Special visit by CBeebies star

(Date of issue: Monday, 27 July 2009)

One of CBeebies’ most favourite stars will make a special visit to Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery this Friday (31 July) as part of Carlisle’s week-long Love Parks celebration.

The exciting programme of free events to celebrate Carlisle’s parks and green spaces started last Saturday (25 July) and will carry on until this Sunday ( 2 August).

Open to all local residents and visitors to the city, some events are specifically aimed at children and their families and form part of the BBC’s CBeebies Green Balloon Club Week (25 July – 2 August), that encourages youngsters to get outside and ‘do one thing for nature’.

‘Jelly’, a green fingered puppet from the Green Balloon Club CBeebies’ weekly nature programme, will be helping children at Tullie House to learn about local wildlife. She will join story maker, Dominic Kelly who will be performing tales and myths of the natural world. The free Nature Tales event will be held between 10am and 12.30pm in the museum’s gardens.

Cllr Ray Bloxham, Portfolio holder for Environment and Infrastructure, said:

“It’s a great that we will be welcoming Jelly to Tullie House. She’s a firm favourite with millions of CBeebies viewers and will be another huge draw for our Love Parks programme. We hope lots of local families take up the chance to see her and find out more about the nature around them.”

Carlisle City Council has drawn together a series of activities to coincide with national Love Parks Week. It started with the official re-opening of Eden Bridge Gardens by the Mayor of Carlisle, Cllr William Graham last Saturday (25 July) at 11am.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) awarded a grant of £50,000 to help the City Council restore Eden Bridge Gardens, Stanwix, last year. The work has cost around £100,000, with the remaining funding provided by Groundwork, an environmental charity working alongside Marks & Spencer. The Eden Bridge Restoration Project in Carlisle, is also one of the ‘Greener Living Spaces’ supported by money raised from Marks & Spencer’s carrier bag charge.

Restoration work has been underway since last November and the scheme has seen vital repairs made to the rose pergolas and lily ponds. The rock garden has been cut back and invasive species and weeds removed and the surrounding trees cut back to allow more light into the garden and create sight lines through to the main rose pergola. The steps, which connect the two raised terraces have been re-laid and the crazy paving paths re-pointed.

Love Parks Week is organised by parks charity GreenSpace to raise awareness of the importance of parks, and this year the focus will be on encouraging people to get into parks to join the campaign for continued investment and support for these valuable community assets.

Last year, around 300 park events took place across the country to celebrate Love Parks Week, attracting over 200,000 people. This year looks set to be even bigger, with even more fun and exciting events taking place nationally. Carlisle is joining the campaign for the first time and hopes to be able to develop the programme further in future years.