Campaign to halt winter closure of Telford Town Park visitor centre
Volunteers who work at Telford's award-winning town park have launched a campaign to prevent its visitor centre being closed during winter months.
As part of cut-backs planned by cash-strapped Telford & Wrekin Council, the centre in Telford Town Park could be closed from November to February.
But the Friends of the park have fought back, unanimously voting against the proposals at their own meeting.
Telford Town Park was named the Best in the UK by the Fields in Trust scheme.
Chris Pettman, chairman of the Friends of Telford Town Park, said: "We cannot allow this to happen after all the hard work by employees and volunteers alike who strived to make Telford Town Park the best in the UK.
"We sincerely hope that to save a relatively small amount of money, this proposal will be left out of the final budget approval."
The proposed closure would save the council £8,000 per year as it attempts to cut a further £30 million from its budget over the next three years. The park itself will remain open, as will the visitor centre toilets.
The centre is currently open daily between 10am and 3pm during the winter months, though the council says this is its less busy period. The closure could happen in November this year.
In a letter written to the council, members of the Friends have said the visitor centre should not be closed for four months of the year because there would be no monitoring of CCTV or the toilets if they were to remain open. Also, the weekly park run and December's annual Santa run will still be held through the winter period.
They also argue there would be a loss of income from the vending machines, room hire in the centre and the souvenir shop.
They also believe that having no access to park information for casual visitors will result in a drop in the footfall of visitors to Telford. The Telford Town Park Arena is protected by Fields In Trust as a Queen Elizabeth II Field.
