Wirral council has apologised after mistakenly claiming credit for the transformation of a town after work in fact carried out by a group of local residents.
Volunteers with the Friends of Hoylake and Meols in Bloom have been working to transform Queens Park and Meols Parade Gardens in the Wirral communities.
Many were left outraged on Saturday when Wirral Council claimed credit for the work on a post on social media where they stated the council were involved in the gardens' transformation.
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After hundreds of comments, Wirral council apologised for what they described as an "honest mistake" about the transformations in Hoylake and Meols.
In a post on the Wirral Council Facebook page today, a spokesperson said: "Hi everyone. On Saturday you might have seen a post about Meols Parade Gardens where we stated the council was involved in its transformation.
"As many rightly pointed out, this was not our project to take credit for.
"We edited and corrected the post but not before plenty of people saw it.
"So we wanted to start the week with a big apology to the Friends of Hoylake and Meols in Bloom as the gardens are only the result of their hard work, time and money.
"Why did it happen? It was an honest mistake by us, the communications team.
"We got the wrong end of the stick with the info we had and we’re really sorry.
"We owe a big thanks to all the volunteer groups who work with us to make Wirral better and we’ll be more careful when we share their stories in future."
Posting on their Facebook page, a spokesperson for the Friends of Hoylake and Meols in Bloom say they had received personal apologies from the council at the weekend, when the original post went out.
The spokesperson said: "Wirral council have sent me several apologies even though it is a Saturday.
"I am sure they realise they were in the wrong.
"Hopefully we can use this to help them understand they must work more closely with voluntary groups."
Speaking to the ECHO, chair of the Friends of Hoylake and Meols in Bloom Jan Foster said: "It was quite a shock Saturday morning when we saw that post but everybody makes mistakes, none of us are perfect and it has been rectified we've had some really nice apologies.
"We've accepted their apology with grace.
"What we do is aimed to make people smile so we're not looking for negativity.
"It's about working as a team, and we can all learn from it and move forward"
Friends of Meols and Hoylake in Bloom started in 2000 with a few planters and now the group look after two parks, two railways stations and over two dozen planters.
In 2018, the group received funding to complete a nautical themed sensory garden, which the group had been building since 2012 and have won a string of awards for their work in the area.
The group have recently completed a memorial area for the RNLI, who operate from Hoylake, and were working even during lockdown to tend to the area's plants, including after receiving 500 plants for the local train station on the day of lockdown.
Jan said: "It's not been easy, we've had to change what we do and how we do it. For some of the planters, there are individuals who tend to them, but our park clear ups, we haven't been able to work in groups like we would.
"We're also keen for anyone who wants to get involved to get in touch, and we're trying to raise £50,000 to redo the multi-activity pitch in the park, so any donations gratefully received.
Jan added: "People really appreciate the parks, especially now after all the lockdowns, and it is lovely for people to walk around and see the area looking beautiful and the parks well kept.
"We're very proud of the work we do."
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