A CELEBRATORY event yesterday gave a taste of what spring will bring to a city centre lake.
Pupils from six Newcastle schools helped launch the £96,000 Lakeside Explorer scheme at Exhibition Park in the city.
The project, led by the Exhibition & Brandling Parks Community Trust, aims to turn the Town Moor end of the boating lake into a mosaic of habitats to attract wildlife and provide a leisure and learning asset for schools, visitors and families.
A programme of works has created a diverse range of habitats, including deeper and shallower water levels, marsh areas, pond plants, reed beds which will also filter water run off from the moor, boardwalks over the wildlife areas, dipping platforms, and viewing platforms.
There will also be seating with spaces for wheelchairs.
Now it will be a case of waiting for spring to kick start the reeds and new planting into growth.
Schools will be invited to help design a nesting island in the lake for swans. Trust member Pippa Lewis, who lives in nearby Brandling Park, baked a Swan Lake cake for yesterday’s launch.
She said: “The project will create a wildlife haven in the city and an asset for the public, as well as providing more interest in the park to encourage visitors.”
The scheme is separate from but will add to major future revitalisation plans for the park, backed by the award of a £2.4m Heritage Lottery fund grant.
The Big Lottery Fund’s Community Spaces programme provided £50,000 for the Lakeside Explorer venture, with additional backing coming from the city council, Newcastle Freemen and the Sir James Knott Trust.
The scheme is also being supported by Northumberland Wildlife Trust and Newcastle University.
There are plans to set up a supporters’ group for the project to help with activities such as more planting and monitoring.
Trust spokeswoman Frances Hinton said: “The lake will now be accessible to all users through the walkways and platforms and will be richer for wildlife with the reed beds and new shrubs around the margins.”
Trust chairman Mitchell Brown said: “The project aims to enable today’s urban children to experience the delight in nature their parents and grandparents knew, while providing an accessible outdoor classroom to study environmental issues.”
The trust was inspired to take on the project by the recollections of member Barbara Hogg, who talked about how she would take her three children more than 40 years ago from their home in Gosforth to the lake to look for wildlife.
Jason Gaskell, who lives in Gosforth and is head of people and wildlife at Northumberland Wildlife Trust, said: “The lake is just a giant concrete basin and now it can be so much better.”
