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• Three times a winner for former grot spot

• Date:

  22nd March 2004

• Contact:

  Sarah Egerton

• Organisation:

  The Civic Trust

Green Flag Award winner, Stoneleigh Park in the North West, has been transformed from a derelict site to a central focus of the local community.

By the early 1990s, the 23 acre park, situated less than two miles east of Oldham town centre, had suffered from substantial vandalism and the buildings were derelict and neglected.

Its rebirth began with the setting up of the Friends Group in 1996, which relentlessly lobbied the council for improvements to the neglected site. The Friends worked closely with parks management to devise a development plan. This was subsequently used as a consultation document prior to any construction work. Working closely with the Friends Group and Residents Association, the council secured £20,000 funding and the two groups continued raising cash and awareness with numerous events, fun days and activity days and are still highly active in developing the future of Stoneleigh Park.

The park has now been hailed a Green Flag Award winner for three years running and is the location of a number of local activities and regular events. The recent addition of a trim trail joins an existing floodlit multi-games area, teen shelter, formal gardens, sports pitches and an innovative sensory garden, initiated by the Friends.

Judges highly praised the input of the local community in writing the management plan, a key criteria in applying for a Green Flag Award. They commended: ‘a tremendous fighting spirit from the active local community,’ saying: “Local people ‘own’ this park and are to be congratulated, along with management, on their success in such a difficult area.”

Head of parks for Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, Steve Smith, says the community aspect of Stoneleigh Park is like having a second job: “It does take up a lot of time but is a perfect example of how you can turn desperate situations around when you take people on board.”

“The first meeting in the mid 90s was held in the living room of one of the residents after which, it all started to fall into place.”

“A subsequent meeting at the school was to be expected – you go along as parks manager and everybody is saying you’re rubbish but after I had been battered around the head, people started to talk about what could be done - the rest is history. It would have been nothing without the determination of local people. They’ve brought it such a long way. In the beginning, people said it couldn’t be done - there were a lot of challenging issues but they stuck at it and deserve a big pat on the back.”

“It took eight or nine years to get from ground zero to a decent park. It just shows how communities can turn their environment around when they work at it.”

For further information, contact Steve on: 0161 911 4642