The Mayor has revealed the top-ten winning parks, which thousands of Londoners have voted to each receive a £400,000 makeover. The Mayor also announced which major London park is set to get a £2million cash bonanza for a major revamp.
Londoners were recently invited by the Mayor to vote on a shortlist of parks across the capital in order to fund improvements to make them more attractive and safer for local communities.
More than 110,000 people cast their vote and the winners are: Lordship Recreation Ground in Haringey; Dollis Valley Green Walk in Barnet; Mayesbrook park in Barking and Dagenham; Fairlop Waters Country Park in Redbridge; Brent River Park in Ealing; Little Wormwood Scrubs in Kensington and Chelsea; Parish Wood Park in Bexley; Avery Hill Park in Greenwich; Crane Riverside Park in Richmond and Hounslow; Wandle Park in Croydon.
The Mayor announced that Burgess Park, Southwark, is also being awarded a larger £2 million grant to undertake a more substantial upgrade. Funding for the parks' makeovers comes from efficiency savings made from the former administration's publicity budget including the scrapping of The Londoner newspaper.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "In a fantastic show of people power, Londoners have voted in their droves to decide which of their ten favourite parks will get a makeover.
And he added, "Londoners deserve a better quality of life and making a greener, more attractive city is a top priority, so I am thrilled to announce that Burgess Park will also receive a whopping £2million to fund an ambitious revamp making it a destination for all Londoners to enjoy."
The winning parks will be improved in a variety of ways, ranging from better footpaths and more lighting for safety, to providing new playgrounds and facilities for children. Others will open new cafes, refurbish derelict public toilets and improve cycle routes.