Kearsley: Pilkington Road park could be improved after funding

Kearsley Park, located off Pilkington Road in Kearsley, was recently vandalised just as the school summer holidays began.

Play facilities and groundwork at the park were both badly damaged in July.

However, a ward councillor has confirmed that new funding could be used to improve the park.

Cllr Debbie Newall, who represents Kearsley, said: "It is being dealt with, we always keep our eyes on the parks.

The groundwork of the park was damaged (Image: Public)

"We have got some funding to improve all the parks, we are just waiting for the money to come through.

"We can say we want a slide, or this or that, but they then have to do a risk assessment. Everything takes a long time.

"We are making progress with the parks."

She also mentioned a missing park gate at the playpark, as well as a similar one in Stoneclough.

Cllr Newall added: "We have a small budget of around £15k over the year for small things like Remembrance Sunday and Christmas lights.

The park could see funding to improve it, amongst other areas in Kearsley (Image: Public)

"But we have also got a little bit of environmental improvement funding, it is Section 106 money.

"When a developer builds something, part of planning conditions is they have to give some money back to the local community.

"We were told this year that they had found S106 money for Kearsley, but it can only be used for certain things.

"We want to use it for park improvement in Kearsley, it's just about ratifying this money."

Kearsley Park serves as the area’s main parkland area and as well as being hugely popular with children and families also includes an area for playing football and a bowling club.

Play equipment was damaged (Image: Public)

Cllr Paul Heslop, who also stands for Kearsley, added: "I have had a response from neighbourhood services saying they are doing remedial works on it.

"There are meant to be events on the park every Tuesday, run by Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) at the council.

"They usually use the grass area but sometimes use the football courts. Hopefully that should still all go ahead."

The vandalism was reported to Cllr Heslop on the afternoon of Sunday, July 23.

Children spent their last day at school before their holidays on Friday, July 21 with the park having supposed to have been part of a range of planned activities.

The activities are intended to help give children something to do to keep them occupied and encourage them to exercise over the summer months until they return to school at the start of September.