Grateful for lottery cash which will restore our historic parks

4:37pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

WE are very pleased the Lottery has decided to fund the restoration of Lloyd and Aveling Parks.

Gratitude is owed to Nick Burton, head of Greenspace, and Cllr Geraldine Reardon, who with their colleagues and local community, have put in a massive amount of time and effort to convince the Lottery to invest in Waltham Forest.

The Lottery has very clear views about how historic parks should be restored and one of their major criticisms of Lloyd Park was that there were too many buildings in the park.

Despite Wendy and Jim Wright's plea to keep the theatre (Guardian, May 8) , this is not possible as there is no finance to restore it.

Even more importantly it is far from ideal as a theatre with no raked seating, poor acoustics and limited backstage facilities.

In its place will be an open space to use for a whole range of events such as an ice rink in winter, craft fairs, picnic area, drama, music and so on.

The use of the space is limited only by people's imagination and there is virtually no maintenance cost. Each event will be self- financing.

So the Lottery has done us a favour by ensuring this out-of-date building is replaced with something far more useful.

To find out more about the changes proposed for the park, come along to the Friends of Lloyd Park Family Fun Day on Sunday from noon to 4pm in Aveling Park or visit www.friendsoflloydpark.org.uk, Adrian Stannard, Chair of FOLP.

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