TAMESIDE’S new family activity trails are a great way to stay safe and healthy and make the most of being outdoors in the borough’s parks and countryside.
At the moment there are 10 to choose from with more to be added throughout the year: Broad Mills, Broadbottom; Cheetham’s Park, Stalybridge; Copperas Field, Droylsden; Cowbury Dale, Carrbrook; Haughton Dale, Denton; Hyde Park; Park Bridge; Portland Basin, Ashton; Silver Springs and Chadwick Dam on the Ashton-Stalybridge border and Werneth Low Country Park.
All the trails can be viewed or downloaded at www.tameside.gov.uk/
Colourful, and simply presented, they offer full information on each site such as how to get there, parking, the length of the route and which paths are suitable for pushchairs.
There are activities for all ages including looking for nature posts, finding answers to clues, spotting plants and trees, matching shapes and doing rubbings as well as information on bug-hunting and pond-dipping, wildlife ID sheets and suggestions for games. Cllr Leanne Feeley, Tameside Council’s executive member for culture, said: “Spending time in our parks and countryside is the ideal way to get some exercise, learn about the natural world and our borough’s heritage, discover wild places, find ways to help conserve our environment, and most of all have fun.
“Tameside Culture’s outdoor engagement team designed the trails when they realised it wouldn’t be possible for the usual outdoor activities to take place this summer. I would like to thank them for doing a first-class job.”
Cllr Allison Gwynne, who has responsibility for Tameside’s parks as the council’s executive member for neighbourhoods, added: “We’re very lucky that our borough has so much beautiful and accessible greenspace. These trails provide another reason to enjoy it and be active.
“I’m sure the trails will prove very popular as families can enjoy them to discover new places and have fun outdoors. However, I can’t stress enough that social distancing guidelines must be observed at all times.”