Latest News

27-Mar-2008: Latest News on the Middleton Park Lottery Bid...
11-Jan-2008: Hilary Benn agrees to be patron of Friends of Middleton Park
11-Jan-2008: Archaeology Project Display in Middleton Library, St. George's Centre
09-Jan-2008: First Meeting with Bureau Veritas
08-Dec-2007: Consultants Appointed for Lottery Bid
05-Oct-2007: New Funding for the Park

27-Mar-2008: Latest News on the Middleton Park Lottery Bid...

The consultants, Bureau Veritas, have proposed the following improvements to the park to be included in the Lottery Bid:

Improving the Main entrance with new gates and railings,
Work to upgrade the historic entrance off Town Street,
New signs and park furniture,
Improving the main access road,
Works to the lake and hall pond,
Doubling the size of the lakeside centre to form cafe/meeting area,
Works to the woodland which will include trails to show the mining heritage and a replica Horse Gin, of a type used in accessing the old workings,
The Rose garden will be redesigned and the site of Middleton Lodge outlined as part of the landscaping,
Work will also be done to various boundaries and entrances to improve them, such as the railway halt and Middleton Grove entrance by the John Charles centre.

This work has been costed out at £1.625 million, and Leeds City Council Executive Board and the Trustees of Wade's Charity have approved the financing of such a bid. This is to be submitted by March 31st.

11-Jan-2008: Hilary Benn agrees to be patron of Friends of Middleton Park

Hilary Benn M.P., Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, has agreed to become the first patron of Friends of Middleton Park. The steering group felt that having a well known patron would help raise the profile of FoMP and the park. We hope to have an inauguration event sometime in the near future.

11-Jan-2008: Archaeology Project Display in Middleton Library, St. George's Centre

A summary of the first year's work on the Archaeological Survey in Middleton Park, is now on display in Middleton library, St. George's Centre. The display will be in the library until Tuesday 29th January. After that the display will be in Belle Isle library.

A second version of the display will be placed into Hunslet library on the 15/16th January.

09-Jan-2008: First Meeting with Bureau Veritas

The first meeting with Bureau Veritas' consultants was held before Christmas. This was a meeting to set the ball rolling for the Lottery application.

The first stage is essentially an information gathering exercise. Andrew Middlemiss of Leeds City Council is to act as Project Director and will be virtually working full time on the project. Peter Veitch of Bureau Veritas will be the lead consultant. A Project Board of Andrew Middlemiss and Steve Bumby of LCC and Peter Marshall and Nick Rose of Wade's Charity has been set up.

With a very tight deadline for this application [March 31st] it is hoped to hold a public consultation on initial findings/proposals during the first week in February.

08-Dec-2007: Consultants Appointed for Lottery Bid

Bureau Veritas who have been involved in Leeds City Council's lottery funded work at Roundhay Park and Kirkstall Abbey have been appointed to lead the project team that will carry out the project planning for Middleton Park.

The team includes the Meerstone Archaeology Consultancy which is leading FOMP's Heritage Lottery funded archaeology survey of the park. With a very tight timescale to achieve the 31st March deadline to submit the bid, there will be early consultation and liaison with the Friends of Middleton Park and other groups.

Key documents to be produced include:-

Large Scale Masterplan
Conservation Management Plan
Sketch Designs
Schedules of Works and Costs
Outline 10 year Management and Main
Audience and Access Planstenance Plan

Further news of any community consultation/exhibition will be posted on this site.

05-Oct-2007: New Funding for the Park

Middleton Park was bought by Wade's Charity in 1920 and leased to Leeds City Council for 999 years at a rental of £1p.a. Wade's Charity, originally founded in 1530 and still in existence, is starting to take a more pro active role in the properties it owns and, following discussions, Wade's trustees and the Council have agreed to submit a bid for £1 million grant to the Heritage Lottery Fund to improve/restore Middleton Park.

The Lottery organisation requires a great deal of information and does not just say 'good idea' and hand over the money; it recognises that the amount of detail it requires is considerable and can be costly to assemble. To enable applications to be made it therefore gives Project Planning Grants. Wade's Charity has applied for and been given a Project Planning Grant of £45,000, this has been made up to £66,000 by contributions of £2,500 from SGM Trust and the rest from Wade's Charity itself and The Sir George Martin Trust. This money is to be used to employ consultants to carry forward the main lottery bid as neither the City Council or Wade's have the in house expertise to do this.

The selection of the consultants is just about to start. The lotteries stage one decisions are made in competitive batches twice a year with closing dates of 31st March and 30th September. It is hoped to submit the bid for Middleton Park by 31st March 2008 as it is thought that as time goes on The London Olympics of 2012 will make increasing demands on Lottery Funds.