A VOLUNTARY group has been set up to oversee the preservation of and enhancements to Coronation Gardens in Prestatyn.

‘Friends of Prestatyn Coronation Gardens’ was created at an inaugural meeting on Thursday, November 25 at Prestatyn’s Pop In Centre, following a consultation period in which residents were invited to share their suggestions on how to improve the gardens.

Among the most popular suggestions made from the 140 responses received were flower beds and trees to be planted, bird boxes, and improvements to the park’s playground, shelter and seating areas.

The group has also elected a chairman, Gill German, and secretary, Eddie Roberts.

Sherry Edwards, formerly a member of Prestatyn Town Council and current secretary of Friends of Prestatyn Railway Station, has helped lead this campaign so far and was delighted that such a group has been set up to help the gardens.

She said: “We have been encouraged by the degree of support for this project and it was especially pleasing to elect a new chairman, Gill German, and secretary, Eddie Roberts, at our meeting on Thursday night.

“We (Friends of Prestatyn Railway Station) already look after five areas at the station, and recognising that work is needed in Coronation Gardens, decided to promote a new voluntary group with the ability to concentrate their efforts on the gardens.

“More than 25 residents have expressed an interest in joining the group, which is very good news and bodes well for the future.

“There is certainly a lot for the new committee to work with in the knowledge that the consultation has highlighted residents' wishes.

“The gardens form part of the pedestrian access to town from a ward which has a high pensioner population, and the present footpath is in a poor state of repair and must be very difficult to manoeuvre for those with mobility issues.”

Secretary of the new group, Eddie, said he believes flowerbeds to be a particularly important aspect to consider at the park, especially ahead of the annual Wales in Bloom competition, which judges entrants on such aspects as floral arrangements and community spirit.

With the next meeting pencilled in for Thursday, January 20 at the Pop In at 6.15pm, Eddie hopes to have concrete plans for improvements to the gardens in place, with the necessary funding secured, by next spring.

Eddie added: “I thought that it needed someone to look at it. The only thing happening at the moment is people going there and doing litter collections (each Sunday morning), and nobody seems to be working on anything else.

“There is a shelter there which gets wrecked every Friday or Saturday night, and I thought if we make it a concern, then maybe someone will listen.

“We thought about raised flowerbeds – I think that will be the most important thing, tidying it up and putting flowerbeds in, and getting it up to scratch for the Wales in Bloom competition.

“The next meeting should reveal more. There are a lot of suggestions which have got to be either discarded or added on.

“We’re getting a committee together, then we’ll look at funding after that. There’s a lot to be discussed.

“We’ve had a talk about it (funding) at the last meeting and it seems pretty positive. By the spring, hopefully (some progress to the gardens will have been made).”

Apart from the gardens itself, there are also the remains of a bowling green, a shelter and a children’s play area at Coronation Gardens.

A direct route to the railway station and the town centre, it was developed in 1911 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Mary and George V.

Gill, the group's new chair, added: "We are extremely grateful to Sherry for initiating this and for the hard work she has put in to make the new group a reality. Friends of Prestatyn Railway Station have pledged to give us their full support and we will be proud to be a ‘sister organisation.’

"Also at the meeting was Tom Barham, the chief executive officer of the Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council, who has already been extremely helpful in guiding our first steps as a newly formed group and promised his continued support.

"The consultation results showed that developing flower beds, improving the seated sheltered area and making improvements to the play area are top of the public agenda, so these will be our first priorities.

"We are very much looking towards developing intergenerational working with this group, where young, old and everyone in-between can come together to improve this valuable community outdoor space for the good of the well-being of us all.

"Being in the outdoors has been shown to bring numerous health benefits and after the enforced isolation of pandemic lockdowns, we need valuable community spaces like this more than ever.

"Coronation Gardens is a place that is dear to me, having played there regularly as a child growing up just around the corner on Marine Road and then with my own children along with so many other local families."

For more details, you can contact Eddie by email at: eddieroberts@talktalk.net.

A new Facebook group has also been set up for Friends of Prestatyn Coronation Gardens; for anyone interested in finding out more about joining the committee, or becoming a volunteer, you can visit it at: www.facebook.com/groups/234334508805378.