CCS towards the end of summer to see the Butterfly Park in full bloom.

An Assembly of Tiles: Part 3 - the White-tailed Bumblebee

Presentation of the bumblebee tile at the Wirral Farmers Market

The white-tailed bumble bee tile is dedicated to Wirral Farmers’ Market who have helped the park in so many ways over many years. The market helped via its Community Grant Fund in sponsoring the construction of composting bins in 2005. The bins have been repaired and the number of bays doubled and are still being used to produce a source of soil improver for allotment holders.

Anne Benson, chair of Wirral Farmers' Market, with the new compost bins in 2005

In 2014 the market sponsored 500 bluebell bulbs which were planted under the hazel in Brick Pit Coppice and most recently sponsored the Silver Jubilee gates. They also provide the essential gazebos and tables for our opening days as well as the tombola drum. The current Chair of Wirral Farmer’s market, Steve Niblock, helped the park with the layout of the 2006 promotional leaflet and with council funding of various projects including the brown tourist sign on the junction of Howell and Bebington Road.

Bluebell planting at Brick Pit Coppice in November 2014

The next Wirral Farmer’s Market is on Saturday 13th April, 9am - 12 noon, where many items of quality food can be purchased, and profits made are ploughed back into the New Ferry area.  New Ferry Butterfly Park will have a stall sowing seeds into freshly prepared newspaper pots made by your own hand to take away in a window ledge micro-propagator. It is a chance to pick up our new leaflets to distribute to friends and family and purchase some of our greeting cards based on the tile designs.

The Butterfly Park stall at Wirral Farmers' Market, sowing seeds

Simon, treasurer of Wirral’s Farmers Market is pictured above with the tile dedicated to the market, alongside the greeting card based on the tile with the dedication written on the back. Simon and his family helped with the planting of the bluebell bulbs back in 2014. The white-tailed bumble bee is distinctive in appearance. It has a black body, a pale-yellow collar, a yellow band on the second abdominal segment and, of course their white tail. The bees emerge early in spring and can be seen feeding on flowers right through to August. They nest underground in old rodent burrows, crevices in brickwork or bases of hedgerows. Colonies can reach up to 200 workers but in the autumn only the new queen hibernates to start the cycle anew in the spring.

Paul Loughnane

New Ferry Butterfly Park Reserve Manager

An Assembly of Tiles: Part 2 - the Broad-bodied Chaser Dragonfly

Caroline Lancelyn-Green at Poulton Hall with the Broad-Bodied Chaser tile

The broad-bodied chaser tile is the most detailed of all the tiles that Freya Levy has painted. Freya has patiently captured the wing vein pattern of this dragonfly in excellent detail. The tile is dedicated to Caroline Lancelyn Green of Poulton Hall, Bebington.

Caroline has been a long-term supporter of the park and was the guest of honour at the 2023 Opening Day wearing a theatrical butterfly themed scarf. Pictured below is Caroline being presented with a wild pear tree from Willaston stock, as a thank you for being the guest of honour to unveil a new noticeboard. Caroline hosts fund-raising open garden events for a range of charities, including one for Wirral Wildlife and New Ferry Butterfly Park. Do visit the garden open days at Poulton Hall. They are well worth several visits throughout the season as there is a succession of flowering plants. Come especially on the Wirral Wildlife and New Ferry Butterfly Park fundraiser event on Saturday 29th June at 2pm.

See the Poulton Hall web page www.poultonhall.co.uk closer to the day for details and to book tickets.

Presentation of a wild pear tree to Caroline at the 2023 Butterfly Park Open Day

 
Caroline does much for nature conservation at Poulton Hall including the wildflower meadow beyond the ha-ha. It is a haven for the meadow brown butterflies which are on the wing even in light rain. Cheshire Wildlife Trust lease Tom’s Paddock, Foxes Wood, Thornton Wood, and Intake Wood from the Poulton Hall Estates and manage these sites for nature conservation.

Male Broad-Bodied Chaser dragonfly

The Broad-Bodied Chaser is an easily recognised dragonfly with is distinctive, broad, flattened body, which has yellow patches on the side of its abdomen. Painted on the tile is the male which has a blue abdomen. It is on the wing in June and July. Egg laying occurs by the female dipping her abdomen over shallow water at the muddy edge of the pond. The chaser has a marked preference for new ponds, so hopefully will continue to make use of the newly restored pond at the park. They patrol ponds regularly, returning to the same low perch after swift flights along the pond margins, so they can easily be observed.

Paul Loughnane

New Ferry Butterfly Park Reserve Manager

Hoylake Beach Management Consultation

Wirral Council is undertaking a Have Your Say consultation on Hoylake Beach. The purpose of the consultation is to seek views from residents and the wider community on their preferred management option for Hoylake Beach. The management options for consultation have been developed based on the initial consultation undertaken from June to August 2022.

The consultation is open until 25th March 2024 and can be found here:
https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/hoylake-beach-management-plan

The outputs from the consultation will be used to identify a preferred management option for Hoylake Beach and will be taken forward for political approval via Wirral Council’s Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee in spring 2024. A preferred option will then be submitted to Natural England for their consideration, as the beach is internationally important, being a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area for birds and a Ramsar site.

Option 1: Access for All

Option 2: Amenity Beach

There are details of both options on the Hoylake Beach Management Plan website.

Wirral Wildlife committee feel that the best option for wildlife of the beach would be not to have any clearance at all of the naturally developing vegetation as it will remove important habitat. However, if clearance is needed for the RNLI operations, this should be the minimum area possible. Option 1 would be better than Option 2 as that involves least clearance but we would still have concerns about the damage this would cause to this rare habitat. The cost of yearly operations to achieve this outcome is another consideration. These are the points we will make in our submission.

We would encourage you to submit any comments you may have regarding this phase of consultation to hoylakebeach@wirral.gov.uk by 25th March 2024. More information regarding Hoylake Beach and the consultation process can be found here:
https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/hoylake-beach-management-plan

Ron's Rotary Club Award

Ron Warne (on right in Christmas jumper)
after being given his award from the Rotary Club

We are very pleased to congratulate Ron Warne for his recent award from The Rotary Club of Birkenhead.

Ron was awarded the Sam Lamour Award for Developing Youth. This is because he has quietly worked to ensure that the world young people will inherit will be a good physical environment. He has provided support for the amazing fundraising by Woodchurch High School pupils, by identifying a system whereby funds raised can be shared amongst voluntary groups that aim to improve Wirral's environment.

Ron was a recorder with Wirral Wildlife for some years, recording small mammals and plants. It is due to his good offices that Wirral Wildlife has received generous funding from Woodchurch High School's fundraising activities, for heathland restoration work at Cleaver Heath. Also New Ferry Butterfly Park has received funding towards a new large barrow.

An Assembly of Tiles: Part 1 - the Comma Butterfly

Tile in progress showing Freya Levy's painting of a comma butterfly

Neil Glendinning, a ceramic artist based at the Canal Warehouse Workshops, Chester, and Freya Levy,  a local artist from Birkenhead, have collaborated together to create six bespoke decorative tiles for the brick pillars supporting the Silver Jubilee Gates at New Ferry Butterfly Park.

The painting of the tile nears completion

Freya painted the tiles at the workshop periodically from May until September. She worked on several images with some designs not making it, such as a railway tile and some butterfly species including the gatekeeper, the small copper, the brimstone, and the burnet moth, as these did not fit in aesthetically with the gates and pillars. Neil coached Freya about the colours as they do change once baked.

Neil Glendinning with the completed tiles

The completed art works were glazed, and the tiles baked at 1250oC in a kiln to vitrify them into stoneware, making them waterproof and sun resistant. Each tile is dedicated to a person or group. In a series of small blogs each dedication will be explored, starting off at home base.

The Comma Butterfly tile is dedicated to the Wirral Wildlife group who support the park. This tile remembers the Comma (community art) Project of 2012. The original art concept of the butterfly was by Carol Ramsay and is the logo for the park and the comma logo can be found on the wardens' clothing. It is the butterfly on the gates. Pictured are Stephen Ross and Linda Higginbottom of Wirral Wildlife committee with the tile dedicated to Wirral Wildlife.

Stephen Ross and Linda Higginbottom with the tile dedicated to Wirral Wildlife.
Note the comma butterfly on the Butterfly Park T-shirt and fleece!

Stephen Ross, chair of Wirral Wildlife entertains the guest of honour on our opening day and promotes the park whenever he can. Stephen suggested that the butterfly committee should apply to the Duchy of Lancaster for £5,000 funding for the gates. The application was successful and enabled the gates to go ahead. Linda Higginbottom, Wirral Wildlife Publicity Officer, amongst many other projects organises the warden rota for the summer Sunday afternoon openings and assembles teams to host group visits. Linda designed the logos for the New Ferry Butterfly Park wardens branded T-shirts and sweatshirts. Linda is a great communicator, running the Wirral Wildlife Blog, sending out regular Wirral Wildlife emails and hosting the Facebook page of New Ferry Butterfly Park and Wirral Wildlife. Wirral Wildlife group host an impressive plant sale on the park’s opening day each season and from there on after nearly to the end of the season. This plant stall is another attraction for the Sunday visitors. Recently Wirral Wildlife have started hosting apple days at the park too.

The Comma butterfly has distinctive ragged wing edges which camouflage it. At rest it looks just like a dead leaf! The Comma can be seen at any time of the year, occasionally awakening on warm winter days.The butterfly emerges from hibernation in March, giving rise to the next generation which appears at the end of June and start of July. The majority of the offspring have dark undersides, and these go on to hibernate. However, the remainder of the offspring have quite light undersides and brighter uppersides, and are known as the form hutchinsoni. This form is named after Emma Hutchinson who discovered that this form goes on to breed and produce another generation that then overwinter. As a result, there is another emergence of fresh adults in late summer. The food plants of the caterpillars are nettles, elm and hop which are all present at the park.

Paul Loughnane

New Ferry Butterfly Park Reserve Manager

Autumn/Winter Activity at Cleaver Heath (2023/24)

In October the volunteers cleared grass, bramble and bracken which was growing in an area of sloping heath that was cut close to ground level in 2022 as part of a long term plan to increase the age range of heather across the reserve by rotational cutting of specific areas over a twenty year period. This unwanted vegetation was threatening to outgrow and shade out the small regenerating heather plants.

Clearing grass, bramble and bracken

Managing the heathland to create space for regenerating heather plants

During this work some interesting insects were observed in the thin surface soil and leaf litter. Several parasitoid ichneumon wasps were possibly looking for moth pupae to lay their eggs in and the very characteristically shaped bishop's mitre shield bug was running at the base of some grass tussocks. This bug has been previously recorded in several coastal dune locations across Wirral in recent years.

Ichneumon sarcitorius - female

Bishop's mitre shield bug (Aelia acuminata)

During November and December we worked hard on a range of tasks despite some very wet and cold weather. Overly tall birch was coppiced in the 'managed scrub' area to provide improved habitat conditions for nesting birds and, working with Graham from Cheshire Wildlife Trust, we removed and stump treated a section of unwanted tall birch and gorse from within the central heather panel. While dragging away cut birch, one of our volunteers observed an empty cocoon of an emperor moth attached to a small oak sapling, hopefully we will see some adult moths flying in the reserve in Spring.

The empty cocoon of an emperor moth found at Cleaver Heath

Some interesting fungi were also observed at this time, thriving during the very wet conditions.

Clockwise from top left: birch polypore, common earthball on the woodland floor,
turkey-tail fungus and oyster mushroom.

Tiny bonnet mushrooms on dead bramble stem - Mycena sp. ?

More wet and cold task days in December and January saw us carrying out widening of some narrow overgrown sections of the public access pathways close to the main entrance. We also continued to cut back vegetation that had overgrown through the iron railings onto Oldfield Road.

Widening a narrow section of the path

Cutting back vegetation that had grown through the railings onto Oldfield Road

During January and February, working with Graham from CWT, we cleared and stump treated invasive birch within the lower sloping heath and cut back and dug out many of the roots of a very large rhododendron that was growing within the woodland area.

The planned contractor-led heathland regeneration project should be going ahead shortly and we will be topping up the recently widened public paths with stone in March so plenty to do in hopefully much improved weather conditions as Spring approaches.


John McGaw
Volunteer Warden Cleaver Heath

The Evolution of New Ferry Butterfly Park’s Promotional Leaflet

Peter Martin and Freya Levy with the 2024 Butterfly Park promotional leaflet

The Butterfly Park’s first promotional leaflet was derived from a visitors’ guide and was created in 1998 by Year 8 students from Bebington High. It was a black and white leaflet with a good park map, but with few illustrations and the location map was a photocopy from an A to Z. Interestingly the leaflet described the park’s entrance road, Howell Rd, as lying between the railway line and the Queen’s Public House. This pub was soon demolished after Aldi’s arrival in 2002.

The front of the first promotional leaflet in 1998.

The map inside the 1998 leaflet.

In 2006, this leaflet was revamped by Steve Niblock, then local councillor for the Ward. The 2006 leaflet had specially made black and white illustrations produced by artists Emma Greenwood and Bob Hughes, used to illustrate the park map, and the location map developed into a sketch map.

The 2006 version of the Butterfly Park's leaflet

Black and white illustrations on the map in 2006

In 2012, as part of the Comma Project the promotional leaflet was revamped by Carol Ramsay, Artist in Residence at the park. At this stage, the leaflet went into colour production and the park map was replaced by Vicky Hose’s brilliant artistic map of the park. On the front the Comma butterfly replaced Speckled Wood, to fit in with the COMMunity Art (COMMA) project running at that time. The leaflet also mentioned the caravan-based visitor centre, which although fantastic, sadly did not last due to vandalism.

The first leaflet in colour in 2012

The park map, with illustrations in full colour

In 2018 the promotional leaflet was improved by John Ash with the addition of a colour location map.

An update to the location map on the back of the leaflet in 2018

This year the promotional leaflet has been enhanced again. The leaflet’s front now has an illustration of the Park’s Silver Jubilee Gates, complete with the new decorative tiles inset into the supporting brick pillars. The leaflet has an email contact address, QR codes, a link to the Park’s Facebook page and another to the Wirral Wildlife website, both full of useful information about the Park and ongoing activities. These extra resources give extra life and vitality to the leaflet. Two art works within Vicky Hose’s original 2006 illustrated map have been changed, to feature creatures that visitors are more likely to encounter. One of these was first recorded breeding at the Park and Wirral in 2014. Freya Levy, an artist new to the park, has blended these images into the leaflet following Vicky’s style. Can you see the different styles or work out which two invertebrates have been removed and which two added?

The latest version of the Butterfly Park leaflet

See if you can spot the difference as two species on the 2024 map have been changed

The 2024 leaflet has been an in-house collaborative effort via numerous emails and two in person meetings, patiently co-ordinated by Peter Martin. The meetings discussed ideas with the leaflet projected onto a screen for all to see clearly, allowing Peter to try out some changes there and then with instant feedback. The leaflet got up to version 22! Hopefully, the leaflet can be enjoyed by many, and more visitors will be attracted to the park resulting in some more volunteers. Thanks to Freya for her artistic talents, Peter Martin for his digital proficiencies in making this 2024 leaflet revamp happen and all who have commented at the various stages of its development. Creativo have printed the leaflet and there are plenty of copies at the Park. Do drop in once we are open, or on a workday, and collect some to share with friends or use as publicity.

Paul Loughnane

Wirral Council and Climate Action Scorecards

Climate Emergency UK assessed all UK councils on the actions they've taken towards net zero. The Council Climate Action Scorecard assessment consists of 91 questions or fewer, depending on council type, across 7 different sections, created in consultation with over 90 organisations and individuals. Each council was marked against these criteria and given a right to reply before the scores underwent a final audit. This work was completed between January and August 2023.

The good news is that Wirral Council is slightly above the average for single-tier councils - though at a Total Score of 42% well below the top scorers, who are London boroughs at 55-60%.

See the full Climate Action Scorecard results for Wirral Council here:
https://councilclimatescorecards.uk/councils/wirral-council/

A summary of Wirral Council's Climate Action Scorecard results

Wirral Council scored particularly well on Biodiversity and Planning and Land Use. They have a score of 69% for Biodiversity (compared to an average of 27%) and 55% for Planning and Land Use (compared to an average of 35%). The lobbying that Wirral Wildlife and other voluntary groups have done over the last 50 years is having an effect.

A Waste Reduction and Food score of 34% and a Transport score of 20% are low results. However everyone can play a part by thinking about everyday actions.

To reduce waste remember the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We must try and use fewer resources, mend whatever we can, share our good but unwanted items and recycle anything that has got to the end of its life.

For tips on how to mend, recycle, reuse and upcycle see https://www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/actions/recycle-and-reuse

Wirral Repair Café can help with repairing items such as clothing and electrical appliances. On the first Sunday of each month they can be found at Wirral Deen Centre, 371-375 Borough Road, Birkenhead, CH42 0HA. Email: wirralrepaircafe@gmail.com

Wirral Repair Café is one of an international network of repair cafes where volunteers try to fix items, brought in by members of the public, that would otherwise be thrown away because they’ve stopped working or (in the case of clothing, can no longer be worn). The goal is to reduce landfill waste, encourage people to carry out their own repairs and save them money in the process.

They do not take business away from professional repairers and will refer the visitor to a professional if it’s appropriate. However, people are often aware that the cost of repair could be more than that of replacement, or that the value of the item is too little to justify the repair cost. Their motto is ‘Bin it? No way’

• Get advice and learn repair skills
• Examples of types of repair: electrical appliances, computer software, bicycles, clothing and textiles, upholstery, toys, costume jewellery, wooden items, musical instruments
• Soldering and sharpening services available
• Free repairs, but donations are welcome

To influence the Food score we can be careful what we eat, reduce food waste and shop and eat to reduce the climate impact of food. Planning meals in advance and using all of the food we buy will reduce waste. We can eat less meat, choose local and seasonal produce or even grow our own vegetables and fruit. If there is anything left over then home composting could be another thing to try – don’t send your waste to landfill.

For composting advice see
https://www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/actions/how-compost-your-waste

What about the transport score? If we travel less, walk when we can, cycle or use public transport we can cut our carbon footprint. Of course, the public transport and active travel infrastructure needs to be there and that is something you could lobby about.

Wirral Council has a Climate Action Hub

Wirral has a target to be carbon neutral by 2041. This means that the amount of carbon that we produce compared to what we take out of the atmosphere is balanced. Learn more at the Climate Action Hub:
https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/hub-page/climate-action-wirral

Public and personal action together will help us reach these targets for a more sustainable future on Wirral.

Take part in the Cool Wirral Climate Action Challenge