Diggle Street Park – New Public Square

Anyone who follows our social media will see that we’ve been working on a local park for some time – and we have some great news to share, Diggle Street Park in Wigan now has a public square! In the centre of the park are three brand new park benches on a paved area for people to sit and enjoy the space together, at last. 

It all started a few years ago when we noticed that the park seemed to attract some antisocial behaviour and lacked a few basics such as seating and flowers. The more we spoke about it and asked other people their thoughts and ideas, the more it seemed that quite a few agreed. We did some more formal consultation as well, which further reinforced these ideas and gave some really good feedback and thoughts.

So our group, working together with the Springfield Beech Hill Gidlow group, started looking for funding to improve this park for everyone. They were so supportive and really helped us with the tricky funding side of things.

The council permitted us to undertake the work, but we were denied funding a few times and received conflicting advice from the funders, so we abandoned a ‘whole park approach’ to the grants. However, we remained resourceful and persevered, so, we decided to approach the changes gradually and apply for smaller grants, looking at improvements one at a time. 

In 2023, we donated around 350 bulbs (mostly crocus and some daffodils) to be planted around the trees and paths, which are vital for early pollinators each year. We had such fun planting these with local children and families.

Then, in 2024, The Tree Council funded us to plant a native hedgerow along the wall, and loads of local people joined in over a cold February weekend for digging days. These hedge plants are growing well and will soon be established and blooming in summer. 

Finally, the stars aligned in 2024, and we got the funding from Brighter Boroughs for the trickiest part – the seating, and we found a local landscaper, DMK Landscaping, to do the work. They did a great job.

April this year, we’re proud to say the seating is in place, and every time I nip down, it’s being used!

The next stage is some more flowers; we’d love to include some raised beds by the seating area and then some more formal-looking flower beds by the entrances/centre. Then who knows, perhaps a bowls court? An orchard? Picnic benches? Chess tables? What else?

We’d love to hear your ideas – this is our park and this is an open conversation. So if you live locally (Wigan West area), please join our friendly Facebook group, Friends of Diggle Street Park, to chat and get updates.  Or you can always email us.