Activity Planning for Haigh Woodland Park

Client: Wigan Council

Haigh Woodland Park is a 250-acre historic landscape consisting of a Grade II* listed Hall, stables, walled garden and extensive woodland – part of the landscaping and tree planting which dates from the mid-19th century. Today, it is an important asset for locals and visitors to Wigan alike. CFP were appointed to develop the Activity Plan for the ‘Heritage, Nature and People Project’ seeking a National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) grant to convert the disused Bothy Cottages, restore the Grade II* listed Plantation gates and lodges and to form a new Woodland Hub.

Through our commission we:

Identified relevant audiences for the project and identified current barriers for them
Engaged existing and new partners from the health, environment and education sectors, carrying out structured and in-depth consultation to establish innovative audience-focussed partnership activities for the project
Formed a Volunteer Plan outlining how volunteer activities, management and training would come together to deliver £65,000 of project match-funding and a more resilient site
Supported the evaluation of pilot activities testing new audiences, partnerships and approaches
Fed into capital works proposals highlighting the needs of people and partners identified through our consultation
Formed an ambitious Activity Plan containing everything needed for the client to take forward into delivery

In September 2022 the NLHF Committee for England, North awarded the project a delivery grant of £3,781,500. We are delighted to have been re-appointed to support the team in their monitoring and evaluation of this exciting project to 2027.

Client Testimonial:

“From the outset the team demonstrated their extensive experience and understanding of the brief, responding well to the challenges that the project presented. The output… was high quality and delivered within very tight deadlines. Overall a great experience with working with CFP and a partnership that hopefully we can continue to develop as the Haigh project progresses.”

Stuart Holden, Project Manager, Wigan Council

For more of our work on Planning for Spaces and Places, please see our services page: