Liverpool Council has apologised for 'causing confusion' after issuing a call for volunteers to help ongoing work at the Festival Gardens site.
Yesterday the authority published a tweet which said that Vinci Construction, the company carrying out a huge remediation project on land adjacent to the south Liverpool site in preparation for a major housing development, was looking for local volunteers to help with weeding at the site.
The tweet said Vinci was looking for six volunteers to take part in a special weeding event at the popular beauty spot.
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This prompted anger from people asking why a large company was asking for volunteers to help with its project, rather than paying people for their time.
Those speaking out about the tweet included Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker, who said she was 'appalled' that a company making 'huge profits' was advertising via the council for volunteers.
Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson later tweeted she was concerned about the call for volunteers and would investigate.
Today the city council issued a response, which attempted to explain the situation.
It said: "Yesterday evening we posted a call-out for volunteers to help with weeding around the Festival Gardens site. We know this post has caused some confusion and anger and we want to explain the background.
"The volunteering idea came about from conversations with the residents themselves, who had asked in meetings to be involved in the upkeep of the gardens.
"The council's contractor VINCI had also created a programme of community engagement and training, alongside their work to remediate the development zone.
"This approach was agreed with residents - and supported by local ward councillors, in line with other volunteering activity in parks across the city."
The council said VINCI is not contracted for the upkeep of the actual Festival Gardens site, but is doing this as part of a social value agreement with the city council, which also includes working with local schools and supporting local charities.
A council spokesperson added: "VINCI staff have already carried out successful social value events in the Festival Gardens such as twice-monthly litter picks and making repairs to benches and the boardwalk, for example.
"On reflection, we appreciate we should have provided more context in the original call-out tweet. We apologise for the confusion this has caused."
The Festival Gardens housing project is actually taking place at a development zone adjacent to the public gardens.
Vinci has been undertaking site preparation works for the last six months, and has now embarked on a two-year programme of remediation and site infrastructure work.
This will pave the way for the delivery of a development platform on currently derelict land to the north of the public Gardens to deliver 1,500 new ‘eco-friendly homes’.
The works will also create a new eight hectare public open space in the enhanced Southern Grasslands with almost 5,000 new trees planted.
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