The Oval Lawns

Our concept is for the soft landscaping that surrounds the bandstand amphitheatre to be an enhanced area of verdant public amenity space that is colourful, exciting, beautiful, and full of interest throughout the year.

Featuring new community spaces, a wellness garden, colourful wildflower meadows, manicured lawns, mini forests, and paths lined with wildlife-friendly plants, The Oval lawns will be a colourful community park bringing social and economic benefits to a once neglected part of the town. We want to lead the way so that what we do at The Oval Bandstand & Lawns can point the direction for a new way to transform the coastline for people and for nature.

Signage

All signage at The Oval will be clear and concise, and reflect our branding requirements, provide key venue messages and contact details, and be positioned at strategic locations such as entrances. Materials used will be hard wearing to withstand weather conditions and abuse, and readily cleansable to remove graffiti etc. All signage should be provided at a height that can be easily seen by children and people in wheelchairs.

Interpretation boards are to be installed at specific locations to provide more detailed information about specific issues. Examples can include interpretation to explain rain gardens and SuDs schemes, birds, trees and wildlife habitats, heritage, and arts features. The design of interpretation boards is usually consulted upon with other stakeholders but will also reflect The Oval’s branding and communications style.

Noticeboards are provided to give visitors important and changing information about events, activities, and other relevant information about The Oval. Noticeboards are not allowed to contain anything that may cause offence,

Fingerposts are not currently used at a The Oval for in-park directional signage, although in future they could be installed. Our current proposal is for a way-finding fingerpost to direct users of the Viking Coastal Trail to various points of interest in Cliftonville. The fingerpost will be four metres tall from finished floor level, mounted in a new raised flower bed, be of steel construction with painted wooden directional signage attached.

Street Furniture

Six new cycle racks are to be provided in The Oval’s greenspaces. The preferred style is the Sheffield cycle stand and they are to be located on hardstanding but set back from and parallel to a main pedestrian thoroughfare, so they do not present a tripping hazard.

We will provide the appropriate number of dog waste bins and litter bins of the optimum size and at multiple locations to ensure that people can dispose of litter when using The Oval’s greenspaces and that our operational maintenance teams can adequately service them. We spend thousands of pounds a year on waste collection at The Oval and, as a not-for-profit community organisation, we would like to see a reduction in these costs through better signage and educational campaigns.

Bollards and raised planters are located at the perimeter of The Oval lawns and are constructed in timber, painted white and on footpaths they incorporate reflective strips to aid visibility for partially sighted people.