23 - New drop-in information centre for the £50million Black Country Urban Park bid

Archived news release from 2007

People can now find out more about the dynamic £50million Black Country Urban Park project with a new information centre set up in Dudley.

A dedicated room has been set up at Dudley Museum and Art Gallery detailing the plans for The People’s £50 million Contest.

It includes a video of the project, posters, maps and designs of the proposals, fossils on display and leaflets and other literature for people to take away.

There is also a table and chairs and refreshments to allow people to spend an afternoon looking at the proposals.

Councillor Charles Fraser-Macnamara, cabinet member for leisure and culture, said:

“This new exhibition allows people to drop in and find out more about the exciting plans we have for the Black Country Urban Park.

“We want to make sure everyone is involved in the project, so why not come down to the Dudley Museum and Art Gallery and find out more. And don’t forget from Monday you can start to vote on line. Visit www.thepeoples50million.org.uk to register so you can vote for Black Country Urban Park to win The People’s £50 million Contest.”

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; widespread regeneration of Wolverhampton’s canal network and improved access to green places, all achieved with an unparalleled programme of community involvement.

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.

Notes to editors

Some basic information about the voting and TV programmes:

Online voting starts 26 November.

People to register now on http://www.thepeoples50million.org.uk

Television programmes expected 3-7 December

Black Country Urban Park expected to feature 6 December (Thursday) at 11pm

Dec 7 - Telephone numbers announced – voting begins at 9am

The key projects are as follows:

‘Strata’: Major visitor and education attractions at Wren’s Nest National Nature Reserve, Dudley, including stabilising and refurbishing the Seven Sisters limestone mines and subterranean canal basin. Visitors will travel underground by boat and rise to the surface by an inclined lift. A new interpretation centre will explain how 400 million years of geology led to the Black Country becoming the ‘workshop of the world’.

‘Canals and Waterways’: This will create new moorings, education and interpretation facilities along City Canals in Wolverhampton; improvements to open space and wildlife habitats, and making the canals safe and accessible to communities.

‘Green Bridge Park’: One of the largest urban open spaces in the region between West Bromwich and Walsall, including a new low carbon footprint visitor centre at Barr Beacon and expansion of the existing RSPB visitor centre in Sandwell Valley; also an inspiring new pedestrian bridge across the A41.

‘Living Landscape’: Enhanced and increased access to natural areas around the canal network; involvement of over three-quarters of the one million population.

The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.

The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888 Out of hours: 07867 500 572

Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030 Textphone: 08456 021 659

Full details of Big Lottery Fund projects and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

News Release Contact Information

Name:	Chris Howes
Telephone:	01384 817 403
Email:	chris.howes@dudley.gov.uk

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