Newbury's bid for Victoria Park funding fails again

Newbury Town Council had submitted an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for park renovations

NEWBURY'S bid for funding for renovations at Victoria Park has failed again.

It was announced this morning (Wednesday) that Newbury Town Council has been unsuccessful in its recent application for Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund investment through their Parks for People programme.

The council had asked for £999,000 for refurbishments which included a new café, toilets and boat store on the site of the existing kiosk, the resurfacing of tennis courts and a new multi-use games area pitch, refurbishment of the bandstand and a scooter park, among other things.

The chairman of the Victoria Park Working Party and deputy leader of Newbury Town Council, David Allen, said that he was disappointed that the council was unsuccessful in its bid.

The council has said that details about why the current bid failed were not expected to be confirmed until January 2012.

Back in 2008, the town council's £1.7m bid for funding for improvements was declined owing to the “uncertainly” over the plan's building details.

The council's plans for the regeneration of the park, submitted in March 2008, included the construction of the pavilion, a sculpture garden, a multi-use sports court, a recreation area and an ecology zone for schools.

However, these plans had to be shelved when the bid for funding failed.

For more on this story see tomorrow's Newbury Weekly News.