Ashton

Ashton District Assembly has delivered numerous environmental schemes around Ashton, including improvements in parks, street scene and recreational open spaces.

These include major works in Cedar Park consisting of attractive style perimeter security fencing to address motor cycle nuisance issues and refurbishment of the bowling pavilions and pathways adjacent to the Bowling Greens and floral areas.

King George V Playing Fields, Ashton is seeing progressive improvement particularly to the boundary at Ladbrooke Road with new fencing and tree works to create a managed open aspect view of the park with improved security. Refurbishment works to pavilions is almost complete.

On Katherine Street, at the site of the old hockey pitch, complimentary landscaping work has been completed with tree planting and boundary fence refurbishment to improve this well used sports and recreational facility. This scheme has been financed from the European Regional Development Fund.

Oxford Park has had huge improvements carried out in the last few months and additional work has been completed within the last few weeks.

Store Street Park, Waterloo has been surveyed and local councillors are committed to seeing major improvements to this well used local park. The District Assembly team are now looking at ways to carry out and finance substantial environmental improvement to the layout and play surfaces which will also include measures to improve the park security.

The District Assembly tree replacement programme is complete involving the planting of 191 new trees including 69 replacements for diseased Poplars at Wordsworth Crescent.

Along Oldham Road, smaller environmental schemes are being completed to support the Quality Bus Corridor initiative, improving the local area and this route into Tameside.

In Hurst, huge improvements have been made to footpaths and open space with the installation of attractive fencing, major tree and landscaping works, which have created a recreational walkway between Lees Road and Ladbrooke Road.

Denton and Audenshaw

The second phase of the dog-fouling awareness campaign is up and running. In a joint effort with Dukinfield District Assembly, the campaign will now focus on residential areas, and on streets where the DA have received most complaints about dog fouling.

Restoration works have begun on the bandstand in Victoria Park, the heritage lottery grant of £80,000 will help restore the 'victorian' bandstand to its former glory, including a new roof, repairs all incorporating the original design features.

Funding has also been secured for a new multi-sports area in Victoria Park, on the site of the old tennis courts, work will begin later in the year. The playground in the park has also been revamped with a new design and play equipment.

In Denton town centre the market demolition has begun, to make way for an attractive civic square for the town. Plans for this will be unveiled later in the year. All painting and refurbishment to town centre street areas is also nearing completion.

If you're interested in the preservation of Ryecroft Hall and want to be part of a 'Friends of Ryecroft Hall', which will initially focus on improving the grounds around the hall, then get in touch with the town manger, Stuart Mollison. Also, a similar 'Friends of' group is hoping to be set up for Granada Park in Dane Bank, again, contact the town manager if you're interested in being involved.

Droylsden

Sunnybank Park has been uplifted by the planting of 20,000 daffodils and narcissi and most of the pathways have been completely refurbished against a backdrop of an overall improvement programme for this major Droylsden Park. The Probation Service has been involved in repair of the perimeter netting and boarding to the old tennis courts which are now used for football training by the Droylsden Youth Centre.

The Probation Service continues to support the area with work being carried out to improve footpaths around Droylsden including almost 500 metres of woodland pathway linked to Gloucester Road and Sunnyside Avenue and also footpaths off Greenside Lane will shortly be completed.

The District Assembly is committed to improving the planted areas and 45 new trees have been planted in both open areas and replacing street scene trees damaged by accident or vandalism.

New Park and Open Space security measures are being completed in Copperas Lane Playing Fields and Lees Park, which will create safer, more useable recreational open space. These measures include additional security access barriers and specialist thinning out of copses of trees.

Droylsden members have been pushing for new facilities in Droylsden and the decision to build a new strategic play area adjacent to the Medlock Leisure Centre is great news for Droylsden.

Droylsden now has its own high surveillance yellow police vehicle capable of close video recording making Droylsden a much safer place.

Dukinfield

The Make a Space campaign - when residents remove their cars from streets to help with cleaning - is proving a sweeping success. Ring 0161 342 2704 if you want your street to be considered for extra cleaning.

After successfully targeting open spaces in a cut down dog fouling campaign, Tameside Patrollers and the Street Force are stepping up another stage and will be focussing on streets where the largest number of complaints are made.

After gathering the views of over 600 people on what they would like to see happening to Dukinfield Park in the future, an event will be held during March to discuss people's ideas. These will help with the production of a masterplan for the park's future development.

More environmental improvements are planned in a joint partnership between the Street Force and Network Rail. The latest spruce up involved the painting of Astley Bridge.

The transformation of land off Tow Street continues thanks to the efforts of the Tame Valley Community Green group. The area has seen massive improvements with landscaping, new pathways, new gating and more fun play equipment for families.

Hyde

On the back of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the council funding the refurbishment works at Hyde Park, an application has recently been submitted for Green Flag Status.

Landscaping works will transform the appearance to Hyde Park entrance on Lodge Lane.

The former landscaped area at the junction of Walker Lane and Lumn Road is being completely refurbished with new paths and a raised circular shrub bed.

A series of classical recitals will be taking place at Hyde Town Hall. Welsh harpist Eira Lynn Jones will be starting the new season on Friday 9th March, 1pm - 2pm when she will be performing music from her recently released first solo album. Further lunchtime concerts have been arranged for 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th June. Admission is free. Please contact 0161 303 8547 for further details.

Longdendale & Hattersley

Works to improve pathways, seating areas, hard standing areas and the construction of a new entrance with wrought iron railings have now been completed at Hill End Play Area in Broadbottom.

Refurbishment works have been commissioned at Cat Nap Park in Broadbottom. These works will see new railings, new paths and seating areas.

Thirty-five half-barrel tubs have been allocated for the Longdendale area. These will be put in for the summer season.

New lighting has been installed in the trees at rear of the Lowry statue and new lights are planned at Hollingworth Small Park, Mottram Moor.

A bronze plaque has been erected at Jolly's Corner next to the statue of Lowry, explaining the history and connection of L.S. Lowry with Mottram in Longdendale.

A commemorative plaque was erected in December on the wall near the painting of the green frog at Mottram Deep Cutting. The plaque explains the legend of the frog who crawled into a cavity in the stone through a small crack, then fed on insects until it was too large to escape.

A stone and plaque have been installed at Treacle Gardens in Hollingworth. This amenity area was refurbished in 2006 with the aid of the pupils from Hollingworth Primary School. They named the area Treacle Gardens following their study of local names in Hollingworth. In the days before made up roads, Market Street was locally known as Treacle Street because of the tendency for the dirt and dust to become sticky in times of rainfall, which was made worse by the constant flow of sheep droppings as they were herded up and down Market Street.

Mossley and Stalybridge North

The frontage of the George Lawton Hall has been refurbished with new paving, improved walkways and new planting to replace the old rotted planters. A ramp, better steps and new handrails are planned to improve access for people with disabilities and to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. To complement this, automatic doors will also be installed at the entrance to the hall.

The bar area in the George Lawton Hall has been completely refurbished.

Plans are being drawn up to re-landscape the rockery area outside the Mossley market ground toilet block.
Roads have been resurfaced at Black Rock Bridge and Under Lane.

Stalybridge

Painting works to the railings on High Street are underway which will improve the street scene.

New trees are being planted at the Stalybridge Town Hall façade site with lights being installed to further complement the area.

A stone obelisk with a timeline depicting key events in Stalybridge's history has been unveiled in Cheethams Park. The attractive, 6ft-tall structure is part of a project by Stalybridge District Assembly and environmental charity Groundwork Tameside, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to commemorate Stalybridge's rich heritage. Local youngsters from Copley High School helped design the piece of public art, with funding coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the District Assembly. New pathways are currently being designed to enable easy access to the obelisk. In addition, the area will be landscaped to incorporate a sensory garden and new seating will be installed.

A planning application has been submitted for a multi-use games area at Stamford Park. If approved, the old tennis court area of the park would be refurbished to provide two multi-use games courts and a new tennis court.

Tulip Sunday will take place on 29th April at Stamford Park from 12 noon - 4pm. This super family fun day will feature a funfair, children's entertainment, face painting, RSPCA dog show, bands and lots of stalls.