Milton Keynes Parks Trust prepares for summer with new barbecue site

If placed directly on to the ground, disposable barbecues can leave scorch marks, with each mark costing self-financing charity The Parks Trust around £50 to repair.

The new site at Campbell Park canalside features special flat-topped stones, on which disposable barbecues can be placed, ensuring a pleasant, safe and damage-free experience.

Picnic tables are also due to be installed shortly.

Julie Dawes, The Parks Trust’s events & community engagement manager, said: “We know there’s nothing quite like eating outdoors on a sunny day, but barbecues can cause damage, create litter and present a real health and safety risk if used carelessly.

“They can also incur repair costs for us, which as a self-financing charity we need to minimise as much as possible.

“By creating this new site, we hope to encourage people to hold barbecues responsibly and in areas that will have little impact on the parkland.

“We are very grateful to Tesco for the funding we received through their Bags of Help initiative, and hope people enjoy using the new BBQ site when the weather warms up!”

The Parks Trust received £2,000 from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative.

Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch its Bags of Help funding initiative, which sees grants - raised from the 5p bag levy - being awarded to thousands of local community projects every year.

Voting for the initiative runs in Tesco stores, with customers choosing which local project they would like to get the top award using a token given to them at the check-out.