Park development rises to the occasion

The new cafeteria at Queens Park has reached a milestone – with the impressive timber structure soaring into place.

A specialist company has been involved in installing the timbers due to their size, weight and complex fixing arrangement. The design will enable users to view the internal timbers when inside the new building.

The wall materials, on both the café and games pavilion, have been carefully chosen to match, where possible, the sandstone on the two lodges located at the Crewe park’s main entrance. The dark-red St Bees sandstone is the same as that which forms the sea cliffs of St Bees Head, near Whitehaven, in Cumbria.

Councillor Andrew Knowles, Cabinet member with responsibility for health and wellbeing, said: “The pace this building is going up is satisfying to see. But the really great thing is that you can now visualise what it will finally look like once completed and see the scale of the new facility.”

Work on the project began in July. It is hoped the construction will be completed by February.

Crewe West ward member Councillor Robert Parker said: “I am delighted with the building work on the new cafeteria. The attention to detail is particularly inspiring and I feel, once the whole restoration project is finally complete, Queens Park will be a major tourist attraction in the North West and a magnet for visitors to Crewe.”

Queens Park was renowned as one of the finest parks in the North West. It is undergoing a £6.5m transformation to bring it back to its former glory. The Heritage Lottery Fund is providing a £2.7m support grant with the rest of the investment coming from Cheshire East Council.

Within the park’s 45 acres are walkways, trees, shrubs, planting, children’s play area, crown green bowling, putting, boating lake (currently drained for construction works), grassed areas, memorials and cafeteria.

For more information on the Queens Park restoration project visit the Queens Park web pages at: www.cheshireeast.gov.uk – then click on ‘leisure, culture and tourism’ and follow links to the park pages.

If you don’t have online access, you can request a paper copy from Queens Park manager Elaine Dodd, on 01270 537896.

The Bowls pavilion is also making progress with wooden beam going in just like the cafe so they are getting on with it well.

One of the few trees left showing its Autumn colour is near the main entrance and work on the lodges should be starting soon.

One thing happening this week that people wont notice is the amount of wildlife in the park with lots of squirrels about and lots of birds over by the main entrance in the bushes after the berries etc  all getting ready for winter.

The lake still has some nice colours left to show you with a nice dreamy scene its so much better now you can get to the lake its self