A strip of grassed land, running from the Willie Clarke Visitor Centre to The Mary Pit Head has also been identified for potential development – known locally and by park staff as the ‘display area’.

As well as proposing to move the playpark into the southern part of the display area, additional temporary overflow car parking options and extra disabled parking is recommended on the grass during busy park days (when an event hasn't booked out the area).

The display area is currently used to host a variety of events throughout the year, of varying sizes. The proposals take these into consideration and the events would still be able to secure their entire required space in the ‘display area’ for any future bookings.

Should any of these events develop further and wish to accommodate a larger audience than they currently cater for, we have also identified a more contained area in the park that could be used for this. Being able to promote this area as additional designated event space would also create new venue hire opportunities that could attract other major events to the park.

We’ve been gathering feedback on this, and some other proposals, as part of a wider consultation on park developments.

The consultation is now closed and we'll publish the results here, in late January 2023.

Thank you to over 1,000 people for taking the time to share your thoughts. It has been a fantastic opportunity to gather reactions, new ideas and get fresh perspectives on a range of things that people feel passionate about.