Park to become Paradise!

Lib Dem Islington council are today set to announce radical plans to re-vamp the under-used Paradise Park in Holloway. The proposals for transforming the park include using a former building as a new shared facility for a community cafe, a Neighbourhood nursery, SureStart facility and a Greenspace Ranger base. This building will also be designed to be sensitively transparent to the park by having green 'living' walls and roof areas which will also promote habitats for wildlife.

Bridget Fox: Freightliners Farm is part of exciting new plans for Paradise Park

The Freightliner's farm will be expanded to provide extra facilities for the local community and planned partnership projects between SureStart and the farm are also being piloted. The Martin Luther King Adventure Playground will also be expanded to provide additional space for activities for 11-16 year olds along with extra trees and greening. There will also be a series of new routes across the Park, new gates to open up the park and prevent 'joyriding' and additional sporting and recreational facilities.

The Lib Dems hope that their plans will reactivate the park, helping tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour in and around the park and assist in regenerating the area. The Lib Dems are set to discuss these plans at a West Area Committee meeting tonight. The plans were drawn up in conjunction with local residents, local schools St Mary Magdalene and Sacred Heart, Arsenal, the council's Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, the Martin Luther Adventure Playground, Freightliners City Farm, and many others. There have also been several community open days and consultation with the 1000 homes adjacent to the park.

Local Lib Dem councillor for Holloway Margot Dunn said: "This is really great news for the people of Holloway. These are exciting plans which will make the park safer and more pleasant to use. They'll be more for young people to do and lots of other benefits for the local community. We want this park to become a treasured and much valued resource for the community. We hope this will really bring the park back to life!"

Lib Dem Cllr Bridget Fox, Executive member for Sustainability adds: "The Lib Dems want Islington to have the best parks we can. We're making our parks places for the whole community whilst protecting Islington's valuable greenspace. Improvements like these will help to make our parks cleaner, safer and smarter. With the help of our new Greenspace rangers we're ensuring a real future for our parks and even the building will be environmentally friendly!"

Below are further details on the proposals:

The Neighbourhood Nursery / Children's Centre This is designed to engage the community and deliver services focused on the well being of children. It will be a building for use by children and welcoming to the general public and their families. It will include:

Neighbourhood Nursery A Paradise Park Neighbourhood Nursery will provide full day-care for children from birth to school age. The nursery will ensure that the childcare offered is both accessible and affordable. It will offer learning and training opportunities for parents, community based health services, family learning and support, and advice and information.

Outdoor play area 'play garden'. Outside play space will be directly accessible from the nursery. The centre will have a play garden that is an out-door nursery play area Monday to Friday and a playground (supervised by play workers) open to parents and children under 5 at weekends. Imaginative play facilities will be designed as an intermediate but secure step towards other elements of the park.

Surestart Centre Two Surestart interview/clinic rooms and the shared use of the training room will facilitate the delivery of Surestart services to the Hillmarton area. A Surestart CrËche Room will be available and this room will also be used for a variety of other activities such as drop-ins where the parents stay with their children to play. The Children's resource centre There will also be space for child based voluntary sector organisations dedicated to the support and well being of children and their carers and the Paradise Park Community Trust constituent organisations.

The community cafe will be a fully public facility within the building. The community kitchen is at the heart of the building and will serve both the neighbourhood nursery and the public in the community cafe area. They will be expected to provide healthy food, a healthy eating and healthy food preparation programme to local people. It is the intention that the Freightliners Farm will form a partnership with the cafe, providing produce and expertise.