Campaigners looking to restore a pavilion at their local park are calling on groups in the area to back their bid for funding to help transform the building into a community hub.
Friends of Onchan Park were formed back in 2016 to save the green space from a possible sale by Gedling Borough Council.
Now after winning the fight to save the park’s future, they are looking at ways to restore the park’s pavilion to it’s former glory.
The building is currently unusable due to its poor condition.
The team recently carried out a survey in the area and the results revealed residents are eager for the creation of a community hub in the area.
To help secure charity funding to help pay for repairs and also a redesign of the dilapidated pavilion building, the group are now calling on local groups to show their support and help back their bid.
Maria Robinson from Friends of Onchan Park told Gedling Eye: “We’d like the building to serve as a community hub for local groups.
“We’d like to create a building that would meet the needs of the groups who would like to use the space. At the same time we would like to create a space that will be very cost efficient to run, perhaps incorporating solar and wind power.
“We are trying to involve community groups in our development project so they can help design a new venue with all the features that their group needs.
“We want to get social groups, fitness groups and any other groups to get in touch with us to help with the planning of the building refurbishment.
“To support our bid [for charity funding] we will be required to show the need for the works and how the project will benefit the community. We think the best way to do this is by involving local groups in the planning stages to create the ultimate community hub.”
She added: “We would like to hold a meeting with interested groups to try to establish a starting point.”
The Friends group are now calling on local groups to get in touch and those interested will be invited to a meeting to discuss future plans.
If you would like to be involved should email parkonchan@gmail.com for more details.
More details can be found about the scheme here: http://onchanpark.co.uk/pavilion-development-opportunity/
This was a lovely park and pavilion, then I watched as GBC systematically left it, abandoned it and did absolutely nothing. Local youths used the bowling green as a football field. Police did nothing when I reported this. NOTHING! Time and time again I saw acts of vandalism. Still GBC and police did nothing. And now you want to do it up. GBC should pay for it, it’s their fault it’s ended up like this. I don’t pay high rates for my council to abandoned these places. I’m surprised they’ve not succeeded in flogging it off to housing developer. Is there no councillor with one in their back pocket then?
We had a fight on our hands, but Friends of Onchan Park succeeded in ‘saving the park from developers’ 2 years ago. http://onchanpark.co.uk/friends-of/#Secure%20Future
We have plans for a new Multi use games area with table tennis and we want to develop the pavilion as well.
The story was shown on BBC1 Inside Out – watch from 19 mins: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bk1h19/inside-out-east-midlands-17092018
It will be a lengthy process to get the building back into regular use, but to start us off, we hope you can come to our first meeting to discuss ideas and possibilities.
We are holding a meeting on Monday 28th January starting at 6:30pm at St John’s Church Hall on Oakdale Road.
Please let us know if you can come or just turn up and join in!