Further update - 25/05/23

Nel’s hide was repaired and reopened in Mid-April with a new security door, repaired windows and a fresh lick of paint. Thank you to everyone who donated to make this possible.

With thanks to everyone who has donated so far including a £415 charity donation from the customers of Morrisons Local shop and Post Office on Sussex Road, Southport, we now enough donations for Phase 2. After the nesting season work will begin outside Nel’s hide to replace the damaged screens with new ‘out of hours’ viewing screens.

We appreciate everyone’s support and are hopeful we can reach our final target of £6000 to enable us to replace Halfway viewing screen this Autumn too.

Update

With thanks to all the generous supporters who have donated so far and a special mention to the RSPB Liverpool Local group, we now have almost £3500!

This means we are able to start with phase 1 - fixing up the damage in Nels hide and replacing the door with a steel security door.

If we can raise another £500 we will be able to start phase 2 creating much desired out of hours viewing at Nels hide with accessible viewing screens and path work.

Nels hide, the path and halfway screen are used and loved by the local community. As well as birdwatchers, they are used by walkers, runners, sightseers, locals, and tourists. Marshside reserve is one of the most accessible nature watching spots in the North West, where visitors can find shelter to enjoy the internationally important wildlife for free.

Frustratingly, just before New Year, Nels hide was broken into and vandalised. The door was broken beyond repair, windows and their frames broken, and holes made in the walls. The hide has been attacked again and although they were unable to gain access into the hide, they damaged the roof, exterior cladding, and destroyed the wooden screens.

Our amazing volunteers can carry out the repair work to fix this damage, but we need your help please to raise the funds to buy the materials.

£2000 will mean we can fix up Nels hide. We will replace the wooden door with a new steel security door, repair the windows and frames, install new latches and bunding to improve its weather tightness, repair the internal walls, exterior cladding, and roof, coat the exterior screens and roof with anti-climb paint.

If we can raise £4000, we will also be able to replace the side screens with robust RSJs and timber (similar to Sandgrounders screen). We will include out of hours viewing options in the screens and additional work to the path to allow viewing access to the screens.

But, if we raise £6000, we can also replace Halfway viewing screen, in a similar style to Junction Pool and Sandgrounders new screens. We had planned to update this screen in 2022 but unfortunately budget for this had to be diverted to replace Faircloughs platform that was burnt down in the summer.

Any additional funds raised over £6000 will go towards other visitor improvements at the reserve.