The Green lies between the picturesque North Cumbrian coastline and the Victorian town buildings of Silloth-on-Solway. A busy local park, The Green has always relied heavily on volunteers who help who run several popular events including the beer and food festival, vintage rally, fairs and markets and the kite festival. Recently a friends group was established to organise further activities on the green

HLF/BIG’s grant will restore some of The Green’s most historic features, including the Victorian Pagoda, the Edwardian toilets and the 1950s Rose Garden which was built to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation. The project will also provide essential new facilities for the local community. These will include the creation of a water play area, a woodland play area and a new town garden, alongside new footpaths around the park.

At the same time, training will be provided for up to 80 new staff and volunteers in nature conservation, restoration and construction skills and how to effectively lead guided walks.

Bill Allison, Town Councillor and Chair of Silloth Regeneration, said: “I would like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund for their support for this project which has been developed over a number of years. I would also like to thank the steering group, the consultants and members of the community who have helped achieve this success.”

Simon Green, Director of Southern Green Chartered Landscape Architects and Lead Consultant, said: "This is a terrific opportunity for Silloth, and well deserved by the people of the town who have worked so hard to help put the bid together. The Green is a very special place, and this investment will not only safeguard the future of this unique landscape for local residents but will help attract new visitors to Silloth."

Sara Hilton, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund, North West, said: “This award is fantastic news for Silloth, and will provide this much-loved local green space with vital financial support. The Green is an important resource for the surrounding community, offering the only recreational space within the town. Thanks to this award and the hard work of local volunteers, this project will ensure that The Green can be enjoyed for many generations to come.”

Helen Bullough, Big Lottery Fund’s Head of the North West region, said: "Today’s award will help to ensure that the community gets the most of what The Green has to offer. Not only will this funding help to safeguard The Green for the future, but the volunteering and employment opportunities created will be valuable, especially at a time where increasing numbers find themselves unemployed and facing debt.”

Alongside the award to The Green, in this round of funding the HLF and BIG have also awarded £1.9m to Wandle Park in Croydon to help restore the park’s original Victorian character by reviving features such as the bandstand, water-fountain, ornamental planting and part of the original boating lake.

Initial joint HLF/BIG support* and development funding totalling £1m has also been awarded to eleven parks across the UK**.

Talking about the wide range of awards being made through the Parks for People programme, David Tibbatts, General & Business Development Manager, GreenSpace, said: “The support for public parks provided by Lottery funding has always been greatly needed and appreciated; both by the dedicated teams that look after our green spaces and by those that use and love them. HLF and BIG have made the greatest contribution to green space improvement, providing funding that hasn’t just restored and conserved lost and vulnerable heritage features; it has transformed spaces, re-energised them and restored their position at the heart of communities.”

Notes to editors

The Parks for People programme uses Lottery funds to support the regeneration, conservation and increased enjoyment of public parks. The programme aims to improve the local environment and put parks firmly back at the heart of community life. In England the two Lottery Funds have been working in partnership from 2006 to deliver a multi-million pound investment in public parks of £150m. Over the past three years, the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has invested up to £80m (in England only) with £70m coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the UK.

HLF is continuing to fund public park projects in 2011 with an investment of £20m each year. The next closing date for applications is 28 February 2011. The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) remains committed to working in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in making a success of the Parks for People programme and has allocated £10 million in its grant budget for 2010/11 towards the programme in England.

Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) sustains and transforms a wide range of heritage for present and future generations to take part in, learn from and enjoy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported 33,900 projects, allocating £4.4billion across the UK. Since 1994, HLF has awarded a total of £527m to over 550 public parks across the UK. 

The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) rolls out close to £2million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project. BIG, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. The Big Lottery Fund and its predecessor bodies have invested more than £1.3billion in environmental initiatives. www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

* A first-round pass means the project meets our criteria for funding and we believe it has potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for Lottery money. The application was in competition with other supportable projects, so a first-round pass is an endorsement of outline proposals. Having been awarded a first-round pass, the project now has up to two years to submit fully developed proposals to compete for a firm award.

** First-round passes have also been awarded to the following parks:

Initial Lottery support and development funding totalling £1m has also been awarded to the following eleven parks across the UK. This money will enable projects to take forward major restoration and redevelopment plans in preparation for securing a confirmed grant.

Parks in Scotland and Wales – HLF supported only

• Wilton Lodge Park, Hawick, Scottish Borders - first-round pass of £2m, including £100,000 development funding
• Rouken Glen Park, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow - first-round pass of £2m, including £123,233 development funding
• Wepre Park, Flintshire - first-round pass of £598,200, including £30,700 development funding
• Margam Country Park, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council - first-round pass of £1,313,700 including £37,500 development funding.

Parks in England - joint HLF/BIG support

• Eastwood Park, Chesterfield, Derbyshire – first-round pass of £988,300, including £50,800 development funding
• Richmond Park, Isabella Plantation, Richmond, London – first-round pass of £1.5m, including £164,300 development funding
• Runcorn Hill Park, Runcorn, Cheshire – first-round pass of £949,600, including £40,000 development funding
• Drake’s Place Gardens and Reservoir, Plymouth – first-round pass of £592,300, including £56,700 development funding
• Mary Stevens Park, Stourbridge, Dudley – first-round pass of £1.9m, including £116,100 development funding
• West Park, Goole, North Humberside – first-round pass of £674,300, including £24,800 development funding
• Cliffe Castle Park, Keighley, West Yorkshire – first-round pass of £3.3m, including £149,500 development funding.

Further information

HLF Press Office, Laura Bates on 020 7 591 6027 / lbates@hlf.org.uk or Katie Owen 0207 591 6036 / katieo@hlf.org.uk  

Out of hours mobile on 07973 613 820.

Julia Sweidan, BIG Press Office on 020 7211 1818 or  julia.sweidan@biglotteryfund.org.uk