LATEST – FIVE THOUSAND HAVE NOW SIGNED THE PETITION!
The cutting of the entire Countryside budget would be less than 0.2% of the £262m savings that Lancashire County Council are required to make. It makes no sense to desolate Wycoller and the other country parks for such a minuscule amount! Wycoller on its own is a small fraction of this 0.2%.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION
Friends of Wycoller and Friends of Pendle Heritage have written to County Councillor Marcus Johnstone, Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Cultural Services, about the closure of the Countryside Management service, which will shut down Wycoller Country Park.
Can you email Councillor Johnstone marcus.johnstone@lancashire.gov.uk and support Wycoller in its time of need? Just click HERE. The more people that email, the more likely the County Council will look again.
Wycoller is internationally known as Lancashire’s part of Bronte Country and contains perhaps the finest group of scheduled ancient monuments and listed buildings in the county, like the ruined Wycoller Hall, the ancient barn, bridges, clothiers houses and vaccary walls all set in stunning countryside bursting with nature. Despite this, it costs hardly anything to run and if cut, the savings will be too small to make any difference to the Council’s need for budget cuts.
Click Here to read the letter from Friends of Wycoller and Friends of Pendle Heritage, which sets out the case…
The inevitable deterioration of this historic area if this takes place would be a great loss socially, and to education and tourism.
Absolutely. We have just learnt that the cutting of the entire Countryside budget for all the country parks in the county would be less than 0.2% of the £262m savings required. It makes no sense to sabotage our heritage for such a minuscule amount! This hasn’t been thought through. David
SAVE WYCOLLER COUNTRY PARK –
The park has many outstanding areas of beauty and is an ancient historical and archaeological site.
The wildlife, flowers, trees and walks draw people back month after month, year after year as the seasons change.
The park is maintained by volunteers and a full time ranger Sarah who is very enthusiastic about the work done there.
To withdraw the funding from this park would mean the barn and the educational building will go into decline with the benefits offered to disabled people, young people, walkers and many others gone forever. This is a backward step in preserving our heritage.
Hi Jane, We shall do our best to convince the Council to change its mind. There is now a petition (see top of the original post). If you could sign and pass it on to friends and family, that would be great. Thanks for your support. David
Hi John, I completely agree. Also, Wycoller runs on a shoestring, so there will be little or no savings involved by closing it. There is now a petition (see top of the original post). If you could sign and pass it on to friends and family, that would be great. Thanks for your support. David
Hi Vicky, We’ll try our best! If you can foward the Change petition to your friends and family and ask them to pass it on themselves, we may get a good number of signatures.
Thanks for your support,
David
Hi Peter, I don’t think they have considered anything like that. David
Please save lovely Wycoller. Its been nearly lost once, never again.
Has the County Council considered how the historic buildings at Wycoller will be conserved and protected from theft and vandalism if the Country Park Ranger Service is discontinued? How will the tourism indudstry be able to promote one of Lancashire’s gems if it looks decayed and overgrown? How will educational groups be supported in their studies and how will the general public appreciate the history and natural history of the Park if there is nobody there to tell them about it?
At the very least, there has to be a plan to conserve Wycoller’s heritage for future generations to enjoy and for the Park to be re-established when better economic times return.
Whilst the owner of a Residential Educational Pursuits Centre used to visit Wycoller up to twice weekly. 1000`s of Children will have very good memories of this quality piece of Social History. In my opinion ,getting rid of this valuable resource is short sighted.Places like this should be “cherished”now for future generations to enjoy.
Please reconsider plans to close Wycoller Country Park. It is a beautiful and historic area loved by many and its closure would be a huge loss and betrayal to present and future generations.