5 - Got your number

Archived news release from 2007

Cheerleaders are ‘shouting up’ for the Black Country’s bid to win £50 million of lottery cash as part of a road show taking place on Saturday.

A double-decker party bus, provided by Themed Tours and Excursions, will do a whistle stop tour in support of the Black Country Urban Park bid, which is competing for public votes in The People’s £50 million contest.

Stourton Starlets cheerleaders, based in Dudley, will be calling out the number people can call to vote. Supporters from all across the Black Country are expected to join the tour including the Mayor of Dudley councillor David Stanley.

The journey will begin at Tesco on Burntree Island in Dudley at 10am, it will then move to Sainsbury’s Savercentre in Oldbury at 11.30am. Walsall town centre will host the next leg of the journey at 1pm before it heads to Wolverhampton bus station for activity from 2.30pm.

If successful, the Urban Park project will enrich the lives of more than one million people in the Black Country. It includes four key elements – the restoration of the Seven Sisters Mines and Wren’s Nest National Nature Reserve in Dudley, a 12-mile ‘green bridge’ linking Walsall and West Bromwich town centres, an inspirational visitors’ centre at Barr Beacon and widespread regeneration of Wolverhampton’s canal network.

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

“It’s an immensely exciting time for the Black Country Urban Park project and we’re asking everyone to do their bit by voting for us over the next few days.

“I’m sure the Stourton Starlets will help get the message out there that everyone must vote and it’s great to see that so many people are getting involved and backing our bid.”

The number to call will be realised on Friday morning. You can vote now online at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk. All voting closes on Monday at 12noon.

Note to Editors

Notes to editors

Online voting from 26 November

People to register now on www.thepeoples50million.org.uk

People can also register pledges/messages of support at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk

Television programmes airing on ITV 3-7 December

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

Details of telephone voting will be announced during the television programmes

The key projects making up the Black Country bid are:

‘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 420 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:

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.

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

News Release Contact Information

Name:	Kate Arnold
Telephone:	01384 814778

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