Bid for Cliffe Castle Park cash delayed (From Keighley News)

Bid for Cliffe Castle Park cash delayed

11:00am Friday 2nd November 2012 in Keighley By David Knights

A bid to restore Cliffe Castle Park to its former Victorian glory has been delayed.

The application for up to £3.3 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund will now be submitted at the end of this month.

Bradford Council’s bid for cash from the lottery’s Parks For People programme was originally due to be submitted in August.

Council officers have asked for a three-month extension so they can carry out further consultations and discussions.

Dick Webb, the council’s performance and special projects manager, said: “We want to firm up the bid to make sure we have the greatest success in what is a competitive process.”

The council has already been successful in its “stage one” bid for the money and was asked to work up a more detailed bid.

The council previously gained multi-million-pound grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore Lister Park in Bradford and Roberts Park in Saltaire.

It has spent several years working on the Cliffe Castle plans including close liaison with Cliffe Castle Park Conservation Group and consultation with local people.

The grant funding would restore the most significant landscape features, improve links between Cliffe Castle Museum and its grounds, and run activities and events to increase the educational value of the park.

The gardens were created by mill-owner Henry Isaac Butterfield in the 1870s and include historical features such as cascading terraces, ornamental fountains, a pond, rockeries, a grotto, an isolated tower and an ancient highway called Dark Lane.

Funding will be sought from other sources for a replacement playground in Cliffe Castle Park, revealed in the Keighley News in July.

Cliffe Castle Museum has been closed since last spring for a £370,000 refurbishment and rewiring scheme, and is due to reopen next April.