Manor Park in New Malden has won Olympic and Diamond Jubilee legacy protection and has been honoured with a Royal title, under a scheme designed to protect the country’s parks and playing fields.
Manor Park made a successful application in The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge, run by the Fields in Trust charity, and will now be dedicated as a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Field.
The challenge was designed to protect 2,012 parks and playing fields across the country, in a legacy scheme following the London Olympics and Queen’s Jubilee.
Kingston Council can now apply for a £10,000 grant towards the upkeep of Manor Park from the charity. Recreation grounds at Elm Road, Kingston, and Dickerage Road, New Malden, were dedicated under the scheme last year.
Councillors Ken Smith and Patrick Codd, co-chairs of the Maldens and Coombe Neighbourhood Committee which approved the move, said: “Dedicating Manor Park in this way will protect it now and for future generations to ensure that people have access to outdoor sport and recreation.
“This special status will help us to improve facilities and encourage physical activity which is good for the community’s health and wellbeing.”
Manor Park contains football and cricket pitches, tennis courts, a bowls club, a children’s playground, wildlife and wetland reserves and the Shiraz Mirza Community Hall.
Kingston Liberal Democrat Councillor, Shiraz Mirza, founder of the community hall, said: “This is huge … good news all round.”
