Fingers crossed for £2m Margam Park revamp
HISTORY could be brought back to life at Margam Park where the future of a £2 million upgrade now rests with the National Lottery.
Council chiefs have their fingers crossed that their bid for a share of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Parks For People initiative is successful.
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Margam Park
They have put in for £1.6 million, and have already secured £218,000 in match- funding from the European Regional Development Fund.
Now, because of a tight deadline, the council is looking to spend £46,000 of its own money preparing vital documents even though there is no guarantee the Lottery cash will be approved.
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Sport, culture and active living co-ordinator Neil Thomas said: “The council is realistic that it needs to maximise any funding opportunities that could arise and has produced a master plan to facilitate this.
“Part of the master plan is to restore and improve the conservation of the formal pleasure gardens, the focal point of the park.
“The pleasure gardens comprise the area surrounding the Orangery and castle and contain the majority of the historic structures and buildings of the country park.”
Under the heritage proposals, improvements would be carried out to the Broadwalk, Castle and Orangery terraces, the Temple of Four Seasons, the Ivy Cottage, the Japanese Garden, the ha-ha and water features.
As well as paying for the physical work, part of the application includes cash for management and staffing, training and audience and volunteer programme developments.
The Heritage Lottery Fund approved the first stage of the application last December, awarding Neath Port Talbot £37,500 to progress to the second and final stage.
Its application went in last month and a decision is due in December. But the match- funding from the European Regional Development Fund has to be spent by December next year, a comparatively tight timescale.
At a meeting on Thursday, councillors will be asked to allow the authority to spend £46,400 of its own funds preparing tender documents on the assumption the Lottery bid is successful.
Mr Thomas said: “This approach will enable the overall project to the delivered within the funding deadlines.”
Neath Port Talbot has already spent £900,000 on restoring the park’s Citrus House, a grade two Victorian building that fell into disrepair and closed to visitors a few years back.
Friends of Margam Park chairman Nigel Fitzhugh has previously stated: “The improvements are long overdue but my understanding is cash has always been the problem.”
Comments
by Hadoken4543
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 6:28PM
“I always felt this venue was wasted, everyone time I go there its pretty much empty and I must admit that is the appeal of the place for me.
But I think they could do something nice with it, maybe make it into a penscynor type place, I loved that place as a kid, it was a scandal it was closed.”
by HaroldMonk
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 6:04PM
“As the headlines says - fingers crossed.”
by Neathboy234
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 4:00PM
“I would like to see a few more animals there, and perhaps a large part dedicated to wind flowers. What about a few more ponds and lakes as well”
by saddned
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 1:32PM
“They need to take a leaf out of Longleats book, 1000's of visitors per day visit the house and grounds alone and not the safari park. Port Talbot needs a real economy boost and building such as attraction will bring jobs and investment to the area. Like NPTCisajoke says it is less than a mile from the motorway and is close to Neath, Port Talbot and Bridgend. If both councils could come up with some meaningful plan I am sure it could really take off.”
by Stork
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 11:45AM
“Margam Park has great potential, but, what exactly do the Council propose to do if they win the Lottery funding.
Will it just be a repair job ? i.e. weatherproofing, a bit of painting and a bit of gardening, and that's it, with no plans to attract more paying customers. Do the Council have a plan whereby improvements to the Park will draw customers from far and wide, again and again. Have the Council attempted to negotiate with any private sector businesspeople about introducing attractions ?
Or is the Lottery bid just to stop the building from falling down, and no more ?”
by antyall
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 11:25AM
“Even though I dont like the idea of theme parks I feel that NPCTisajoke has a valid point.However It is not a large area and not a lot of rides could be put there without destroying the aesthetics of the park as well as keeping the natural flora and fauna from to much infringement,you would need to have the neighbouring farmers and land owners agreement as well.”
by NPTCisajoke
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 9:11AM
“Previous comment failed to post, therefore:
N&PTC need to show some Wisdom here, and that will not be through their current application. Margam Park is hardly visited, and is loosing events year on year, due to the wildly un-cooperative council.
Now is the time to re-market Margam Park, and bring about a South Wales version of Alton Towers, with it's ideal location next to the M4, and the lack of competition in the area (Oakwood is not really a competitor, and the other closest sites are in the Midlands) it would be a prime location to bring lovely fee paying tourists into the area, which they could then use their money to redevelop neath and port talbot.
Further to this, due to close proximity of the Bridgend border, if they were really scared of spending the initial money, they could probably go for a cross-border link with Bridgend, as I am sure a development of such a nature would benefit the Pyle/Cornelly/Kenfig areas as well.”