A fresh look at the area’s open spaces and parks has resulted in a new draft strategy which will guide investment and development over the next five years.
The new single, strategic plan sets out a vision for the future of parks and open spaces across the Falkirk Council area.
Members at yesterday’s Executive meeting agreed to carry out a public consultation on the draft plan and report back findings to a future meeting.
The new plan has four key themes:
- Modernising park and open spaces
- Addressing inequality and fostering community through open space investment
- Working and investing more efficiently
- Generating and capital and revenue for investment in parks and open space.
Councillor Adrian Mahoney, spokesperson for Culture, Leisure and Tourism said: “The draft plan sets out assessments of sites across the council area and ideas for future development work. In recent years we’ve seen new ‘Friends’ of groups set up to support some of our parks. Hopefully that trend will continue and we can attract more community involvement.
“We’ve also been very successful in attracting good levels of grant funding to support parks and open spaces, most notably with the £25 million Big Lottery Grant which made the Helix possible.
“However, we also know that the next few years will be tough for the council. With this in mind, the draft strategy explores commercial options to bring more money into our parks – at the same time safeguarding free use by the community. There may also be areas which we’d declare surplus to requirements.
“Of course, this is just a draft plan and we’re keen to get feedback from the community. A twelve week consultation will get underway to allow people to have their say on elements of the plan. It’s a lengthy document, but I hope people will consider its contents and tell us what they think.
“Comments will then be considered by the Council’s executive at a later date.”
The previous five year strategy was instrumental in delivering an investment of £55 million pounds across the area and includes:
- The Helix
- Improving the quality of the seven core parks
- A number of improvements to play parks
- Installing Multi Use Games areas at several locations.
The new strategy covers all open space, not just Council owned space. Other open space landowners including Scottish Canals, Forestry Commission Scotland, NHS Forth Valley and Callendar Estates will also be able to contribute to the finalised plan.
A twelve week consultation on the new Open Space Strategic Plan will be officially launched in November. For more information about the consultation email: planenv@falkirk.gov.uk or telephone 01324 504927.