Moor Park “least affected” by budget cuts

Moor Park may not suffer the effects of council cutbacks as much as other park’s in Preston, according to an environment councillor.

Preston City Council is trying to make savings and recently funding in city parks has been halved from £40,000 to £20,000 this year. Park inspections have been cut from every two days to only once a week.

The council have saved £79,000 in the past year by not replacing five gardeners and a Park Ranger who left their jobs.

Easiest to maintain

But Cllr Anthony Gornall says that Moor Park will not feel the effects of the budget cuts as much as Haslam or Avenham Park.

“Moor Park is possibly one of the most easiest of the parks to maintain.”

“Because it is a wide open space it is easy for us to cut the grass and therefore it is low maintenance. Other parks which require more gardening and maintenance will suffer more.”

Chairman of the Environment Review Panel at Preston Council, Cllr Alan Hackett says that if the council continue on their current budget scheme they will be £1.8 million in debt by 2011.

New Budget

Preston City Council have scheduled a series of meetings over the coming months to discuss a new budget. Last month the council announced that broken light bulbs would not be repaired unless there is “a real health and safety issue.”

Dilapidated and defaced

But despite Moor Park being a low maintenance site, the budget cuts mean that the dilapidated and defaced areas of the park may not be restored anytime soon.

And with less frequent Park inspections crime in the park may increase.

“One of the more visible signs of the cutbacks is the fact we may have less money for full-time Park Rangers,” says Cllr Gornall.

Moor Park currently has no permanent Park Ranger after the previous incumbent has been on an extended period of sick leave. “But we are working hard to develop a volunteer ranger system to help solve the problem,” says Cllr Gornall.