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Bid to restore park to glory after 'neglect'

Georgia Levy-Collins
BBC News, Yorkshire
BBC A woman with dark hair is standing in hull road park, there's grass all around her and trees in the distance. To the right of her is the fence to the tennis courts. There's a path just before round the edge of the courts. The woman is smiling, wearing a black fleece and dark purple scarf. BBC
The Conservation Volunteers (TVC) local group has been carrying out work in Hull Road Park

Regular users of a vandalism-hit city park have said they want to return it to its former glory.

The Friends of Hull Road Park in York have formed the group with the aim of gaining the international benchmark Green Flag status for the park after a period of neglect.

Members of the group said money needed to be invested in the council-owned site, with the beck and children's play area of particular concern.

However, the Labour-run council has recommended that £500,000 should be spent on parks across the city, including Hull Road, in the next financial year.

Andrew Mortimer, the chair of the Friends, said: 'We think there's a role here to use the Friends group as a liaison between the councillors, the owners of the park and the local community.

"There are areas of the park that we would like to see some money spent on."

He said the children's playground had become "unusable" in muddy conditions and that path repairs and more benches were needed.

Two men stood in-front of a beck fenced off by a blue metal barrier. The man on the left is wearing a blue jacket, hes wearing glasses, he's bald. The man on the right has a grey flat cap on he's shorter and is wearing a grey jacket.
Friends of Hull Road Park was set up this month

Another group member, David Alexander, established a petition calling for improvements to the beck in the park last year.

He said: "Nobody likes what we've got.

"We had a good ecosystem here in the beck, with hundreds of ducks and swans, but there's practically nothing here now.

"It's upsetting. Everybody just wants the beck back to what it used to be."

Members of The Conservation Volunteers (TVC) have been working in the park since 2017 and volunteer Rachel Earnshaw said the group had undertaken litter picks, gardening tasks and food growing projects.

"We've just got a National Lottery grant, and we're doing youth projects and activities to engage children, to make them feel like they belong here so they're less likely to vandalise the park.

"So all these little things that we try and do to improve the the space and help the community."

Image of the beck close up to the blue metal fence, the water is muddy and shallow, there are trees and branches everywhere sticking up out of the water.
Concerns have been raised about the condition of the beck, which was formerly a wildlife habitat

Mr Mortimer said the Friends would work with TCV and the council to "promote and develop the park" and secure funding for projects not related to conservation, such as the play area.

City of York Council's executive member for safer communities, Michael Pavlovic, said: "There is a great deal of positive action taking place and the establishing of the Friends of Hull Road Park means that by working constructively with ward councillors and with the council, there is much more that can be achieved to help improve the park for local residents."

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