Work is about to start on improving a popular Brighton park.
William Clarke Park is in the Elm Grove area.
A £53,000 upgrade to its facilities is being funded by contributions the council secures from developers as part of planning applications.
Improvements will take about a month to complete and include new play equipment, surfacing, pathways, fencing and better drainage.
Work is being co-ordinated with the Friends of William Clarke Park, which has its own programme of works scheduled over the next two months, expected to be completed by Patchfest spring festival on 22nd and 23rd April.
Chair of the environment committee Cllr Gill Mitchell said: “It’s a pleasure to be able to improve a park at a time when budgets are so tight. Getting funding from external sources and the work of these fantastic friends groups will become increasingly important in future.”
Because of cuts in central government funding to councils, the parks department must lose £600,000 of its budget, or 15 per cent, up to 2020.
William Clarke Park is named after a former councillor and railway worker who was mayor of Brighton in 1975. The elongated park is formed from a railway cutting. It led to a 900-metre tunnel under Elm Grove, serving the Kemp Town branch line, emerging at the bottom of Freshfield Road. The line closed in 1971.
You can see what the park is like in this short video on the council YouTube channel