A cricket club near Brampton has launched an exciting initiative to transform an acre of nearby rough ground.

Irthing Vale Wanderers Cricket Club has started a fundraising campaign to finish off the project to transform the Cotehill Park Development, near Dacre Road, formerly a council waste collection site, into greenspace and allotments.

It is hoped the improvements in the area, which is the responsibility of Brampton Cricket Club, would reduce crime and anti social behaviour in the area.

Their funding campaign on spacehive.com is looking to raise money to plant 10 trees, four picnic tables, four benches, create 40 allotment plots and reinstate the car park.

Previous work has been done by club members and local people.

Cameron Shannon, club chair, said: “Around three years ago the club was struggling.

“As a small village club people perhaps were not aware of it and what we offered, only one member of the club was from Brampton – it was how to increase the value of our brand and getting people into cricket.

"The traditional routes of getting people into cricket are saturated so we thought we’d come at it from a community development point of view, how could we do something that would have some benefits – so we thought we’d develop the area.

“But what would the community benefit from the most?

“It was apparent their was a shortfall of allotment space in the area.

“The work has been ongoing and we’ve tried to be sensitive to the local community so we’ve not descended en masse with diggers.”

The club continued with the initiative despite bring ‘hit hard by covid-19’ and struggling to retain its membership during the pandemic.

Previous work has been supported by Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Community Foundation, The Hadfield Trust, and others. To contribute go to: www.spacehive.com/cotehill-park-brampton-development