Annual report celebrates another successful year in Riverside Parks

The report, which was presented at the annual general meeting, details their work transforming the parks by the River Wharfe in Ilkley.

FOIRP chair, Ed Duguid, said: “It’s been another year of hard graft from our amazing and dedicated volunteers and we are now seeing the transformation of the parks into the asset for Ilkley we always believed they were.”

The play area (Image: FOIRP)

Key achievements for the group in the last year include:

• New stone raised beds in Riverside Gardens

• New planting on the embankment at Riverside Gardens

• Revitalised playground with new equipment

• Further work has to extend the wildflower area

• Further benches have been repaired and renovated

• More bins cleaned, painted or replaced

• More plants added to the new flowerbeds

• More trees planted or replaced

“We have two Work Parties every week from March to December and get out in most weathers,” said Ed, “and we are grateful for the support we receive from local people and the generosity of local organisations without which we would achieve far less. In particular, we’d like to thank Helen Taylor and her colleagues, landscape gardeners, who have given their time, free of charge, to help us plan and design new flowerbeds over the last three years. In addition, we’d like to thank all the people and organisations who contributed to the funding of the new Playground in Riverside Gardens and our brilliant project team who coordinated all this and the construction along with Bradford Council.”

Volunteers planting (Image: FOIRP)

Ed added: “Whilst the improvements to the park are self-evident this also comes with greater demands on our volunteers. We are a small and dedicated team and it would be great if we were able to increase our numbers to meet the continual challenges. Not only would we be able to achieve more but we would also benefit from fresh ideas for our future projects. In the next years, we will continue to extend our planting of the embankments and flowerbeds as well as all our usual maintenance of the park areas.

"If anyone is interested in devoting a few hours of their time in the fresh air and making a difference to the appearance of the Parks we would be delighted to hear from you.”

You can read more about the work of FOIRP and get a copy of their Annual Report 2023 by emailing: foirp2@gmail.com

To contact or find out more about what FOIRP do visit https://friends-of-ilkley-riverside-parks.com/