PLANS are afoot to give Victoria Park a face lift for the new millennium.

And the future of the Knutsford Road site lies in the hands of the people of Warrington, according to council bosses who want to bring it into the 21st century.

The 40 hectare park has been a public open space for more than 100 years, but members of the borough council's landscape department think it's high time it had a design masterpiece.

Mersey Valley Partnership has been commissioned to carry out public consultations to build a vision for the park and a development plan of how it might be achieved through community, business and council partnership. Developers are also eager to gauge public opinion over the matter. Some impetus for the project follows comments from interest groups which suggests the park is not achieving its full potential.

The first of the public consultation events will be held this Sunday, August 27 between 7am and 1.30pm. There will be another event on Sunday, September 10 between noon and 4.30pm. People will get their chance to have a say about the ideas put forward by different groups and to put forward their own ideas.

Following the consultations, a "masterplan" will be produced based on the most popular and constructive proposals, which will be circulated for comment before being finalised.

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