Centenary year for park is crowned by £50,000 grant

Cash from the Lottery-funded “Changing Places” project will allow an adventure zone for teenagers to be built in the centre of Pickering Park, opened in 1911 by the wife of trawler owner Christopher Pickering.

Secretary of the Friends of Pickering Park Pat Tharratt hopes that it will help efforts to find £146,000 to restore the park’s historic gates.

Pat said: “We are very pleased – all being well it will be completed by the end of the year, as they are hoping to start the build in the middle of November.

“The older children have always complained there’s nothing for them to do if they are not sports-minded; they spend a lot of their time cycling up and down the tracks on their BMXs and generally hanging around. Hopefully this will give them something to do.”

The Friends are still waiting the result of a funding bid for some of the money needed to restore the elaborate gates, which were considered so special that they survived the Second World War intact. She said: “People are reluctant to start the ball rolling, but once you start to get one or two names coming forward it encourages others to join in.”

The £50,000 will cover the cost of the five top items young people wanted; a zip wire, a cycle track made out of thousands of recycled plastic bottles, a nest swing, wobble dishes and perch bars.

The grant is a one-off, so the Friends hope the facilities will be looked after, as there’s no going back for replacements. For more information see www.friendsofpickeringpark/park/gates.