Volunteers want to restore York park to glory
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.
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."
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."Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
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