Perks For Parks

Two of our green spaces are happy today - Victoria Park and Horniman Gardens have received Lottery funding for major restoration work meaning Vicky Park has its Olympic sized video screens in the bag for 2012. Which made us wonder what happened to marks for parks? That odd public poll to determine which local parks deserved grants for greening and cleaning with cash coming from Boris's early City Hall savings made scrapping The Londoner. The popularity contest saw the 2 parks with the most votes in 5 areas elected Priority Parks netting improvement cash of £400k each. Boris sensibly took expert advice when selecting Burgess Park as the special sole recipient of Premier Park status, boosting the ailing Aylesbury Estate around it by scooping a cool £2m to go towards a massive do up. Rumours that its name will now change to Boris Park are unsubstantiated.