A £1MILLION project to improve three Darlington parks has begun.

Volunteers from EE took part in a volunteering day at South Park as part of the launch of Re-thinking Parks.

Seven volunteers planted a Rose Garden and other areas of the park with shrubs ready to bloom in the spring and summer next year.

Re-thinking Parks is a £1million project funded by the Big Lottery, Heritage Lottery and Nesta to help various organisations find new ways of sustaining and making the most the country’s parks.

Darlington was one of only 11 towns selected from 200 applications and the only one in the North East to have won funding for an 18-month pilot project.

It is being managed by Groundwork North East with support from Darlington Borough Council and Darlington Cares and is focused on three Darlington Parks: South Park, North Park and the Denes.

The project hopes to galvanise the skills, expertise and resources of local businesses to inject new skills into the parks to create new opportunities and innovative ways of developing these parks.

Katie Blundell, programme manager for Darlington Cares – a corporate social responsibility partnership of over 20 local employers - said: “We are delighted to be supporting Re-thinking Parks, it means that our members can get involved in outdoor volunteering activities which have a longer term, strategic aim.”

Businesses who would like to find out more about how they can support Re-thinking Parks can get in touch with Ms Blundell on 01642 738970, email: k.blundell@tees.ac.uk or Lisa Locke of Groundwork NE & Cumbria on 01325 353 791 email; lisa.locke@groundwork.org.uk.