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School children and young people now have their chance to haver their say in the future design of the upcoming Albert Basin City Park with today's launch of the 'Albert Basin Design Challenge' by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.
The council is currently holding an online public consultation that will help inform initial concept proposals for the planned 15-acre Albert Basin City Park in Newry. The Council is keen to hear from school children and young people in the district on what they want to see from a world class city park.
To engage school children and seek their views, the Council has launched the ‘Albert Basin Design Challenge’. The design challenge competition is aimed at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 pupils.
Key Stage 2 pupils aged 8 to 11, must draw or create a vision of what they think a world class city park in Newry should look like. Entrants can draw a picture, build it out of Lego, create a collage or use any other creative medium to highlight their vision.
For Key Stage 3 pupils (11 to 14-year olds), the task is as follows: ‘Imagine this park has been built… how would you advertise it?’ Submissions can be in the form of a poster, a video, a comic strip or story board for an advert. Entrants can unleash their imagination and creativity and tell the Council what their vision is for a new city park.
Commenting on this new approach for engaging children and young people in relation to the Albert Basin consultation, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Laura Devlin said, “For the time being, kids may not be able to play with friends or go to their local park but we do hope that they can still let their creativity and imagination run free and use this time to tell us what they would like to see in a world class city park.”
Cllr Devlin continued, “We appreciate that many schools are closed and planning for reopening in the coming months and that many of our parents continue to home-school their children. Therefore, we hope this design competition offers a fun and creative activity that parents and children can work on together and at the same time, give us a unique insight into want kids really want to see and enjoy in a park of this scale in our district. We want to be in a position to move forward with a plan for a City Park that everyone of all age groups can enjoy.”
There are some great prizes to be won for those who enter the design challenge competition. The Council is offering up swim vouchers for use in your local leisure centre when they reopen fully, and all entrants will be automatically entered into a prize draw for a bicycle. The Council is anticipating a positive response from local schools and that parents and teachers will encourage pupils to get involved. There is also a great prize for the school that submits the most entries - a free cycling proficiency course will be awarded to a year group of their choice.
The competition is launched today 22 June and all competition entries must be received by 12 noon, Friday 17 July 2020. To find out more the ‘Albert Basin Design Challenge’ competition and to download entry forms, please click on the following link: WWW.NEWRYMOURNEDOWN.ORG You can also complete the online survey via this link.
