Preston Park Update

This afternoon's meeting of the Preston Hall & Park Management Committee was dominated by positive news for a change. Phases 1 and 2 of the refurbishment of the museum are under way. Taking advantage of the winter months with their lower visitor numbers some of the work on the park is about to start. The main field drainage will be the biggest most obvious work to be undertaken and should be completed around Christmas. Then comes the big challenge of protecting the newly sown grass while it gets established. Harriss fencing is too expensive to erect all round the field for three or four months and would detract from the visual amenity of the park too much, especially now that the Hall is such a popular venue for weddings so a combination of other methods will have to be used including extra surveillance and asking the community to help protect their future enjoyment by not using the field until it's declared to be up to standard.
Over the same few months there will be work done to make a new path to the river bank, less steep than the present one though still a formidable slope for wheelchair users, given the contours of the land.
The Museum will be closed on Mondays for the foreseeable future to allow the staff to move items, clean and do the myriad tasks behind the scenes which are needed in preparation for the major refurbishment work during 2011.
There's a real sense of anticipation and excitement as people begin to see the fruits of years of planning and working to obtain funding for projects and even though there's going to be major disruption at times and we didn't get the funding for the big schemes in the park there will still be a very visible improvement to our local tourist attraction.