Johnson reveals park funding recipients
by Pete Hayman | 05 Mar 2009
London mayor Boris Johnson has revealed the 10 London parks that have been selected by a public vote to receive a £400,000 transformation as part of a £6m funding scheme.
Johnson has also announced that Burgess Park in Southwark will receive a larger grant of £2m in order to fund a more extensive upgrade, following advice from a panel of experts. More than 110,000 Londoners voted as part of the Help A London Park initiative, which was set up by Johnson in order to fund improvements designed to make London's parks and open spaces more attractive and safer for local communities.
Little Wormwood Scrubs in Kensington and Chelsea; Parish Wood Park in Bexley; Avery Hill Park in Greenwich; Crane Riverside Park in Richmond and Hounslow; and Wandle Park in Croydon are also set to benefit from the scheme. Work will include providing better footpaths, more lighting and new playgrounds, as well as the creation of new cafés, revamped public toilets and improved cycle routes. Some schemes will also involve the re-naturalisation of buried streams, and the restoration of plant life and wildlife habitats.
Parks and green spaces in need of improvement were nominated by each of the London boroughs, with a shortlist of 47 put forward for the public to vote on. Parks that were unsuccessful in the public vote will be offered advice on other grants available. Johnson said: "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 the results of the 'parks plebiscite', and thanks to this loyal support of local people, ten parks across London are now set to become much more pleasant places."
Funding for the works will be provided by efficiency savings made from the former publicity budget of the previous mayor's administration.
London mayor Boris Johnson has revealed the 10 London parks that have been selected by a public vote to receive a £400,000 transformation as part of a £6m funding scheme. Johnson has also announced that Burgess Park in Southwark will receive a larger grant of £2m in order to fund a more extensive upgrade, following advice from a panel of experts. More than 110,000 Londoners voted as part of the
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