Good News (update)

Over the past 6 years the Friends of the Freshney have helped to transform the Duke of York Gardens and River Freshney. The park was blighted by vandalism and anti social behaviour and was rapidly becoming an eyesore rather than an asset. It wasn’t so long ago when the River Freshney was full of rubbish, items such as sofa’s, carpets, bike’s, wheelie bins and the old favourite shopping trolleys were a regular feature of the river.

I am pleased to say that these occurrences are few and far between and although we still see elements of anti social behaviour and random acts of mindlessness the problems we faced are nothing compared to a few years ago. Attacks on the wildlife was also fairly common, the main problem now is illegal fishing out of season (from 15^th March to 16^th June) and foul hooking fish, but through education and policing we hope to stamp this problem out.

North East Lincolnshire Council are to be commended on the investment of time, people and money that has helped turn the park around which has made it a safer, cleaner environment for everyone to enjoy. The amount of improvement activities that has taken place over the last few years has ensured that the park has a much brighter future as an important asset to the community.

In the last 12 months we have seen new play equipment, a teen shelter, introduction of a seasonal park keeper, new tarmac, better security, improved layout, painting, new park benches, and more litter and dog waste bins. All of these have helped to regain community pride.

The Friends of the Freshney’s ambition was to see the park being used as place of recreation and relaxation for people of all ages and we are well on the way to achieving this. On Easter Monday the park and river was the venue for the “Bottoms Up Duck Race” which was well attended and helped raise money for local bowel cancer sufferers.