National Lottery support will breathe new life into Victoria Park
Portsmouth City Council is delighted to announce that it's been awarded initial support* from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the 'Reviving Victoria Park - the people's park in Portsmouth' project.
Development funding of £251,000 has been awarded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help the city council progress their plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant of £2,050,800 in around 18 months' time.
Victoria Park - Portsmouth’s first public park - is home to monuments commemorating significant international naval events and an oasis of green space in the city centre attracting half a million visitors a year.
This project to revive Victoria Park will restore, improve, uncover and celebrate the park’s long heritage, and create a more inclusive space, so more people can use the park and benefit from the space.
Park users will benefit from the restoration of the historic design, improvements to facilities including toilets, paths and seating areas. There will also be a new educational programme and classroom space to deliver learning opportunities for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and a wider health and wellbeing programme for schools. There will also be facilities to support volunteering opportunities and community heritage days, an illuminated fete, ecology days and volunteer research projects.
The £251k development funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund will be supplemented by £75k match funding from Portsmouth City Council. The city council will be putting forward an application for a total delivery grant of £2.43M, with £2.05M from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Cllr Steve Pitt Cabinet Member for Culture and Regeneration at Portsmouth City Council said: "Victoria Park is a much loved and used feature in the heart of the city. It's a space where families, residents, students and workers alike relax and take time out. The health and wellbeing benefits of green spaces in urban environments are well known and this funding will allow us to preserve and promote Victoria Park so that future generations can continue to appreciate and enjoy it. This project will link brilliantly with the fantastic improvements which are continuing to the spaces around the War Memorial and the Council's aspirations for the wider regeneration of the city centre, via our joint venture with DeLancey and our bid for Future High Streets funding."
