Christmas comes early for parks
5 November 2010
Six parks across the country are sharing £10 million in grants for restoration projects following the latest awards from the Lottery-funded Parks for People programme.
The largest award of almost £4 million went to an inner-city park in one of London's most densely-populated areas. Lordship Recreation Ground in Tottenham opened in the 1930s and includes a unique model traffic area, created in 1938 for teaching children about road safety – one of several features to be restored as part of a wide-ranging renovation programme. The Moselle River, which runs through the park, will also be returned to a more natural course and there will be extensive landscaping.
'This is tremendous news for the people of Tottenham,' said local MP David Lammy. 'Lordship Rec is one of North London's best green spaces and it was my local park when I was growing up, so I'm so happy the park's future is being secured.'
Other parks to benefit include Telford Town Park in Shropshire, which will use its £2.1m grant to conserve the industrial heritage within its grounds, and Grade II listed Mesnes Park in Wigan (pictured above), which receives £1.9m to complete the second phase of its restoration programme. The 18th-century Mote Park, near Maidstone in Kent, was awarded £1.8m, while Whaley Bridge Memorial Park, on the edge of the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire and Cambuslang Park in South Lanarkshire share a further grant of just over £1m.