THE friends group of a Sale park has hit out at the lack of maintenance of the green haven.

The Friends of Walton Park group says that action has to be taken now to address the problems - before it is too late.

And its chairman, Peter Jackson, warns that otherwise all the group's efforts over the past 13 years to enhance the park will be ruined - and the community will be robbed of a 'very valuable green space'.

Mr Jackson was speaking out over the standard of park maintenance this year. The council's One Trafford partner firm, Amey took over the role in 2015.

In two letters to council chiefs, Mr Jackson highlighted a range of areas where he says there are problems.

These include the very poor standard of grass cutting, overflowing bins, the 'virtually non-existent' nature of the weeding and maintenance work of the formal flower beds, and overgrown hedges and shrubs.

He also complained that the park's toilets were not being opened, leading to some people using the surrounding bushes.

Weedkiller was also being used in areas of the park where it should not be, he complained.

Mr Jackson called on the council and Amey to work with his group to address the problems.

He said his group was proud of its success in improving the area since it was set up 13 years ago.

But he said: "The current situation threatens to significantly undermine all our efforts to date.

"If left unchecked, our Park will undoubtedly follow the inevitable path of neglect and further decline, which will eventually rob the local community of a very valuable green space.

"We cannot sit idly by and watch this happen.

"We are asking Amey and Trafford Council to please listen to our concerns and work with us to develop a suitable recovery plan for our park."

He said: "I believe the situation is still recoverable but if we leave it much longer, I fear we will reach the point of no return and our all efforts to date will have been in vain and our communities will be much poorer as a result."

The One Trafford Partnership promised to work with the Friends group to address the issues.

A spokesperson for the partnership said: "Maintaining our parks is a job we take extremely seriously. We are committed to improving our parks and increasing the number of Green Flag parks in the borough. Walton Park is one of eight Green Flag parks and we want to ensure that it retains its title in 2018.

"We have met with the Friends of Walton Park to discuss their maintenance concerns and a detailed response addressing all of the concerns raised will be sent to the group.

"It has been agreed that work will be undertaken on a phased programme to reduce the shrubs over the winter months and that the use of herbicides has now ceased with immediate effect.

"An operational review of the grounds maintenance service is also currently underway to develop a more effective work programme and system of monitoring to ensure a high standard of service is maintained.

"This includes reviewing the frequency of grass cutting across the park with a view of implementing a new schedule from March 2018.

"We thank the Friends of Walton Park for bringing their concerns to us as we take all service requests very seriously.

"Any one concerned about their local park, can contact us online at https://my.trafford.gov.uk or by calling 03330 035865.”