AMBITIOUS plans for an Oswaldtwistle park have been revealed.

Community groups working on a project at Rhyddings Park were given £100,000 to develop plans for that could lead to million pound makeover.

Documents lodged with the council outline the proposals, which include the creation of a Victorian kitchen garden, which would hold community and school allotments.

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The old coach house would be refurbished, and would include a cafe for visitors manned by people with learning difficulties, while a training kitchen would allow primary schoolchildren to learn how to cook.

Two classrooms would also be built, as would a new Victorian greenhouse, which would “permit more food produce to be grown throughout the year to serve the kitchen”.

In a statement, Sunderland Peacock Architects, said: “The proposed refurbishment and additional accommodation will transform the present derelict site.

“The community can get involved, as they have been throughout the design and construction process.

“It is envisaged that a real sense of ownership and pride will prevail with exciting results both in spirit and produce.”

Peter Jordan, director of local charity Newground, which is helping with the project, said £102,400 has been received from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund to help draw up a business plan and heritage opportunities.

Newground, the Friends of Rhyddings Park, Hyndburn Council, and Lancashire County Council, are in the process of bidding for the full £1.4million, which, would allow the improvements to be made.

Rhyddings Park was originally the grounds of a private house belonging to a local mill-owning family.

The first house there was flattened in 1853 and re-built in the style of an early-Victorian country house villa for Robert Watson, a local cotton magnate.