WORK has begun on the restoration of a 100-year-old municipal park.

Northern Water Environmental Trust (Nwet) board member Tim Hibbert mounted a digger to signal the start of work in Richardson Dees Park, in Wallsend.

The project is being carried out thanks to the efforts of the Friends of Wallsend Park, which developed the ideas and raised the money from Nwet, North Tyneside Council, the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, Owen Pugh and private contributions.

The first phase of work is the Prince Road Arboretum, which has been designated as the nature zone of the park.

Native trees, shrubs and wildflowers will be planted to bring the arboretum back to life. The quality of the connecting water courses running through the whole park will be improved through a reed bed wetland project in the arboretum.

The £20,000 project will provide a sustainable solution to pollution and flooding problems, enhance the visual appearance of the stream areas and encourage wildlife, including endangered species, such as water voles.

The project is being used to act as a lever to release a much greater sum of money from the Heritage Lottery Fund to allow plans for the whole park to be put into action.