Andrew Mitchell MP has weighed in to help support Sutton's Rectory Park as part of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge and urges local residents to do the same.
Voting is currently taking place on a host of parks across the country all of which hope to gain the Fields Challenge status. The Fields Challenge award will ensure a site is safeguarded as a field in perpetuity through placing a covenant on the land by means of a Deed of Dedication.
However, voting closes next Friday - 18 November - so residents only have one week left to show their support for Rectory Park.
Councillor David Pears has also been busy drumming up support for Rectory Park - the only space nominated from Sutton Coldfield - and has been visiting local schools and civic groups encouraging them to vote online.
To vote for Rectory Park visit: http://www.qe2fields.com/fielddetails.aspx?id=ae38d15f-2d3f-40a6-8930-35557c910dcf&searchtype=POSTCODEAREA&searchfield=B72%201UP
The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is a high profile national campaign to mark the Diamond Jubilee & the London 2012 Olympics, whilst helping to achieve key targets around increasing physical activity and promoting sustainability. The programme aims to protect 2012 sites by 2012. The patron of the Challenge is the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William.
The Challenge aims to protect outdoor recreational spaces and facilities for communities both now and for generations to come. Although the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is not a grant aid system, if a site is successfully awarded a Fields Challenge status it will increase its ability to attract funding from other grant agencies.
All the nominated sites, including Rectory Park, have been posted on the Fields Challenge website to allow local residents to register their support for their favourite park and perhaps offer to volunteer their time in support of activities in the park.
Andrew Mitchell MP said, "I have been online to vote and hope that many other local residents will also vote. This is a great way for Sutton to be involved in the Diamond Jubilee as well as the Olympics."
Olympic silver medallist Roger Black and the TV presenter Kate Humble
helped launch the “Save a Space for Me” campaign in Greenwich – one of the Olympic host boroughs – along with local school children to celebrate the start of a month long online public vote to support sites in local areas.
A specially recorded video message from The Duke of Cambridge urged the British public to support this fantastic legacy programme: “We have been offered coastline and woodland, as well as existing children’s playgrounds and recreational fields. Now we need you to join in and vote for your favourite space in your community. You can vote online, www.qe2fields.com,
from October 18th but voting is only open for a month, so please don’t
delay!”