Have you heard...Whats the story so far?

Have you heard…?

The Council is planning to restore Walsall Arboretum, the borough’s premier park, through a three year Restoration Programme.   If project funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund / Big Lottery Fund (HLF/BIG) is secured the Programme will be delivered from 2010 to 2013. Work will be centred on the provision of a new flagship Visitor Centre adjacent to the Centre Green, the restoration of the parks historic building stock, footpaths, fencing, fixtures and significant horticultural improvements. Comprehensive landscape works will be carried out, existing park facilities upgraded and new facilities created within the park.  

To support the delivery of the capital works and to ensure that the investment in the park is protected, a new staff structure for the park is also proposed.  

The structure includes three new staff posts which are viewed as key to the long-term sustainability of the park– Arboretum Parks Manager, Head Ranger and Head Gardener to lead the existing park staff teams and be responsible for the management, maintenance and long term development of the park.  A temporary Project Manager post has also been created to oversee the delivery of the Restoration Programme.

The Council are awaiting the result of a lottery funding application under the Parks for People Programme which will be announced in spring 2010.  If all goes to plan, £4.6m lottery funding will be secured towards the £7.6m Restoration Programme.  Match funding will be provided by Walsall Council and other sources.

The Stage 2 lottery application was submitted in September 2009 following an 18 month project development period during which detailed designs for the park improvements were produced.  A team of specialists including Landscape Architects, Engineers and Architects were appointed to assist with this process and the same team will be involved in delivering the improvement work to the park once project funding is secured.

The Arboretum today

The Arboretum is the premier park within Walsall, located immediately adjacent to the town centre. It is one of the oldest parks in the borough, having been originally developed around two flooded limestone quarries, opening as a public park in 1874.

The total area of the Arboretum today is 73.5 hectares. The older Victorian areas of the park are located closest to the town centre and are more formal in nature. The core of the park includes some iconic buildings and structures such as the Arboretum Clock Tower, the Boathouse, a 1920’s Bandstand and the former Tea Pavilion (Leckie Sons of Rest building). More informal features are located in the south eastern area of the park including children’s play facilities, the lido and a trim trail.

The lottery project (and our project Masterplan) relates to the historic core of the Arboretum.

A consultation exercise will be undertaken in the near future to collect resident’s views and priorities for improvement within the Arboretum Extension (the area not covered by our Restoration Proposals) and a masterplan of desired improvements in the Extension will be produced.  

Further fundraising will then need to be carried out in order for the desired improvements to be delivered.

This page was last updated on 08 December 2009