28 - Bully backs the bid

Archived news release from 2007

Wolves football legend Steve Bull today urged people to vote for a Black Country bid to net £50 million from the Big Lottery Fund.

The Molineux hero says he’ll be voting for the Black Country in the ITV contest which could see the area hitting the jackpot – as long as enough people vote.

He urged as many people as possible to vote for the money and not score an own goal by letting one of the three other national projects win.

If successful in the December ITV bid, money will help reopen the vast caverns and underground canals in Dudley to create one of Europe’s largest underground attractions.

The project Black Country Urban Park is one of four across the country short listed for a national television and website vote called The People’s £50 million Contest.

Black Country Urban Park includes four key elements – reopening the cathedral-sized caverns beneath Dudley; a 12-mile ‘green bridge’ park linking Walsall and West Bromwich town centres; breathing new life into Wolverhampton’s canal network; providing improved access to green places, including Cotwall End Valley, Saltwells and Buckpool, Fens Pools and Barrow Hill, in an unparalleled programme of community involvement.

Steve Bull said:

“I’m Black Country born and bred and want to see the area I’m proud to come from win this kind of money. But it won’t happen unless people get out there and vote. It really would be an own-goal if people don’t support this project and let one of the other three areas pick up the prize.”

The partners in the Black Country bid are the Consortium, Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Sandwell Councils and The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country.

If successful in the vote, the £50 million of Lottery funding will support the first five to ten years of up to 30 years of Urban Park activity.

It will involve 300,000 children and 3,000 local groups in transforming their environment, provide 60,000 volunteer opportunities, deliver 500 local projects and open up 3,700 acres of green space – as well as save one of the world’s most important geological features, the limestone caverns at Wren’s Nest.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Online voting started November 26
Register at http://www.thepeoples50million.org.uk

News Release Contact Information

Name:	katherine Finney
Telephone:	01384 815232
Email:	katherine.finney@dudley.gov.uk

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