An Alyth community project has secured enough funding to start work on a major upgrade of the town’s main public open space.
The Jubilee Park Working Group has spent the past year developing plans for a new all-weather path around the Diamond Jubilee Park, and now has enough finance and in-kind support to enable building work to start early in the new year.
The group is planning a path designed for multi-purpose use by walkers, runners, wheelchair-users, cyclists and people with buggies and prams. At present, there are no paths in the park.
Funding secured
The project will cost just under £60,000, funded by a grant of £33,600 from SSEN Transmission, £9,500 from the Drumderg Windfarm Community Fund, £5,750 from Glenisla Developments, and just under £10,000 from Alyth Development Trust.
The working group is commissioning a local construction firm to build the 1km asphalt path around the park, and work is expected to take around three weeks.
The start of work will mark the culmination of a year of consultation, discussion and planning for the group. Almost 200 people responded to a consultation during the spring and summer, which resulted in backing for a new path and possibly other improvements in the future.
Lots of people also called for more play facilities for children, more seating, toilets and dog-waste bins.
‘A connecting hub for footpaths’
The working group was then able to secure approval for the plan from Perth and Kinross Council, which manages the park.
Local businessman Steven Boath, chair of the working group, said: “As well as creating a safe and user-friendly path around Jubilee Park for wheelchair users and those with buggies or prams, we will also be creating a connecting hub for footpaths leading out through the rest of the town.
“In particular, this will be an important part of the links between the the centre of Alyth and the new developments at Pitcrocknie Village.”
