Park entrance to get facelift
CHANGES including a new entrance gate and replacement railings are planned at a Widnes park.
Halton Borough Council has applied to develop Upton Rocks Park off Queensbury Way.
Proposed work includes a new pedestrian entrance at the park’s southern boundary off Galway Avenue, altering the existing entrance on Queensbury Way, and installing new steel railings.
A design and access statement submitted as part of the plans said the park was first laid out in 1999 and before much of the present Upton Rocks housing development had been constructed.
It said the setting at the time was ‘semi-rural’ and there was no obvious physical boundaries to ● separate it from fields.
The statement said: “The arrival of a series of housing developments has led to a gradual change in the nature of the entire area and the level of use of the park has greatly increased.
“The area has taken on a more formal, developed, suburban style and it is felt the park, as the focal point of the estate, should follow the same pattern.
“Now, given the current levels of use and visual prominence of the park, it is felt a new southern entrance is required and the highway-facing boundaries need to be upgraded to a more robust and visually attractive detail.”
The new entrance is designed to ‘strike a balance’ between accessibility and discouraging those who are seeking to take unauthorised vehicles such as motorbikes and quad bikes into the park.
The plans said the gates would be fixed with no moving parts and will not be closed or locked at any time.