AN OUTDOOR gym and bird baths were among some of the suggestions made to enhance Coronation Gardens in Prestatyn following a consultation period.

Residents were invited to air their views on what could be done to improve the gardens, either through filling out a questionnaire, or by attending a meeting which took place in the park itself on Saturday, October 30.

Sherry Edwards, formerly a member of Prestatyn Town Council and current secretary of Friends of Prestatyn Railway Station, is leading the campaign the improve the park, and said she was pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest shown in the project.

Sherry said: “I was really thrilled to bits. We’re going towards 130 responses now, which is good.

“Many volunteers have asked me to extend the consultation process until this weekend. Some of the things are just what you would expect; more flowers, more trees, bird boxes, bird baths, an outdoor gym. There’s a lot for a new committee to work on.

“I’m really pleased that people are spotting the fact that the play area as it stands is just not fit for purpose. When I take my grandkids, they don’t want to stay more than five minutes, there’s not enough there for them, and 50 per cent of the area is underused.

“Another interesting thing was the responses to have a kiosk there for people to buy drinks, so there’s a lot of interest in it.

Sherry also hopes that a voluntary group or committee will soon form to both preserve and enhance the gardens.

A first meeting of the group has been provisionally scheduled for Thursday, November 25 at Prestatyn’s Pop In Centre, where some of the questionnaires for the consultation period were distributed.

She added: “Perhaps most pleasing of all is the enthusiasm to set up a group of volunteers - I think we're up to about 15.

“This pleases me a lot; having litter-picked in that area each Sunday morning with other volunteers from Friends of Prestatyn Railway Station over the past eight years, we've noticed how much more could be achieved in what is one of the few parks in the town.

“Prestatyn, like Rhyl, has a massive deficit in public open spaces, and with cuts to council funding, Denbighshire County Council simply doesn't have the manpower to do very much more than cut the grass and cut back the shrubs.”

Chris Porteous, a member of Prestatyn Rotary Club, attended the meeting in Coronation Gardens on Saturday, and hopes for sustainable additions to the park which appeal more to younger generations.

Chris, who also suggested the possibility of adding a bowling green to the gardens, said: “I think the key is that whatever they do has to be sustainable.

“I don’t see the point in sticking a statue up, or things like that, and I think they need to get young people involved somehow, because the regular comment is that young people just hang around the shelter there and leave litter on the gardens.

“That is just a section of young people, but if we can get them involved and see what they want… there is no point in just making it pretty for pensioners to sit and enjoy it.

“I think picnic benches would be a good idea, especially for families, as long as there are plenty of bins there.

“There were lots of good ideas which came up; a sensory garden, a few better benches, a bowling green; it just needs simple things.”

Coronation Gardens was developed in 1911 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Mary and George V.

For more details, you can contact Sherry via email at: edwards737@hotmail.com.