A city park blighted by “endemic” vandalism has been targeted again, to the dismay of volunteers.
A burned out motorbike and graffiti have been left at Everton Park at Netherfield Road after volunteer group Friends of Everton Park (FoEP) called for users to change their culture and put an end to damage at the site. In a tweet, the group said it was saddened to see a wall it had spent time painting defaced by vandals.
It said: “Sad to see graffiti over a wall we spent an afternoon painting so long ago, and remained untouched for so long, and a burned out bike. Both on Netherfield Road facing the skate park as you walk past the Love Everton Park sign.”
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The FoEP group was established more than a decade ago with dozens of volunteers working to maintain the park and stage events. The group has reached out to Merseyside Police and Liverpool Council in a bid to bring the vandalism to an end.
In February, FoEP told the ECHO that the park had “endemic maintenance and vandalism issues” and “community education” was needed to change the culture around park usage. A spokesperson for the group expressed their disappointment at this latest incident.
The spokesperson said: “The bike is especially awful as we sometimes get stolen motorbikes in the park, so likely it's been stolen and burned. We have also reported it to Merseyside Police in case it has been involved in any other crime in the area.
“We are still waiting on more of the damage at the top of the park to be fixed and several of the children's play areas have been reported to the council as needing maintenance.” Responding to the group’s pleas for assistance on Twitter, Liverpool Council’s streetscene service said its graffiti removal team will visit the park to inspect the damage and assess if it can be removed or requires painting over.
Not to be deterred by the vandals, volunteers have taken to sowing wildflowers with members of the community and refugees from Hong Kong. The flowers were blue and yellow to show support for the plight of those embroiled in the war in Ukraine.
