Major Boost for Vine Road Project

Mayor provides funding for scheme to rejuvenate local park

Visualisation of how the Vine Road Park might look
Visualisation of how the Vine Road Park might look

An initiative aiming to rejuvenate a local park and create a community hub has received a massive boost with a grant of £13,000.

The funding pledged for the Vine Road Project comes from the Mayor of London’s Resilience fund and the addition of this amount to the local community’s previous pledges has taken the total pledged to more than 90% of the immediate campaign target.

The application was made by the Friends of Barnes Common (FoBC) and the funding was won due to the active community engagement shown in working to improve the park which is between Barnes Railway station and Beverley Brook.

Before the Mayor’s pledge, 107 people had committed to donate 37% of the group’s target (almost £9,000) and this amount has been growing daily. A condition of funding from the Mayor was that it had to be shown that the local community was also willing to put its hand in its pocket to back the project.

Back in 2019, FoBC received funding from Richmond Council to appoint a design team and create a draft Master Plan for the park. During a soft consultation, the plans were well received and the local community showed enthusiasm for what was being considered.

After an unavoidable loss of momentum due to the pandemic it is hoped to get the local community involved again by hosting a public consultation later this summer when Covid allows, testing some of the proposed elements and making some small improvements to the park

The project is also looking for support from the community in sharing skills, volunteering and helping it test some elements of the plan this summer.

Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, Jules Pipe, said, “The Mayor and I believe our communities have some fantastic ideas on how to emerge from the pandemic and bring our city together. We’re proud to support this project and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on the local community.”

FoBC Chairman Mike Hildesley said “The Community support is fantastic, and we are thrilled to have this support and endorsement of our Project from the Mayor. I am sure the Community will now go on to top our target well ahead of the 11th of May deadline. This campaign has been all about community engagement with the larger Project, and its success is a huge boost towards development of the Master Plan as well as making some more immediate improvements. The campaign remains open and the more we raise now the more design work and improvements we will be able to get done.”

“Pledging is easy”, added FoBC Development Officer Jackie Marie “You can register here: Vine Rd Project, Engaging the Community (spacehive.com) and then press the ‘back this project’ button, which gives the option of making a pledge via Go Cardless or Paypal. We’d also love to get more comments and feedback.”

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March 19, 2021