New Woodland Path improves access to Nell Bank facility

Thursday, 28 November 2024 09:20

Access to the 'Paul Hockney Room' at The Nell Bank Outdoor Education Centre in Ilkley has greatly improved thanks to a brand new path.

Installed by B Gallagher Construction who kindly donated their time and materials, the path create a much needed ‘Woodland Path’ to the new early years building.

The new early years facility was fundraised for by the Nell Bank Charitable Trust and named in memory of Paul Hockney, the founder of Nell Bank and Lord Mayor of Bradford in 1977 when the centre was set up as a Queens Silver Jubilee project.

The new path provides a lovely route to the front of the building and is suitable for pushchairs, wheelchairs and Buzz, the electric accessibility vehicle which was provided to the centre by the Freemasons of West Yorkshire in 2022.

Brendan Gallagher, Director of B Gallagher Construction, the company currently undertaking the groundworks on the A65 in Burley-in-Wharfedale, visited the Centre as part of their community engagement work. Brendan said:

“I was really impressed when I came to Nell Bank, they do some tremendous work, particularly in supporting disadvantaged children.” Brendan continued, “we were delighted to be able to help with the new path which we hope will make the experience of some of their youngest visitors even better”.

Dan Goodey, Head of Centre said:

“We were delighted to have the help and support from B Gallaghers Construction, we worked closely with Brendan and his team to plan the best route for the new path and with minimal impact on the surrounding environment. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for our three , four and five year old visitors to access the ‘Paul Hockney Room’ all year round.” Dan continued “We are incredibly grateful to Brendan for his generous donation to the Centre and to Bren Daly and Andreas Pavlou, who did an amazing job building the path for us. We are also very grateful to Lightwater Quarries Ltd who kindly donated some of the materials.”