You are in

• >Home
• >Environment and planning
• >Land and premises
• >Parks and open spaces
• >War Memorial Park
• Improvements at War Memorial Park

• Home
• Environment and planning
• Land and premises
• Parks and open spaces

• War Memorial Park

• Friends of War Memorial Park

Improvements at War Memorial Park

Information on the War Memorial Park, BIG and Heritage Lottery Funds, Parks for People Programme, Park Restoration Project.

War Memorial Park Heritage Lottery Fund Project

To keep you up-to-date with progress on this project, a newsletter is being produced (download the latest issue) which will also be available at a variety of venues in the city. These include City Council reception points, the café in the War Memorial Park, local libraries and community organisations.

Project Update

Since the lottery funding was confirmed last year considerable work has been undertaken by council officers and consultants to refine and detail the refurbishment proposals.

Thomas Vale won the contract to carry out the work at the War Memorial Park and work started in August 2010 on the ambitious scheme.

Approximately thirty different projects will be carried out over the 121-acre park ranging from improvements to the quality of entrances and footpaths to creating a new Visitor Centre and restoring the ornamental rockery gardens and pools.

All of the work will be completed over a 10-month period. The project will be completed in phases around the park meaning important events such as the Remembrance Sunday service will be unaffected.

The Friends Group continue to be actively involved with the project going forward, if you would like more information about the Friends or wish to join the Group, please visit our Friends of War Memorial Park page.

Recent visitors to the park may have noticed the improvement works to the machinery store, which has been painted and a "Green Wall" planted. The Green Wall is a living wall of evergreen ivy which has been planted to help the store blend better into the landscape. While the store may have been unsightly in the past, it is an essential structure housing maintenance equipment used in the park. An irrigation pipe has been included in the planting trench to allow easy watering of the hedge.

In addition to the physical improvements, strategies have to be developed to increase the number and range of park users and will be set out in the following documents, as part of the Stage 2 submission.

• development of an interpretation and education strategy
• implementing a volunteering and training strategy
• seeking ways to introduce new audiences to the park.

In particular the project seeks to build much stronger connections between the City’s regeneration strategies; including community engagement and the peace and reconciliation theme.

The park was created from public subscription to be a lasting memorial to all those who gave their life in the First World War and later the Second World War. As we approach the 100-anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, an event that more than any other defined the 20th Century, investment into War Memorial Park seems both timely and appropriate.

Contact details

If you wish to comment on these proposals, please contact us via our e-mail or Freepost address below.

Culture, and Leisure and Libraries Division
Coventry City Council
Freepost CV2301
Coventry City Council CV1 1BR
Telephone: 024 7683 2368,
Minicom: 024 7683 2308
E-mail: ann.akerman@coventry.gov.uk

Downloadable documents