New era for Blackpool's parks

The open spaces, which have proved vital to residents’ health and wellbeing during the Covid pandemic, will get individual development plans which will also help target funding where it is most needed.

Annie Heslop, green infrastructure development manager for Blackpool Council, said each park had unique assets and played a unique role in its community.

She told a meeting of the council’s tourism, economy and communities scrutiny committee: “We want to make sure each park is maximised in terms of what it can offer and what the local community needs from that park.

“Rather than a one size fits all, we want to take each park through a development journey.”

She added: “That will then enable us to be really smart when funding opportunities come up.

“We know which parks we’re targetting, which parks have the greatest need and have projects ready to go.”

She warned there were also challenges ahead including to maintain the quality of play areas.

The department would also be aiming to achieve Green Flag status for parks, and using that as a benchmark for improvements.

The parks department is now working more closely with the council’s waste services company Enveco which has taken over maintenance.

Each park will also have a management plan in terms of work such as grass cutting in order to protect the environment, including identifying biodiversity areas.

As part of efforts to make Blackpool greener, more than 4,000 trees were planted in Blackpool in 2020 in partnership with the River Wyres Trust.

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