Newmillerdam Country Park Consultation

Have your say about Newmillerdam Country Park

Wakefield Council has asked the public to help them prepare a management plan for Newmillerdam Country Park.

For those who don’t know Newmillerdam, it is very definitely well worth a visit. Once part of the private Chevet estate, dating back to 1285, it was bought by the Pilkington family, of nearby Kettlethorpe Hall, in 1765. They built the impressive grade 2 listed boat house on the shores of the man-made lake in 1820. The park was bought by Wakefield Council in 1954 and it rapidly became a popular “day trip” destination for local people from across West and South Yorkshire. Today it is a country park with large woodland areas, lakeside walks and is a particularly important habitat for water birds such as Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Mallard and Coot.

As CPRE, we cannot miss this opportunity to commend Wakefield Council for running this public consultation and indeed for their positive approach to maintaining Country Parks across the District. Country Parks are public green spaces providing places to enjoy the outdoors and experience nature in an informal semi-rural park setting. Most have some facilities to improve access. Newmillerdam has a car park and toilets, a surfaced lakeside path, way-marked trails and geocaching. Having such facilities available for everyone can mean that the opportunity to experience and engage with the outdoors is available to a wider demographic of people, both visiting and local.

CPRE West Yorkshire believe that Country Parks are a vital tool in maintaining and enhancing countryside on people’s doorsteps, and help improve that access to more expansive open spaces for people who cannot easily get to the moors in and around West Yorkshire. By a quick reckoning, Wakefield has more country parks than most, if not all, neighbouring Councils. We would like to see many more Country Parks throughout West Yorkshire, particularly if they are close to and accessible from the more densely populated urban areas.

If you are interested in volunteering at Newmillerdam Country Park, you can find out how to do this on Wakefield Council’s Website. The consultation closes on 6th October. The on-line survey and more details about the park are available here on the Wakefield Council Website.