As part of the Stretford Lions Summer Fete, Paul Cooper will be presenting an Exhibition on Stretford, Longford Hall, Park Gardens, Stretford Pageant and John Rylands
The Fete will be held at St.Matthews Hall (Chapel Lane, Stretford, M32 9AJ) on the 16th May between 10am and 3pm.
For more about the exhibition contact Paul on 07939392032. Contact Marion on 0161 865 3060 for more about the Lions Summer Fete.
As reported in the Stretford and Urmston Messenger April 16th 2009 by Robert Downes (View the Article)
HOPES for a multi-million pound makeover of Stretford’s Longford Park have been dashed for a second time in as many years.
Trafford Council’s application for a two million pound face lift of the Edge Lane park, submitted in the autumn, was rejected by The Heritage Lottery Fund earlier this week.
The rebuttal has prompted strong criticisms from the Friends of Longford Park group, who said the council’s strategy to secure Lottery cash in order to modernise the park - the largest in Trafford’s largest - had failed.
Spokesman John Fitzgerald also said there were now serious questions the council needed to answer as to how and when urgent work needed at the park was going to be achieved.
“We were hoping for some really positive news,” he said. “We had a 1,500 strong petition of support for the project, two MPs on board, local councillors, but it’s still be rejected. We want to know why,” he said.
“There’s been very little spent on the park since 2003, the plan being the work would all be paid for when the bid was done. It was the council’s strategy to rely on Lottery cash and now we’re not getting it we want to know what they’re going to do.”
“We’re trying to be fair minded about this, but we need to know why this second funding bid failed.”
The council said on Wednesday the town hall would be seeking feedback as to why the second such bid had failed, but said they remained committed to realising the masterplan.
“I am extremely disappointed we’ve missed out on the HLF funding again, and we will be asking for feedback about our bid to help us move forward stronger,” executive councillor for parks Jonathan Coupe told SUM.
“But I want to assure local people we still have every intention of developing the exciting masterplan put together for Longford Park.
“A lot of time and effort was put into this latest bid by many people and their hard work has provided a strong vision for the future of the park that we intend to make a reality.
“We will continue to invest what limited funds we have available as a council to make sure standards at the park are maintained and, together with the local Friends group and the community, will work hard to secure external funding so that the masterplan can be put into practice.”
As reported on April 17th 2009 by Katherine Vine (View the Article)
FANS of a Stretford beauty spot have suffered a fresh blow after failing to secure Lottery funding for the second time.
The Friends of Longford Park and Trafford Council vowed to fight on when, in May last year, they learned their £2 million Heritage Lottery Fund bid had failed.
In September they submitted a new bid, backed by the Friends’ online petition and appeals for the public to get behind the cause.
The council promised to match any Lottery funding with £400,000 of its own cash.
But this week they were told that, once again, the bid had been unsuccessful.
Group member John Fitzgerald, who was one of the main driving forces behind the bid, said: “We are all just really disappointed.
“We had been feeling for a while that no news was not good news, but we were so hopeful that we would get this money that the park desperately needs. It seems that Stretford loses out once again.”
The park is steeped in history and once housed Longford Hall, home of the Mancunian cotton magnate John Rylands.
The Lottery money would have funded the restoration of the hall’s remains and rose gardens and the building of a visitors’ centre, performance space and sports ground.
John says the Friends now fear for the park’s future as the fight to get Lottery funding has taken almost six years.
In that time, many of the park’s maintenance issues have not been addressed.
He added: “For quite a period of time now the council has been cutting the park’s funds right back to the bare bones. We have reached the point where Longford Park is in a really poor state, and it is a real shame because the park matters to a lot of people.”
The issues of most concern to the Friends’ group are inadequate drainage leading to frequent flooding of the park, broken lighting, graffiti, inadequate toilet facilities, empty flower beds and neglect of the ornamental gardens.
Councillor Jonathan Coupe, who is in charge of environmental issues, says the council remains committed to improving the park and will continue to fight for funding to make this happen.
He said: “A lot of time and effort was put into this latest bid by many people, and their hard work has provided a strong vision for the future of the park that we intend to make a reality.
“We will continue to invest what limited funds we have available as a council to make sure standards at the park are maintained and, together with the Friends group and the community, will work hard to secure external funding so that the masterplan can be put into practice.”s
On the 15th April 2009 Jean Byrne, the Chair of the Friends of Longford Park, issued the following response to the rejection of the second Longford Park Heritage Lottery Bid:-
Friends of Longford Park are EXTREMELY disappointed to hear that, yet again, our area has lost out because of the decision of the National Lottery not to allocate Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) money to a park which has a very significant place in the history of Manchester, as the home and estate of the industrialist John Rylands. It is a MASSIVE LOST OPPORTUNITY.
Our group gave strong support to the bid by establishing an on-line petition with over 1,500 signatories and by using the local media well, as we knew this was our last chance to gain money from HLF. We are thankful to our new park officer for the work she did in providing a professional second bid, with very little previous knowledge about the area. However, we would like to know exactly WHY our bid failed, when Trafford has so very little lottery money compared with the other councils. The HLF themselves have stated that the spend per capita of £3.76 for Trafford represents £67.58 below the national average.
Friends of Longford Park have been working hard for almost 10 years to persuade Trafford Council to prioritise a park which it has called “the jewel in its crown”. Despite the fact that John Ryland’s house, the original centrepiece of the park, was once the chosen venue for a Royal Visit, it was demolished after years of neglect. In 2003 the council were awarded a planning grant by the HLF. For the subsequent six years much essential maintenance work has been put on hold on the assumption it would eventually get fixed with the lottery money. This assumption has proved wrong and the gamble failed.
We feel that the council has shown a degree of neglect of our park and indeed of the Stretford area in general. We find beds full of flowers at the south end of the borough and yet the flower beds in our park lie derelict and basic lighting and repairs have been left for years – despite protestations from ourselves and other members of the public.
In relation to THE FUTURE, we trust that Trafford council will honour its pledge of over £1 million which it has already allocated for this project. We believe this money could be used very constructively and effectively, with our support, both to attract other funding and also to ensure that basic essential repairs in the park are completed. We intend to ask Trafford Council for a public meeting to give local people the opportunity to discuss the failure of the bid and what it intends to do in the future.
Friends of Longford Park are prepared to continue to work hard to develop a first class park with great historical significance and exciting green credentials. We have a history of supporting and developing initiatives in the park – including the development of the wildlife garden as well as the organisation of many extremely successful International Festivals and other community events. We believe that despite this tremendous setback, with Trafford council’s support, we can still achieve what this bid set out to do.
Jean Byrne
Chair
Friends of Longford Park