Members of Ederney Community Development Trust with Joanne McDowell Big Lottery Fund NI Director and Michael Hughes Space and Place (L-R Sean Donnelly, Mervyn Duncan and Colette McHugh Ederney Community Development Trust, Joanne McDowell Big Lottery Fund, Michael Hughes Space and Place, Andrew McCracken Community Foundation, Neville Armstrong Ederney Community Development Trust and Jane Wilde Space and Place)
Two communities in North Fermanagh have joined together in a unique project to develop a flagship £1 million park.
Plans for the new park between the villages of Ederney and Kesh were unveiled at the Big Lottery Fund’s Space and Place programme this week.
The new park will provide a substantial new public amenity for the North Fermanagh area. It will include planting schemes, a mountain bike track, walking trails, a community green, allotments and a space for public events across the two villages of Ederney and Kesh on a shared basis following a grant of £1million from the Space & Place programme.
The Park is a unique project which will bring the two communities of Ederney and Kesh together through shared working, allowing both areas access to joint facilities. Given its location, the new park will also make a major contribution to the accessibility of leisure activities across a wider area including for communities in west Tyrone and Donegal.
Mervyn Duncan from the North Fermanagh Valley Park project said: “We are delighted to have been successfully awarded the Space and Place Flagship project. This is a ground-breaking initiative in our area, enabling both communities to come together through sport and recreation.
“The support we have received from within our communities has been hugely encouraging and already several joint initiatives between groups have started outside our own programme of events demonstrating the willingness for groups and individual’s to connect in a well-structured shared space programme. We have no doubt this programme has laid the foundation for both communities to grow in strength together.”
Michael Hughes Space and Place Co-Ordinator, said: “It’s very exciting to begin to see how the project will unfold and we wish the people of Ederney and Kesh every success as they start the process of creating this unique space for their local community”.
Big Lottery Fund NI Director Joanne McDowell said: “We are pleased to see the plans for this new shared public space for people in north Fermanagh and beyond being unveiled. We hope it will connect people and make a real difference to communities in the area.”
The North Fermanagh Valley Park project involves a partnership between Ederney Community Development Trust, Kesh Development Association and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.
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