We got a piece of very good news yesterday afternoon: officers at Reading Borough Council have sorted out funding for the regeneration of King George V Memorial (Eldon Square) Gardens, a historic park in Redlands.£61,000 has been identified from Section 106 contributions (money paid by developers as part of new housing developments) to upgrade the Gardens.
These Gardens are rare and beautiful - one of the few listed Gardens in the UK and the only Georgian square gardens in Reading. Their dilapidated state was one of the main reasons I got involved in local campaigning two years ago, so they are very close to my heart.
A bit of history...
After months of lobbying and thanks to a very enthusiastic Parks Officer who shared my vision, the Council bowed to pressure and agreed to restore the Gardens. Public consultation was duly carried out and a record 89 residents expressed their views - a real sign that local people were interested and keen for the Gardens to be restored . A clear majority of respondents who took part pledged their support for the most radical option - a re-creation of the original circular walk, with round beds in corners.
The consultation also threw up a number of concerns about anti-social behaviour, poor lighting and vandalism which Kirsten and I will certainly be looking to address in the coming months.
Undoubtedly one of the reasons the Gardens had got so run down was the fact that park keepers are no longer a feature of modern life, and parks are under-funded with some parks getting the VIP treatment and others not.
I was keen at the outset to start a Friends of Eldon Square Gardens group to give local people, and people who love the Gardens a voice in how the Gardens were restored and maintained.My hope is that the Friends of Eldon Square will campaign to stop any further detiroration of the Gardens and allow them to survive another couple of hundred years for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.
In this sprit I wrote to the Marquess of Reading, great grandson of Rufus Isaacs , last Liberal MP for Reading and who's statue dominates the Gardens. I had done a bit of research and was pleased to discover he was alive and well and living in Cirencester.
I asked him if he would be Patron of the group - and he was delighted to accept and pleased to hear that I was continuing the Liberal tradition in Reading!
The regeneration proper is likely to begin in the New Year (care has to be taken to avoid construction during the bird-nesting season) and I will post more about it here as the process unfolds.
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