The Friends came into being as a result of a few members of the local community who use the park regularly and felt that it was falling into disrepair. Over the last few years, the parks department have gone from having a local department situated in the centre grounds to having one for the City until now the jobs are put out to tender. This situation where cut backs have led to minimal maintenance. The local parks department have been supportive in trying to help with smaller projects, making sure the grass gets cut regularly, the local play area is kept reasonable and new trees have been planted. There just aren’t enough resources to restore things like the Ha-Ha or work on the drive. We decide in March 2003 to hold a public meeting to see if there was any interest in starting a group, we put up notices in the park, and about 30 people attended. Aims both short and long term were identified.

The people recognised how lucky we are to have this beautiful area, but felt it should be better looked after. The short term was to combat some of the day-to-day things such as litter, broken glass dog mess and vandalism. We have over a period of time we have made our group formal by having adopted our own constitution. Some progress has been made we have got more bins for litter and dog foul, trees have been thinned out, and one of the oaks protected and some work done on connecting paths, but it is still only maintained. The Community Policeman has joined our number along with youth workers and the local Community Support from the area which seem to have made quite a difference now we want to move on to our main objective which is to preserve the heritage features these to include the Ha-Ha also they thought the original paths and fencing round the garden and the preservations of the old Oaks etc. Working along side the Parks department and Community Centre the group feels it already has made a difference but it is a duty of care to save the heritage of OUR PARK for all the People of Morton when it was so graciously given to us.