Bromsgrove resident slams 'shocking' state of Sanders Park in 24-page dossier to the district council - The Bromsgrove Standard

Bromsgrove resident slams 'shocking' state of Sanders Park in 24-page dossier to the district council

Bromsgrove Editorial 18th Jan, 2018 Updated: 19th Jan, 2018   0

A BROMSGROVE resident has sent a 24-page dossier to the district council slamming what she calls the ‘shocking state’ of Sanders Park.

The detailed report and photographs, entitled ‘Bromsgrove District Council – A Sorry Story, Wychavon District Council 10/10’ was compiled by Elizabeth Cooke.

The document compares pictures of what she calls an ‘unloved’ Bromsgrove park with green spaces in Droitwich run by Wychavon District Council.

In the booklet she highlights several areas covered ‘inches-deep in mud’, a ‘ghastly’ broken bench and the Holocaust Memorial which she said was ‘full of weeds’, labelling the situation ‘disrespectful’ and ‘distressing’.




Ms Cooke, who has lived in Bromsgrove for 16 years, said: “I love Bromsgrove but I am mortified to see how the park has deteriorated and is now looking very, very sad and unloved, messy and uncared for.

“Of course, we are all aware of ‘funding cutbacks’ but smaller authorities such as Stourport, Bewdley, Kinver, Studley, Droitwich and many more manage to squeeze a few flowers for the park.


“It is hard to understand why a wealthy council cannot make more of an effort to make Bromsgrove more welcoming and attractive to visitors and the people who use it on a daily basis.”

Ray Cooke, Bromsgrove District Council’s leisure services manager, said officers had a good discussion with the Ms Cooke and agreed on some good points and where work was already pending such as the set up a new dedicated council parks maintenance team.

He added: “We respect some people want a more formal manicured approach in more areas, but Sanders Park is a large park with diverse user groups ranging from dog walkers to fitness groups to skateboarders, and we try to include something for everybody across its 16 hectares.

“We always want to improve, but reviews are overwhelmingly positive and in the same period these photos were taken 89 per cent of visitors surveyed rated the park as very good or good.

“As I say we fully agree with some of the feedback but in real terms the photos were taken right before all the post-season work started to take place.

“The vast brook improvement programme started soon afterwards, for example, and works like resurfacing car parks were already planned in – the Lickey End car park pictured in the dossier is actually scheduled for this week.”

We went down to Sanders Park to speak to residents and visitors about what they thought of the park – click here to see what they had to say.

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