Residents on a mission to make 10-year action plan for beloved Worthing park

Love Pond Lane Park Durrington Project has been gathering support over the past month, including the backing of Worthing Borough Council.

Colin McHale, chairperson, said a park ranger had been allocated to liaise with the group and councillors had visited to discuss concerns.

The first community event, a litter pick on Saturday, saw ten bags of rubbish collected by volunteers.

Colin said: "In spite of torrential rain and a howling wind, we had nine of us turn up for the litter pick. We managed to collect 10 bags worth of varying kinds of litter.

"This was our first community event and had the weather be kinder, I know there would have been many others there, too. The pick was assisted ably by Adam Scott, a council park ranger.

"On my visits to the park with our dog, I've had conversations with many people and discovered that a lot of the dog walkers actually arrange litter picks of the park on a daily basis. I thought was a lovely thing to hear."

Project leaders are arranging a meeting for July 8 in order to form a group of volunteers to work towards becoming officially constituted.

Colin explained: "From there, we can begin to develop and deliver our ten-year plan and seek funding for the things we want to do.

"The council is fully on board with the project and we've had visits from Vicky Wells, cabinet member for environment at Worthing Borough Council.

"The local community want our project to be a success and I'm sure we'll get many more residents on board as things develop. We had to start somewhere, and I'm encouraged by what we've achieved so far."