East Avenue Park

Following anti-social behaviour and nuisance to local residents and other park users, Ratepayers called a public meeting at Etchells school in 2004 to discuss with the Council, Youth Workers, the Police and the  Youth Offending Team the need for action in East Ave Park. It was minuted that the two salient issues were “ the state of the park and youths congregating in and around the park causing annoyance and damage.”

The outcome was the formation of the "Friends of East Ave Park” group working in partnership with a Parks Development officer from Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC). The first committee meeting was in June 2004 with 6 people present, although over 100 had attended the open meeting and expressed an interest in getting the park into shape! The committee met for many years at the home of Virginia and John Bryan opposite the park and we are grateful to them for their hospitality. The group never grew to much more than 8 members, with myself as chair for many years until April Mcculley took the chair in 2013, but the group made a huge difference to the park. Fundraising was the major activity and I wrote many submissions for grants which were usually successful. The biggest grant, from Biffa, was to resurface the exercise path around the park, a quarter mile being one circuit. Other grants paid for resurfacing the old tennis courts and establishing the MUGA (multi-use games area), exercise equipment for the outdoor gym, benches and rubbish bins and eventually new playground equipment.  Altogether the Friends group have raise approximately £100,000 since 2004 to re-establish a lovely place for everyone.