This is why we came together.
In early 2025, local residents discovered that part of Verdin Park — a Victorian gift to the people of Northwich — was being considered as an overflow car park for the nearby hospital. What happened next surprised everyone.
The Discovery
“We had no idea this was being discussed.”
In early 2025, information began to emerge that part of Verdin Park was being considered as a site to extend parking provision associated with the nearby hospital. The proposal had not been widely publicised. Most residents — including people who had used the park every single day of their lives — knew nothing about it.
What caused immediate concern was not just the proposal itself. It was the way information had emerged. Questions began to be asked: who had known about this? How long had discussions been taking place? Why had the wider community not been informed sooner?
Conversations started — quietly at first — between dog walkers on morning circuits of the park. Between parents watching children on the play equipment. In local shops and on community social media groups. People who had never previously attended a council meeting or signed a petition found themselves asking the same question:
“Can they actually do this?”
The more people looked into it, the more the answer seemed to depend on a history most residents had not previously needed to think about. Because Verdin Park is not an ordinary piece of council-owned land. It is something quite specific — something gifted to the people of Northwich with a purpose attached.
Robert Verdin, 1887
This statue was paid for by the people of Northwich — a mark of what the family's gift meant to the town.
The history that changed everything
This land was gifted. That matters.
As more residents looked into the background of the park, a picture emerged that many found quietly extraordinary. Verdin Park had not simply been set aside as surplus land. It had been given— by the Verdin family, one of Northwich's most significant Victorian industrial families — as a permanent public amenity for the people of the town.
The park was created at a time when reformers across Britain were arguing that working people deserved access to green space. Streets nearby were densely occupied by workers and their families, many with no private outdoor space. The park was the outdoor space. It was intentionally built for them.
For many residents, learning this history fundamentally changed the nature of the debate. The question was no longer purely about a car park. It became a question about what obligations come with land that was gifted for a specific public purpose — and who has the right to change that purpose.
“The park was not simply another piece of undeveloped land available for future development. It had been intentionally created as a permanent public amenity for the people of Northwich.”
The community that responded
Within weeks, hundreds of residents were involved.
What emerged was not an organised protest movement. It was something quieter and more powerful — a community discovering, one conversation at a time, that they shared something they were not prepared to lose.
People of different ages, different politics, different parts of Northwich found themselves standing on the same side of the same argument. Dog walkers who had never spoken at a public meeting. Parents who had always left council business to someone else. Long-term residents who remembered the park from childhood.
People shared memories. Their first visit as a child. A wedding photograph taken in the park. A daily walk that kept them sane through a difficult year. The view across the lawn that had barely changed in a generation. Small things, individually. Together, something considerable.
Residents signed petitions, attended meetings, contacted their elected representatives and shared information with neighbours and local organisations. Many raised the same point, independently: once green space is given up, it is very rarely recovered.
Voices from the community
I've walked through this park every morning for thirty years. The thought that part of it could just disappear — that's what made me get involved.
— Long-term Northwich resident
My children grew up playing here. My grandchildren play here now. That's not nothing. That's everything.
— Park visitor, Northwich
Once green space is gone, it's gone. You don't get it back. That's why this matters.
— Local resident and campaign supporter
How we were formed
Friends of Verdin Park was the community's answer.
What had started as conversations between neighbours needed somewhere to go. Individual voices needed to become a collective one. Friends of Verdin Park was established to be exactly that — a unified, organised, community voice.
From the start, the aim was not confrontation. It was transparency, accountability and the protection of a valued public asset. Members sought to understand the legal position surrounding the park, the nature of any restrictions affecting the land, and the decision-making processes that had led to the proposal being considered.
The campaign quickly became about more than one parking proposal. It raised broader questions that any community should ask: How should public spaces be managed? How should communities be consulted? What do the current custodians of publicly-gifted land owe to those who come after?
“Once public parkland is lost, it is rarely recovered. We are here to make sure it is not lost at all.”
Our position
What we stand for
These principles have guided the campaign since the beginning. They are not about being against anything. They are about what we are for.
Transparency, not confrontation
We are not opponents of the hospital or of good healthcare. We are asking that decisions about a public asset are made openly, with the community properly informed and involved.
History matters
This land was gifted for public recreation. That intention carries weight. The community deserves an honest conversation about what obligations come with land gifted for public benefit.
Green space has value
Beyond recreation, Verdin Park supports biodiversity, mental wellbeing, urban cooling and flood resilience. At a time when access to nature matters more than ever, its value is increasing — not decreasing.
Find another way
Verdin Park Car Park on Castle Street is already just minutes from the hospital. We believe alternative solutions to parking pressures can and should be explored fully before any irreversible incursion into protected public green space is considered.
Healthcare and green space are not mutually exclusive
Throughout the campaign, supporters have been consistent: we are not opposed to the hospital or unsympathetic to the pressures it faces. We believe that with creativity and commitment, solutions can be found that protect both healthcare provision and public green space. We have never accepted that one must come at the expense of the other.
Why this matters beyond the car park
This isn't just about one proposal.
The campaign has highlighted something many residents already felt but had never had cause to articulate. Public parks are not assets on a balance sheet. They are places that hold memories, support wellbeing and contribute to the character of a town.
Beyond recreation, Verdin Park contributes to biodiversity, urban cooling, flood management and community mental health. Northwich Town Council's own records show that wildflower areas in the park have been expanded in 2024 and 2025 — with council publications encouraging residents to visit the meadow "in its full glory." At a time when the council itself is investing in the park's ecological value, many residents have questioned whether converting part of it to tarmac represents the right direction for Northwich.
The campaign also raised a question of precedent. Many people felt that allowing development within the park — however modest — would make future encroachment easier to justify. The first step is always the hardest to oppose. Which is why it matters so much to oppose it.
Verdin Park, as it should remain — free, open, and green.
The campaign continues. The park remains open. The proposal has not been withdrawn. And the community that came together to defend Verdin Park is still here — organised, informed, and watching.
The story of Friends of Verdin Park is ultimately a story about stewardship.
Each generation inherits public green space from the one before it and has a responsibility to pass it on intact. Join us in honouring that responsibility.