Park lottery bid in
PRINGLE Park’s new £300,000 playground dream is swinging into action.
The Selkirk Play Park Project have this week submitted a planning application to Scottish Borders Council for the installation of new equipment in the Common Good green space.
And today (Friday) the team are set to hand over their detailed application for £250,000 to the Big Lottery Fund.
If lottery bosses agree to providing the six-figure sum in February, with the group having already raised the remaining £50,000, a natural play mecca for Selkirk’s children will become a reality.
Project vice chair Margaret Sweetnam told The Wee Paper: “The planning application to Scottish Borders Council had to be submitted in order for us make the Big Lottery Fund application.
“It is a big moment for us handing over the application to the lottery. We have put in a lot of hard work to get to this stage and we are positive about our application.”
The £50,000 sum so far raised has come from various events staged by the project team, match funding from SBC and a £30,000 grant from the Landfill Communities Fund.
They also received praise from the community council, who on Monday noted the use of the Selkirk Regeneration Group’s Tower Street shop to display the plans to members of the public who were unable to attend last month’s open evening which attracted 110 people.
Mrs Sweetnam added: “Our open evening was a great success, but we felt it would be worthwhile putting the noticeboards up in the shop for people who could not make it. Thankfully, the Selkirk Regeneration Group agreed to the idea.
“I have seen a lot of people looking at the plans through the window.
“We plan to keep the noticeboards in the shop as long as possible and its location in the middle of the town will help to raise the profile of the project.”
Already, Selkirkshire’s three councillors have agreed the Common Good Fund would grant a deed of dedication for the next 10 years to the play park project.
Mrs Sweetnam added: “We have to give huge thanks to Jean Robertson, SBC’s funding officer, and Catherine Andrews, our landscape architect, for helping us to get this far.”
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Weather for Selkirk
Saturday 25 May 2013
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 5 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South west
