People urged to help shape park’s future
RESIDENTS young and old are being invited to contribute to a bid to revamp their local park.
Edgeside Park in Waterfoot is the first park to be targeted as part of a new Love Parks project to give a boost to the borough’s green spaces.
The initiative is being run as a partnership between Rossendale council’s Community Team and Newground Landscape Services, and a steering group comprising members of local organisations is driving a public consultation to help draw up a masterplan into how the park could be improved.
Once firm proposals are drawn up the council will be looking into various sources of funding to deliver it, with the initiative hoping to follow the successful lead of Bacup’s
Stubbylee Park, where the community, the council and partners worked together to make real improvements.
The steering group includes representatives from St Anne’s Church, Edgeside and district community partnership, Whitewell Bottom Community Centre, Together Housing and RBC’s parks department.
The consultation will run for another couple of weeks with a draft masterplan by the end of March.
Jill Bevan, of St Anne’s Church, said: “Rossendale council have paid for Newground to do a consultation. What we are doing now until the end of March is consulting with as many people as we can.
“Residents’ groups and churches are consulting, and it went on the church Facebook page.”
Members of the community team were at The Boo Theatre last week to show the draft plans for the project. St Anne’s held a residents’ meeting earlier this month and has an information board on display, as does the community centre.
There are two questionnaires for adults and children and Newground are going into local schools to speak to pupils.
Jill said ideas raised so far include a pump track for bikes, a revamp of the tennis courts area, further development of the playground, an adult gym, and waymarker signs to encourage people to exercise in the park.
She said it was really important that residents of all ages contribute ideas and get involved. A cleanup event has been organised at the park on Saturday, March 28.
Council leader Coun Alyson Barnes said: “The Love Parks project is exciting and people can really help to shape the final vision of their parks.”