A NEW summer family event, organised to utilise one of Prudhoe’s parks, was declared a roaring success by organisers.

Eastwoods Park hosted the Summer Fun Day Picnic on Saturday, August 18.

Funding was allocated by Prudhoe Town Council before the summer holidays to fund youth activities throughout the town while children were off school, and one of the groups which secured funding was Friends of Eastwoods Park.

Around 220 children and their families flocked to the park for the fun day to enjoy activities such as a bouncy castle, slides, hook a duck and a coconut shy, while the youngsters received a free barbecue picnic.

“It was fantastic,” said trustee of the group, Russ Greig. “I think because it was the first time we had ever done that kind of event we were unsure of how many people to expect.

“We’d love to be able to make it an annual event but didn’t want to make it too big for it not to be well received. The number of people was fantastic which shows that it is something we can hopefully do as an annual thing.”

Friends of Eastwoods Park was formed earlier this year and as well as submitting a tender for the former bowls pavilion in the park, it has been working on improving the park itself.

The volunteers completed a programme with the Princes Trust, which ran a employability, team work and community skills programme from the East Youth Centre in the town, to improve the planted areas and overgrown shrubs in the park.

“A lot of people felt Eastwoods Park had been neglected for so long, so it’s nice to see stuff happening again and improvements being made,” said Russ.

“There seems to be more people using the park now so hopefully it means the fact it looks a little bit nicer is encouraging people to make use of it.”