Canal Lock, Wordsley
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26 - Vote now for Urban Park
Archived news release from 2007
Black Country residents are urged to start voting now to help win the region the biggest ever TV payout from the People’s £50 Million Contest.
The Black Country Urban Park bid is one of four across the country short-listed for the national television and website vote.
If successful it will help reopen the vast caverns and underground canals in Dudley to create one of Europe’s largest underground attractions.
It will also create a 12-mile ‘green bridge’ park linking Walsall and West Bromwich town centres, breathe new life into Wolverhampton’s canal network and provide improved access to green places, including Cotwall End Valley, Saltwells and Buckpool, Fens Pools and Barrow Hill, in an unparalleled programme of community involvement.
Voting on-line starts today and people are urged to register their vote now for the spectacular Black Country bid.
Councillor David Caunt, leader of Dudley Council, said:
“It’s time for everyone in the region to stand up for the Black Country and start voting from today.
“Black Country Urban Park is an ambitious scheme. The opening up of Dudley’s Seven Sisters limestone mines and the canal basin, which lies 60 metres underground, will create a major tourist attraction to rival the very best in Europe.
“In addition, work on the canals and waterways will create new moorings, education and interpretation facilities and there will be improved access to green places.
“This will all take place with an unparalleled programme of community involvement. 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.”
“To win this money we need everyone to get behind the Black Country bid and vote for it. You can vote from today on-line.”
To vote, register now at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk.
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.
© 2005 - 2008 Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Council House, Priory Road, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 1HF