What a shame
 

Re: What a shame
 

It is a shame the bid for Lotto money wasn't successful. However the park, and others in the area, used to be maintained to a much higher standard, without the need to go cap in hand as a 'worthy cause'.

The paths aren't just unsightly they are dangerous.

I guess councils of years gone by were better at using money from our rates, which saw well cared for paths, tennis courts, a putting green, two top rate bowling greens, a paddling pool, beautiful flower beds supplied by the park's own green houses, and even paid for the services of a park keeper who chased out those who ventured in after dark.

Re: What a shame
 

Are there no people to help, I mean volunteer with keeping the park tidy and stuff, obviously not fixing important things that will need doing I just mean helping with the general stuff so money could be spent elsewhere

Obviously I know nothing about the maintenance of the park, I'm just asking:)

Re: What a shame
 

Yes, 'tis sad, I don't think Rhyddings is too bad actually, presume you have read the threads on Milnshaw Park ... now that is a dump... hope they obtain the lottery funding they have applied for.

Again, only so much money in the pot for the HBC maintaining these parks ... :( (without increasing council tax !)

Re: What a shame
 

Re: What a shame
 

So they are given a 25 yr budget so to speak?

25 yrs before?

Or they have a yearly budget that obviously aint enough cos it hasn't sorted everything?

Re: What a shame
 

Re: What a shame
 

In years gone by parks didn't suffer the trouble they do now.

They now suffer so much vandalism so it seems to me that the reason we don't have the things you mentioned is because it costs too much money to provide these things and then to have to constantly fork out for repairs/replacements due to vandalism. :(

In this age of the personal injury claim, nothing can be seen to be unsafe or have the potential to cause injury.....so best not put it there in the first place.

That's just my take on it.

Re: What a shame
 

Re: What a shame
 

Within my not that old a memory the council had a park warden, whose twenty four hour presence deterred vandalism, and those seeking to do mischief, and funded via our rates. Vandalism is nothing new, and is certainly not an excuse for properly maintaining the paths, and draining the playing field.

As for now living in an injury claim culture, the terrible state of the park paths mean that more accidents will happen, and as I believe our council pay out on any claim submittted without defending the action, in the short, as well as long term, it makes very little economic sense, even by H.B.C.'s standards.

Re: What a shame
 

I know vandalism is nothing new but it wasn't as bad 50 years ago as it is now.

Nothing's safe these days. Agreed, we could do with a return to the park warden but, as has been discussed on the corporal punishment thread, he would have very little powers these days and would probably be beaten up if he dared to challenge anyone. :mad:

Re: What a shame
 

The appalling state of the parks, and the withholding of funding that should be used to maintain them, as nothing to do with vandalism. It's about the use of funds, and poor management.

They gave us flower towers, call us a 'Floral Market Town', yet our parks, once filled with beautiful displays of bedding plants, raised by the park's own gardening department, are now bare of flowers except for the odd Dandelion.

Re: What a shame
 

Thank you for that.
We refuse to sit on our backsides and will be actively seeking other bids on our own. The main lottery bid was in fact made by the Council with us on the project team assisting in every way we could.
The Friends of Rhyddings Park are now applying for funding themselves with HBC assisting us as required with things like suppliers and planning issues. We have our first meeting with an equipment designer/supplier on Tuesday and Gayle is already working on funding application forms. Like I said we are not sat down doing nothing :)

All work in the park is HBC's responsibility. The only odd bit is Pets Corner which is managed by the Friends under the supervision of the Council. It has to be that way as they are responsible for everything in the park.

Not enough would be more accurate than not a lot. Because of this long ongoing bid - well over 3 years this time and a previous bid failed 10 years ago (ish), money had not been spent in the park. I do agree to a point that you would not want to spend a lot of money to find a refurbishment program paid for by lottery money undid some of the work you spent money on. Unfortuneatly this has led to the park falling into a very poor state. Lots of work should have been carried out just to keep paths safe etc.


Fair point I think - money was spent elsewhere in the belief that a massive revamp was on its way. This would not have been too bad if the bid process had not dragged on for as long as it has done - still now it is not completed as the bid has been resubmitted for a final time to this particular funding body so we are waiting again. The only difference now is that the Council have agreed to do some of the work that is needed anyway.

I believe the parks budget is underfunded both in capital money and in man power.

I am glad you said that. For many years now previous and current Councils have found themselves cutting the budgets available for our parks. This takes years to show itself as a problem as the parks slowly fell apart. Millions of pounds are needed to restore several parks in Hyndburn to the sort of standard that we all expect. The actual cost of refurbishing Rhyddings Park is well over £2 million. Years of neglect by many Councils have caused it, I hope that the Councils of the next few years can find the money to sort it out.

Another problem is that the vandalism is not being repaired. The Council have to work with the Police to sort out many of the issues we have in the parks.

Local residents don't help either. I am expecting a lot of resistance ( we have had some already ) about our plans to puts things into Rhyddings park for the secondary school sort of age group. They have nothing to do and no where to go in the park. They end up hanging around in the kiddies play area - many of them started playing in there when it was new and they were in primary school. There is nothing for them to move on to so they stay. They also hang around on the benches around the bowling green which causes problems as well.

In my opinion Hyndburn has too many green spaces to look after with the current size of its parks department. I was very disapointed when they created the new one off Henry Street in Church. Why create a new one when they can't afford to look after what they have? I am sure it was funded from some grant or another but when that ends HBC will have to pay to maintain it.

Maybe Accrington should loose one of its parks, it has several while Oswaldtwistle only has one park yet has half the population of Accrington. The park is also close to the towns border with Spring Hill so attracts a lot of visitors from that area of Accrington as well.

One interesting figure I have just pulled out of the bid is that the population within a 1km catchment area of the park is over 14,000.

Re: What a shame
 

By the way, I'm not having a go at the Friends of Rhyddings Park, I think they're doing a great job. I just think the council were wrong withholding funding for essential maintenance, in the hope of perhaps securing funding from the Lottery.

Pie in the sky.

Re: What a shame
 

So do I for essential works.