Centre in Barrow wants to turn bowling green into sensory trail

Abbotsvale Community Centre in Barrow is hoping to secure funding for the project Abbotsvale Oasis which will replace the old bowling green.

The centre has the nursery Cheeky Monkeys attached which has put in planning permission to build on the green as part of the bigger project.

Westmorland and Furness Council Furness Community Development Team and the Active Cumbria Travel Actively Team are working with Abbotsvale Community Association for the Abbots Vale Community Centre to evolve, expand and develop its offer to the community.

The project plan (Image: Submitted)

The project will be offering stimulation, movement and opportunities for friendship, beyond its normal list of activities. They have plans to turn an unused bowling green within their grounds into a sensory trail and garden.

The current design will offer people of all abilities an opportunity to walk or wheel around a track.

The activities that are offered by Travel Actively help to increase skills and confidence in walking, wheeling and cycling. Wheeling includes people who use wheelchairs, scooters, skateboards, mobility scooters and other wheeled mobility aids who may not identify with walking.

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Bosses are now in need of help with their funding application and are asking people to fill out a survey about the need for the new trail by the end of this week.

They had a community engagement day on August 19 to get feedback.

Local organisations attended including Slimming World, Travel Actively, Walney School, and Barrow Rotary.

Kerry Griffin, of Abbotsvale Community Centre, said: "The Abbotsvale event was a great success and well attended by people from the local community.

"The open day was to see what people thought of it so we had a track set up with temporary tyres put in place until we can secure the funding and have work started on the permanent track that is going to be there and then the nursery has put the planning permission there for the corner of the area to be used for expansion under the government funding - it is all going to look great once is done.

"We got funding for an accessible ramp to go down onto the green and then we are going to be looking into any other funders or donations to help."

To complete the survey visit this link here.