Our park is blossoming after years of neglect
VOLUNTEERS transformed Longsight Park in Bolton after years of neglect. Since its launch in 2014, the Friends of Longsight Park, chaired by GP Jane Wilcock, has put in new flowerbeds, plants 300 daffodil bulbs each autumn, cut back overgrown areas, cleared paths, repaired broken benches and started a woodland trail.
Jane believes the involvement of volunteers spurred on Bolton Council to spend £60,000 on improving drainage in the park and repairing paths.
‘I was shocked by the park a few years ago,’ she says. ‘All
of the paths were muddy and overgrown and it was impossible to go on them if you were in a wheelchair.
‘Now everybody says the park is looking so much better and it is being used far more.
‘The health benefits of socialising and exercising are enormous, particularly once people get older and more frail.’