People’s Park Bench Project

A health and wellbeing social enterprise is donating park benches across several boroughs in the Liverpool City Region and it wants members of the public to choose where these benches should be located.

The project is called ‘Peoples Park Benches’ and forms part of the organisations 15^th birthday celebrations this month. A bench will be donated in each of the boroughs of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool and St Helens, where the organisation has been operating for the last decade and a half.

Mark Swift Chief Executive of Wellbeing Enterprises said ‘We’re delighted to mark our 15^th year working with citizens to bring about the wellbeing improvements they want to see, by donating these park benches. We believe everyone should be able to make decisions about how resources are spent locally to enhance the community and we’re excited to see which locations citizens choose”.

With the support of each of the local councils Parks and Regenerations teams, several suitable locations for park benches have been identified in each borough.

A Twitter poll for each borough will be launched each week for four weeks commencing from Monday 27^th July to invite members of the public to choose their favourite location.

From Monday 10th August people can vote for the Liverpool park bench to be sited at either Clarke Gardens, Everton Park, Newsham Park or Walton Hall Park by visiting Wellbeing Enterprises Twitter account @WEcic_

Liverpool’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Partnerships, Councillor Liz Parsons, said: “Park benches encourage people to spend more time outdoors which has a positive impact on mental and physical health. On top of this, they’re also great assets for the community and enable people to meet up and connect with one another.

“Each of the suggested Liverpool locations would be a fitting new home for the bench and I look forward to seeing which green space is chosen.”

Each bench will be dedicated to the citizens of the borough with a plaque which will mention that its location has been selected through a public vote.

The public can place their vote via the Twitter poll launched through Wellbeing Enterprises Twitter account which is @WEcic_