First Spade Commemorates Start of Ashton Refurb
The £2 million regeneration of Ashton Gardens will spring into action this week as the first spade hits the ground to signify the start of the huge scheme.
Ashton Gardens shot by the pond in St Anne's
It is only weeks since the contract to carry out the works, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £1,436,000 was awarded to Maysand Ltd and already the contractors are ready to move on to the site and start work on the biggest job of the project – the rebuild of the once iconic Ashton Institute.
The centre-piece of the restored park, the refurbished and re-sited Ashton Institute Building is a colonial style pavilion which will be moved so it is situated between the lodge buildings on St George’s Road, on the site of a theatre which was originally part of the park. The finished institute will be used as a community facility and café. It is on this site that the first spade will hit the ground with Council Leader, Councillor John Coombes and the Mayor of Fylde, Councillor Susan Fazackerley, digging the first hole to commemorate the start of the highly anticipated refurbishment of the park.
Councillor Simon Renwick, Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “the start of this work is a huge turning point for the regeneration of St Annes as a whole and one that I have been eagerly waiting for since the scheme was first put together over a year ago.”
“The quality of our parks is very important to the Council and this will see the park regenerated back to the quality it had when it was first designed in 1874. I am thrilled this work will now get underway so that the residents of Fylde can enjoy an almost new park when it is finished.”
As part of that work three 70 meter deep bore holes will be created to form part of an energy efficient heat transfer pump that will be used to heat and power the institute itself. The East and West gate lodges will also be restored externally and one will be turned into an information/interpretation centre. These, coupled with the reintroduction of metal railings as per the original park design, will form an impressive entrance to the park from St George’s Road, reminiscent of that which the parks original visitors would have seen.
The Grade II Listed gardens cover 10 acres and comprise of a number of historic buildings and display gardens. The war memorial is to be cleaned, repointed and lit and the existing sports pavilion is to be demolished.
Landscape work will include improvements to the play area, drainage, paving, tree works and the replanting of each of the various display gardens. Work is estimated to take 42 weeks.
Comments
This page doesn't have any comments yet. Be the first to comment by filling out the form below!
