Gosford Park - Tick Tock children’s play area

Key Facts

Area: West Midlands
Grant recipient: Gosford Park Residents Association
Project: Tick Tock Play Area
Programme: The Jubilee People’s Millions
Date of award: June 2011
Amount awarded: £56,000

People power won the prize of £56,000 funding for Gosford Park Residents Association (GPRA) to improve their local park. Following their application to the Jubilee People’s Millions, the community group triumphed over 6 other Midlands projects, shown on ITV Central News every evening for a week.

With the support of the public vote, GPRA were awarded best runner up and the funding has been used to regenerate a previously derelict area of land and provide much-needed play equipment for residents, parents and children.

The Tick Tock play area was officially opened in February 2012 by four-year-old Austin Spencer who got the campaign rolling after he visited the park with his granddad David Spencer and exclaimed “This is not a park, there’s no swings.”

At the launch, David Spencer said: “This is a tremendous achievement for the local community and will make a huge difference to the local area. We had an anxious wait for the result. For now, it’s a relief.”

Rajay Naik, chairman of UK programmes for the Big Lottery Fund, added:

“This play area is a wonderful tribute to all the work the residents have done and it is a real testament of the tenacity, effort and selflessness of the people involved.

“Of all the things the Big Lottery Fund has spent money on in the last year I am most proud of this one.

“That is because for the last 50 years my family has lived within a square mile of this park and I look forward to playing here with my nephew, and this community and this park represents what is so fantastic about Coventry and the people who live here.”