Press release

LONDON BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM

25 November 2008

Vote for Lewisham?s parks and help them win a park make-over.

The Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, is calling on all residents to vote for one of two local parks in the borough, to win a slice of investment funding.

The Mayor of London has just announced online voting is set to take place between now and January 2009 on 47 parks around the capital. Local Authorities were asked to submit parks in their borough ? more than a hundred of the capital?s parks were put forward by all 33 London boroughs. These were then whittled down at the GLA to the final 47.

The final 10 winning parks to receive a slice of investment funding will be decided by a public vote via the GLA website. Investment funding of up to ?400,000 each for the winning parks could be won.

Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, said: ?We may be in the middle of a city, but Lewisham has the most fantastic parks and open spaces. Two of our parks need your votes to help them win money for a make-over. I urge everyone in the borough ? young or old ? to vote for their favourite. MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT and help give a Lewisham park a face-lift!?

The two parks in Lewisham that residents are being asked to vote for are:

Mayow Park in Forest Hill
Deptford Park

Londoners can vote to choose which parks get the ?400,000 simply by logging on to http://www.london.gov.uk/parksvote , by text message or by postal vote. Voting closes on Friday 30 January 2009.

In addition to the regular contract work carried out on Lewisham?s parks, the Council has invested a further ?1.3 million in parks over the past 12 months, secured from both internal and external funding, to undertake the regeneration of Broadway Fields, the Quercus project in Ladywell Fields, improvements to play facilities and Green Flag improvements. Any money secured from this scheme would compliment the long term award winning investment that that the Council has already made across Lewisham.