Lottery bid for park makeover
Preston City Council has unveiled plans for the restoration of Moor Park ahead of an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £2m.
The project will aim to restore the park to the plans of Edward Milner who made upgrades to the park between 1863 and 1865. Avenham and Miller Parks were restored at a cost of £6m. Both were also designed by Milner.
The Moor Park project includes extending the Serpentine lake and rebuilding the footbridge, providing a snack bar, enabling public use of the observatory building, replanting flower beds and creating a skate park.
The council plans to honour Milner's original vision of a large open moorland, which could host large events, concerts and festivals such as Radio 1's Big Weekend. This would involve removal of a young avenue of small trees, which are mostly poor specimens, that currently divides the space. There will be a net gain of trees through the scheme.
The deadline for submitting the bid is the end of August. If successful, work on the project would be likely to start in summer 2014 and may take up to 12 months to complete.