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London parks win vote for £6m transformation
Katharine Barney4 Mar 2009
Eleven London parks are to be transformed in a £6million improvement scheme launched by the Mayor. Ten will be given makeovers and another will be completed more than 60 years after work on it began.
Boris Johnson today named the 10 winners of a £4million competition to transform the London's parks voted by the public to be most in need of investment. Each will be given £400,000 to spend.
He said that Burgess Park in Southwark, which was started in 1943 but never properly completed, will be finished at a cost of £2million.
The 10 parks earmarked for improvement are:
●Lordship Recreation Ground in Haringey.
●Dollis Valley Green Walk in Barnet.
●Mayesbrook Park in Barking and Dagenham.
●Fairlop Waters Country Park in Redbridge.
●Brent River Park in Ealing.
●Little Wormwood Scrubs in north Kensington.
●Parish Wood Park in Bexley.
●Avery Hill Park in Greenwich.
●Crane Riverside Park which straddles Richmond and Hounslow.
●Wandle Park in Croydon.
The unfinished park due for completion is Burgess Park which lies between Camberwell, Walworth and Peckham in Southwark.
The 113-acre site was designated a park in 1943 as part of a plan to create more green space in and around the city. It developed in fits and starts but its boundaries have been threatened by development plans.
Work on removing the remains of the buildings and roads on the site is still to be completed.
The £2million scheme is the biggest prize in the "parks plebiscite" launched by the Mayor as a way of spending cash saved by cutting Ken Livingstone's publicity budget, including axing a free newspaper. Southwark council has also pledged a further £4million to regenerate the site.
The parks improvement competition was launched last November and saw more than 110,000 votes cast and several campaigns run by councils, including on Facebook. Dozens of other parks were nominated.
The winners will receive the cash for a variety of schemes ranging from better footpaths and more lighting for safety, to providing new playgrounds and facilities for children.
Many will see traditional flower gardens restored, wildlife habitats created, and some will provide plots for communities to grow fruit and vegetables. Mr Johnson said: "In a fantastic show of people power, Londoners have voted in their droves to decide which of their 10 favourite parks will get a makeover.
"So it is incredibly exciting to reveal today the results of the 'parks plebiscite', and thanks to this loyal support of local people, parks across the capital are now set to become much more pleasant places.
"Londoners deserve a better quality of life and making a greener, more attractive city is a top priority, so I am thrilled to announce that Burgess Park will also receive a whopping £2million to fund an ambitious revamp making it a destination for all Londoners to enjoy."
Reader views (6)
I agree with Carsten. It's surprising how far £6m doesn't go, especially when people are bidding for work on a council job. Let's hope they emphasise projects that will lead to further investment. Make the place feel safe first. Get some proper lighting and get rid of the dangerous dogs and assorted unsavoury items!
- Rex, london, 05/03/2009 11:21
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Sadly, the news is all about the amount of money given to each park, rather than what it will be spent on.
The Burgess Park project will depend on whether measures are taken to calm the dangerous roads which surround that park. If not, it will be a colossal waste of money.
Let's hope there are no repeats of the Myatts Fields regeneration, where large numbers of mature trees were chopped down to make it "children-friendly", because we have still not learned to design our urban environment around organisms whose age exceeds that of the most ancient local buildings.
- Reg, London, 05/03/2009 10:59
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Wonderful news mr Johnson, ABOUT TIME!!!!
- Sorraya, croydon, 04/03/2009 19:16
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Well done Boris. This is real democracy in action. If you couldn't be bothered to vote you don't get the benefit.
- Mark, London, 04/03/2009 16:04
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A great scheme. However, to put the money awarded here into perspective, the tiny Victorian 'Myatts Fields Park' in Camberwell has just undergone a £3 Million pound restoration with beautiful results! I am not sure how far £2m + £4 million will go with a park the size of Burgess Park unfortunately... It's a great start however and I hope there will be many more schemes to restore neglected public spaces.
- Carsten, London, SE5, 04/03/2009 13:01
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Excellent work Boris. It's nice to see you keeping to your promises of helping the outer suburban boroughs even when holding public voting competitions. Tart up the outside of town whilst the inner core rots, eh?
- Darren, London, 04/03/2009 11:36
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