Kingswood Park restoration
We have been awarded delivery phase funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the restoration and enhancement of Kingswood Park.
In August 2023 we submitted our Delivery Phase (Round 2) application to the Heritage Fund.
This restoration is part of our wider £25 million Kingswood Masterplan, a regeneration vision for Kingswood town centre.
About this project
The project aims to restore Kingswood Park so that it forms the green heart of Kingswood where people go to enjoy high quality facilities, outdoor events and activities and to relax and meet other people in a safe, well managed and welcoming setting.
Development funding of £120,000 awarded to us by the Heritage Fund in 2021 enabled us to develop our finalised plans for the restoration of Kingswood Park.
We have worked in close partnership with Friends of Kingswood Park and Kingswood community.
In December 2023 the Heritage Fund awarded us a Heritage Grant of £2.67m to progress the restoration of the park with remaining funding coming from us and volunteer contributions. The total project value of our Kingswood Park project is £3.36m to progress the restoration of the park with remaining funding coming from us and volunteer contributions.
Aims
Our overall aims are to:
- engage with a wider range of people with the park through our programme of activities and events
- restore Kingswood Park by enhancing and replacing built heritage (buildings, paths and structures)
- improve accessibility to and throughout the park for all people
- create and improve the park landscape for wildlife and people
Activities
Our activities plan aims to:
- engage a wider range of people with the heritage
- improve health and wellbeing
- give people a space to thrive
- make Kingswood a better place to live, work and visit
- give people opportunities to develop their skills
- increase positive environmental impacts and reduce negative environmental impacts
Full details on what we will deliver can be found in our Activities Action Plan.
Built heritage
We aim to restore and enhance built heritage by:
- repairing retaining walls, gate pillars, gates and railings
- enhancing cemetery boundary including new planting and improved access to the Holy Trinity Churchyard
- enhancing the main park entrance
We aim to replace heritage features by:
- making the performance amphitheatre space more accessible
- improving park facilities
- creating services for a new refreshment facility
- building a new play area (for all ages including children and young people with disabilities)
- improving outdoor learning spaces
- creating a full park path circuit
Accessibility and facilities for all
We aim to improve access for a wider range of people by:
- building a new public toilet in a central park location including a changing places toilet facility
- resurfacing paths and implementing recommendations from Kingswood Park Access Plan
- creating new ramps and removing steps to aid access for all
Landscape, biodiversity and habitats
We aim to create and improve landscape, biodiversity and habitats by:
- changing the amphitheatre and performance space to make it accessible
- enhancing the landscape with improved biodiversity including pollinator planting, wildflower meadow creation, enhanced wetland and new fruit tree planting
- improving biodiversity
- tree planting
Other improvements
Other improvements we aim to make are adding:
- recycling bins
- entrance and internal signage
- improved benches and seating
- new park growing area next to the Orchard Road allotments
The environmental impacts of the park will be reduced and positive steps taken to adapt to the challenges of climate change.
All improvements are summarised on our Landscape Masterplan.
For more information read our Kingswood Park Plan that was submitted with our delivery phase funding application.
What happens next
We heard in December 2023 that our Heritage Fund delivery phase application was successful.
We will now make arrangements to start the project over the coming months, including recruitment of our project team and establishing a project steering group. Contact us if you want to get involved.
We will provide regular updates of the project’s progress.
Get involved
If you or your group use Kingswood Park and have ideas for projects that will encourage more people to enjoy the park contact us by:
- email: communityspaces@southglos.gov.uk
- phone: 01454 868000
You can also get involved with the Friends of Kingswood Park group. Find out more at the Friends of Kingswood Park Facebook page.
More information
For more information you can read our Kingswood Park Plan that was submitted with our delivery phase funding application.
