Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Councillors agree to submit Cooper Park funding application despite innovation concerns

Cooper Park pond
Cooper Park pond

Moray councillors yesterday agreed to submit a funding application that would bring about the upgrade of one of the region’s most popular parks, despite concerns the plans were not innovative enough.

Cooper Park in Elgin has been pinpointed as having a pivotal role in a “cultural quarter” for the town as part of a £200million growth deal for the region.

An outdoor performance area, a revamped pond and bike hire facilities are just two of the proposals which would feature in the renovation if the local authority has success with its European Green Infrastructure Fund application.

It is administered by Scottish Natural Heritage and is only available for one project in the north and could receive £500,000.

However, there were discussions yesterday on whether some of the upgrades at the park were really needed after all.

Heldon and Laich councillor John Cowe believes that the proposals could be more “innovative.”

He said: “I question the redesign of the pond as I don’t see anything wrong with it.

“Plus the skate park and bike and provision for bike hire, we already have a skate park in Cooper Park and we can cycle all the way around it, we can cycle from Lhanbryde to the end of Elgin so it could be more innovative.

“There is nothing wrong with the pond, if they really wanted to do something with it they should have done it during the time of the flood scheme when it was empty.”

Moray Council’s principal officer for economic development, Reni Milburn, stressed that these upgrades would bring growth to the region.

She said: “As part of the stakeholder event, it was identified that the pond does not connect to freshwater, therefore you have got a lot of weeds growing there and it needs clearing out.

“Also in particular one of our partners Moray College is very keen to undertake some water sports on there and provide beginners training and so we are looking at costings to see what is actually feasible.”

Elgin City North Councillor Frank Brown fully supported the plan and said: “This is an admiral opportunity to look at the park and re-imagine it.

“We could make it much more diverse and green and allow it to become an economic development highlight so I support it.”