Friends of the Countess of Chester Country Park celebrate being awarded National Lottery funding

The Friends of the Countess of Chester Country Park have been awarded a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund to help them continue the work they do with the local community on their site.

Over the last two years they have had a focus on trying to widen the appeal of the Country Park to more people by introducing more, and different, events and activities. The grant has already helped them purchase a second hand, refurbished ‘half’ container to store equipment in and now they are able to buy in people to help them run a programme of free activities. Events  will be focussed around The Friendly Bench, another project which they were successful in being chosen to be a part of last year.

Andy Scargill, Chair of the Friends group said: “We have actually known that we had been successful in being chosen for the award for a few weeks now but it still made us feel really chuffed when we received the official email yesterday.”

The Covid 19 pandemic has had a huge effect on people’s health and wellbeing and it is recognised that green open spaces can be helpful in combating this. The Friends team have already worked with groups coming out of lockdown and it is hoped that this funding will help them expand upon that even more.

The Friends’ excellent relationship with the Merseyside branch of The Conservation Volunteers, and especially the Park’s Ranger Neil McMahon, who runs the park on the Land Trust’s behalf, has always been key to making the Country Park such a special place for so many people. This was recognised when the site was made joint winner in the ‘Most Inclusive Site’ category in the recent Land Trust Awards. At this same event the Secretary of the Friends group, Morag Scargill, was made Volunteer of the Year.