Concern about the state of a York park have led some residents to take action.
They say that Hull Road Park has fallen behind other green spaces in the city, and it is time to rectify that.
York resident, Andrew Mortimer, is leading the charge.
Andrew has begun the process of launching the Friends of Hull Road Park. “There’s about a dozen people who’ve got together on the back of a residential concern about some of the things that are going on in the park, particularly with the park beck,” he told YorkMix.
“Although we’re not focusing on that, it’s triggered an interest in the park that hopefully we’re going to build on.”
Hull Road Park’s beck has, over the years, lacked maintenance and lost its charm. A petition to ‘Restore Hull Road Park’s Beck to Its Former Glory’ was started by David Alexander in April this year.
The page reads: “The beck in Hull Road Park used to be teeming with life. The weirs retained water which attracted ducks and other wildlife, creating an ecosystem that many generations enjoyed for many years.
“Now there is hardly any water left and no ducks to feed.”
The petition currently has nearly 682 supporters.
Andrew, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Hull Road ward, revealed that until this petition, there weren’t enough people looking to get involved in the conservation of the area.
“We’ve been looking to try and establish a friends group for a couple of years now, but until the recent kind of controversies and interest in what’s going on in the park came up, there hasn’t been enough interest,” he said.
Along with the rest of the friends, Andrew is hoping to launch the group before Christmas.
He’s looking to work alongside City of York Council to set up fundraising, volunteering and hopefully attract more people to get involved.
Andrew also hopes to gain a green flag accreditation for Hull Road Park, an international benchmark standard for parks and green spaces.
He noted that other parks and main public spaces in York have this, and he’s up for the challenge.
“The council have been trying for an awfully long time to try and get a green flag award but it’s never happened yet.
“So that’s a challenge to us to say that actually we maybe need to do a little bit more here in the park to try and get towards the recognition that it’s one of the best parks in the country.
“At the moment, it falls behind some of the other parks in York.”
The friends group is, as Andrew says, at the very early stages. He does however encourage anyone interested to get involved.
The group will be posting a public media release once it’s up and running, but updates can be found on their Facebook page.