WARRINGTON council is seeking public feedback to gauge levels of support for a possible £1m lottery bid to refurbish the old greenhouses at Walton Hall Gardens.
Feedback received during this process will support an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a £1 million grant to carry out the work.
Suggested improvements include the addition of educational facilities and a café.
Please visit www.warrington.gov.uk before Sunday September 27 to take part or find out more.
Earlier this year Coun Ian Marks described the hall as “a jewel in Warrington’s crown” – and has made it clear it is not for sale.
He was responding to rumours in the town that Walton Hall and its grounds were for sale.
He said at the time: “I can confirm that the council has no plans to sell Walton
Hall, the estate or gardens. We recognise the Walton Hall Estate as a
fantastic asset for the people of Warrington and the council. It is a
jewel in our crown.
“However
we also recognise that the Walton Hall Estate needs significant
investment and improvement to meet the expectations for public
facilities in the 21st Century and it does face significant repair and
dereliction issues.
“There has been a lack of investment for 20 years
”
Unfortunately the council is not able to invest the levels of money
into the estate to bring it up to a good state of repair and to create
the improvements we desire.”
3 Comments
Great idea and long overdue. just a pity that the council let it get into this state.
Good idea – use the greenhouses for a really good quality cafe, serving local produce. Mind you, I haven’t been in Walton Gardens for years since I refuse to pay the ridiculous parking fees – surely council tax paying residents should get free or discounted parking???
So sad to see the current state of the old greenhouses as they have not been seen since they were borded up years ago.
It’s a shame that something wasn’t done sooner to retain them as they used to be so beautiful and housed an amazing array of plants, some of which were huge and rather tropical. I guess they are long since dead and all that’s in there now are weeds, ivy and mice. I remember going round there many times as a child being told that the huge ‘triffids’ would eat me if I didn’t behave 🙂 Despite the danger of beaing eaten alive I loved going round there though 🙂
I hope the council are sucessfull in the lottery grant to restore them although I can’t help but think that it would have been more sensible and less expensive in the long run if they had kept on top of the maintenance in the first place 🙁
Good luck anyway 🙂