Parts of Bancroft to be fenced off for weeks

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AREAS of the Bancroft Gardens will be fenced off for weeks due to maintenance work.

Stratford District Council said it needs to work on grassy areas which have failed to recover from people walking over them during the dry summer.

The work will begin in February and bosses say they hope to have it completed in time for the Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations on the weekend of April 21 to 22.

Work will consist of de-compacting the ground and levelling the soil before seeding and adding fertiliser in a bid to ensure the areas recover quickly and evenly.

The areas being treated will be fenced off for a period of six to eight weeks during March and April.

Council environmental maintenance chief, Matthew Austin, said the council needed to prepare the area as a high number of visitors were expected in 2012.

He said: "Last year saw Stratford residents and visitors enjoying an unusually long and dry summer.

"As a result, we saw high numbers of people enjoying all of our open spaces across the town and district.

"However the grass and ground on the Bancroft Gardens has struggled to recover given this high level of use combined with very little rain and high temperatures.

"Despite additional watering over the summer to try and combat this, we have been left with large areas bare of grass that now needs remedial works to prepare it for the high number of visitors expected in 2012 as we celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics."