Hi Fedup,
Been a bit busy with work hence the delay.
As you may be aware, HPBC have been involved in putting together a bid for Heritage Lottery Funding to regenerate Whaley Bridge Memorial Park. This was quite a complex, time consuming project which was carried out by a team at HPBC in consultation with numerous local groups and residents. The plans that HPBC have come up with for the Park on the back of this project come to a total of around £478,000 . The plans were submitted to the HLF in September. The bid system is a 2 stage process. HPBC have been successful in the first stage of the bid process. This means that they have now (April) been given a grant of £24,300 by the HLF and Big Lottery Fund, which can be used to help further develop their plans . Once the plans have been fully developed, HPBC will submit the final bid, and if successful, will receive the money and can start development. see http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/pr_embargoed/pr_150409_em_pp_lottery_funding_injects_a_hint_of.htm for some more detail.
So at the moment, HPBC are now busy refining costings and tweaking the bid. I believe that the bid has to be ready for second stage submission in Aug 2009, and if succesful, work would start in 2010. There is no guarantee that the second stage bid will be successful, but we all have our fingers crossed and hope that that is the case. Success in the first stage of the bid is obviously a big boost to the chances.
A copy of the original bid document ( a large A4 folder of plans and detail)is held by the town clerk, and can be seen on request. Other copies are available at the HPBC Chinley site. Christine Latham would be the contact there on 01298 28400 ext 2255.
The bid document is the first port of call to see what is currently planned but some of the things in it are below:
Restoration of the war memorial, and redevelopment of the area around it to take it back to how it looked in the 1920's
Resurfacing of all the paths.
New play equipment, and extension of the play area over the river using stepping stones.
A park support worker to be based in the Pavillion by the MUGA.
New benches.
New gates at the Goyt rd entrance to the park.
Improvements to the Wheatsheaf Rd entrance to the park.
Disabled parking places on hardstanding in park at Wheatsheaf Road entrance.
Treework,
Bog garden,
New handrails and railings.
There are lots of other things, but I dont have a copy of the document to hand so I'm going on memory. I can borrow it and publish some stuff on here if people would like, but I cant do it all as it is a big job. It is important to remember that the first stage bid is being costed and refined, so not everything in the document might happen. Some things may have to go or perhaps be replaced by others.
At one pont there were plans by HPBC to publish the bid document on the web so it could be viewed by interested parties like yourself, but I dont think that has been done yet. I'll ask and see what the situation is.
Cheers
Jon.
