The Victorian splendour of one of Teesside's finest parks is set to be restored under ambitious plans revealed today.

For 20 years or more Stockton's Ropner Park has been left to the vandals and the ravages of time, but a £2.5m Heritage Lottery grant is about to breath new life into the prestige parkland.

With an additional £1m from Stockton Borough Council, Neighbourhood Renewal cash and private ventures, the park will be transformed over the next few years.

The work, which will begin in the spring on 2003, is expected to take two-and-a-half years to complete.

A new replica bandstand, a new fountain, a fully restored entrance gate and extensive landscaping are all expected to improve the popular green space.

Martin Jenkins, parks and countryside manager at Stockton Borough Council, joined local schoolchildren and the town's mayor Councillor Jean O'Donnell at the proposal's official launch yesterday.

He said: "Ropner Park in our finest example of a Victorian park regionally and is now in the English Heritage register of parks and gardens.

"It is already a nationally-recognised park and we now want to restore it to its former glory. "If you speak to more elderly people in Stockton they will say the park has deteriorated significantly in the last 30 years or so.

"But this is the biggest environmental project the council has undertaken so we are very excited."

Other improvements will take the form of a modern play area, a new pavilion complete with caf and ranger's office and new changing facilities for the tennis courts.

A park ranger has already been appointed and he will lead the development proposals alongside the Friends of Ropner Park.

Set up in October this year, the group are delighted with developments. Craig Adamson, group chairman, said: "Like many public spaces it has been taken over by kids and drugs lately.

"But, after 20 years of rack and ruin, it is fabulous news that we are going to see it as the Victorians intended it to be."

The group can be contacted for general inquiries on (01642) 358888 or at contact@forp.org.uk.