This is our 3rd or 4th visit this year as we love the site and the location. There was a friendly and efficient welcome from staff who keep the site beautifully and the floral ‘displays are very pretty. Sadly our visit was spoiled when we visited Hesketh Park on our way home Tuesday. Would normally visit the Botanic Gardens as that’s a perfect place for a short dog walk and a bit of lunch. Having never visited this park before we parked up on the road and entered through the south side, checking the noticeboard display at the entrance. As this said ‘dog off lead zone’ we let out little one of the lead and walked 25 meters or so down to the lake, only to be met by an ‘enforcement’ officer who promptly ‘read us our right’ under a caution and issued us with a £75 fixed penalty notice for not having the dog on the lead. So we spent 10 minutes in the park where there are no notices to tell you when you are crossing the invisible line into the ‘dogs in 2 metre leads’ area and are now faced with paying a penalty against which there is no right of appeal. We retraced our steps to check if we had missed a map/notice etc..,we hadn’t, but apparently there’s a map near the café...not much use to us as we didn’t have our binoculars. I emailed the council but they won’t change their minds, say it was publicised in ‘Locals papers, fat lot of use that is for first time visitors. Sadly it’s left a nasty taste and was very upsetting so I’m afraid that will be our last visit to Southport for some time. So be aware and if you want to visit a local park try the Botanic Gardens...they have clear signs there.