Hopwood Park begin preparing for May event with new CCTV and landscaping

The cabin area in Hopwood Park

The Friends of Hopwood Park have begun preparing for a celebration event in May with new CCTV and landscaping.

Last week, the Friends were informed their application for CCTV funding was successful, after revealing plans in November 2016 to introduce CCTV and improve lighting in the park after a spate of antisocial behaviour.

In 2016, The Friends received two grants: £12,000 from the Tesco Bags of Help scheme towards landscaping in the park, including a community sensory garden near Hopwood CP School, a path, picnic benches, floral displays and fences, and £3,896 from the Big Lottery Fund, specifically for this community celebration.

Chairwoman of the Friends, Sandra Trickett, said: “We are hoping to get the landscaping around the cabin with the Tesco funding and the CCTV all done before our celebration event on 13 May if possible. It's going to be a busy few months for us.

“We will also be making a start on the bus shelter renovation in March, beginning with the new roof. We’ve raised the money for this with fundraisers over the past couple of years.”

“We applied for the Big Lottery Fund to celebrate the works of the Friends Group over the past seven years, including the hard battle of the drainage.

"We’ve booked a hog roast, hot dogs, magician, DJ, face painting, free taster sand art and a penalty shoot-out for the event already.”

A survey by The Big Lottery Fund found more than half of people asked could not remember ever joining together to celebrate with their local neighbourhood. As a result, a total of £5 million pounds is available across the UK for groups and organisations to host events or activities and celebrate what makes their local community special.

The celebration event is due to take place on 13 May - details of which will soon be in the Rochdale Online Events Diary.