THE successful restoration of a public park could inspire the revamp of a green haven originally designed for the Russian tsars.

Mowbray Park, one of the North-East's oldest parks, won acclaim following the £3.2m restoration in 2000 to revive its former glory.

Lessons learned during the restoration may now provide the basis for work on a park in the Ukraine.

The park, in Kremenchug, in central Ukraine, was designed for the Russian tsars, who stopped in the city every summer on their journey from St Petersburg to the Crimea.

Its designer, William Gould, was the English-born pupil of landscape gardener Lancelot "Capability" Brown.

But the park is now in need of regeneration and eight Ukrainian civic leaders are visiting Sunderland next week to look at measures they can adopt from the successful transformation of Mowbray and other city parks.

The visit has been organised by Community Environmental Education Development, Sunderland's environmental/sustainability charity, and Sunderland city council.

As well as looking round Mowbray, Roker and Thompson parks in Sunderland, the delegation will visit Northumbrian Water's Hendon waste treatment plant.