Ford Park Annual Report 2026

Executive Summary:

This year is a big year for Ford Park, one which marks 25 years of free public access to our wonderful greenspace, open all year round; home to events, a restaurant, volunteering and much more. As we look ahead to our quarter century milestone, we’re planning to celebrate and showcase the best of Ford Park.

Over the years, the park has undergone many changes and improvements and 2025 was no different. In an environment of diminishing public assets and facilities, Ford Park has continued to provide the vital and loved green space which our community cherishes and has managed to improve the facilities for the benefit of all.

There have been setbacks and challenges such as unsuccessful funding applications, weather-related event cancellations and unexpected costs to incur. Overall, however, 2025 has been another successful year for Ford Park and planning in underway for the year ahead to build on that success.

Highlights from 2025:

·        A number of successful events have helped us raise significant funds for the charity.

·        An 70% success rate in our funding applications brought in vital funding and resources for the charity.

• Awarded GSK funding to build a new community room.

• Projects and new equipment in the park have been undertaken or obtained with the help of a large number of funders, listed in full at the end of this report.

·        Seen Park Run attended grow by 25%+ with the all-weather path installed in October 2024.

·        Installed 10 new park benches around the park for public comfort.

·        Grew our membership numbers by over 30%.

·        Grown our social media followings significantly.

Look ahead to 2026:

·        Our schedule of events is planned for 2026 to appeal to a variety of audiences.

·        Begin work on some infrastructural projects including the new community room.

·        Improve educational opportunities in the Park.

Update from each Charity Area

Finance:

The charity is currently dependent on grants which are very competitive. Our grant applications have had a lower success rate than 2024 but did provide a larger amount of funding, 70% success rate (84% 2024) brought in £68,178 (£61,295 in 2024) of unrestricted funding to help keep the charity functioning.

Our spending increased just slightly last year by £1674 to £123,374 and this was due to successful cost cutting measures, reviewing of service contracts and reduced energy consumption thanks to our solar installation. We now expect 2026 spending to be a similar figure as costs continue to rise and service contracts are fixed for the next two years. This has been achieved by investing in our future through reducing our utilities and services expenditure and renegotiation of contracts.

Our income outside of grants has been in a better position in 2025 than in 2024 with improved Williams Room hire, currently totalling £14,502 (expected to total £18,000 by financial year end, up from £16,888 in 2024) and café rent & service contributions – having been renegotiated in September – expected to total £27,450 by, up from £21,322 in 2024.

Events in 2025 generated £16,531 before costs for the charity, compared with £16,198 in 2024. This figure has fallen short of our target of £19,000 that we set for the year which is down to poor performance of the inflatables events in comparison to the previous year. Some events were also impacted by poor weather conditions, namely the September Art in the Park, Car Show and October’s Apple Day all suffering from bad weather affecting visitor numbers.

Full company accounts are available online at Companies House under the registered business number 03989550.

The GSK Legacy Fund and new Community Room

As many will be aware, earlier this year, Ford Park was announced as a recipient of a portion of the GSK £2m legacy fund for Ulverston. After a lengthy process,

The Garden and Nursery

Garden and nursery management is undertaken by Hazel. This year Hazel has been dedicated to making the garden a vibrant and beautiful space for visitors as well as making the nursery offering more productive. In 2024, the garden generated over £4000 and this year we are already over £4900 with an expected income over £5300 by the end of the financial year.

A number of events have been held in the garden during 2025 and this has attracted large number of new visitors who we’ve been able to speak to and inform about Ford Park but this has also contributed to the garden income through the sale of children’s activity sheets and hot drinks on certain days and events.

Park

Our Park Maintenance Officer, Toby, has been focused on establishing natural spaces within the park and ensuring its tidiness for visitor enjoyment and appreciation. Toby has been keeping the park and woodland areas as attractive spaces for people to enjoy and for events to benefit from. He has done this through a great deal of work clearing areas such as the woodland spaces and car park, creating more usable and attractive spaces.

The no-mow area has continued to be one of Toby’s main projects in 2025, with the large space left to grow long with paths mown through it for an interactive and aesthetically pleasing feature in the parkland. In the years to come, we hope to have a beautiful wildflower meadow in this area.

Volunteering

Volunteer numbers have remained in the mid-20s at what the team feel is a manageable level. The volunteers have been invaluable and are such a fantastic source of help and energy in the park. The volunteer team really are the reason the park is so well looked after and presentable, without them the workload would be very difficult to stay on top of.

Volunteers have helped with essential maintenance as well as marshalling for the large number of events we managed to organise.

Our Volunteer Coordinator, Moray, has worked hard to coordinate the planning of essential jobs and look after volunteer welfare. Moray has walked a number of new volunteers through the induction process, helping them to settle in and feel welcome. He has also organised a number of trips to visit other gardens and properties, namely RHS Bridgewater this year as a small gesture to thank the team for their efforts.

Marketing

Our Communications Officer, Suzanne, has worked hard last year to improve our marketing material including our website and newsletter which has a really good response rate. We feel it has been improved enormously and gives a good roundup of what’s happening in the park as well as our events and supporters.

Suzanne has managed to grow our social media following significantly with Facebook followers up another 14% year-on-year and Instagram followers up another 42% year-on-year.

This helps us to reach more people in the community when promoting our events or projects in the park.

Membership:

Last year we saw our membership base grow again, showing the support from the community and the value people feel they get from having a park like ours in the town. All members receive our Park Perks member benefits which include discounts on events and café purchases as well as invitations to member-exclusive get-togethers.

Currently 262 memberships

Trustees: 

Trustees at Ford Park are nominated for 3 year terms in which they are to support and promote the Ford Park Community Group to the best of their ability, providing governance and advice to the charity wherever possible. The charity is currently seeking new trustees, preferably with professional backgrounds in the legal and financial sectors.

Retirement:                       Neil Fleming

Appointment:                    N/A

Re-appointment:             Neil Fleming

Thank you to all our staff, trustees, volunteers and supporters, we could not do it without you!

Ford Park is also dependent on our funders; we could not survive without their continued support:

·        Ulverston Town Council

·        Townlands Trust

·        Sir John Fisher Foundation

·        CGP Books Ltd

·        Orsted

·        Booths Ulverston

·        The Roselands Trust

·        GSK Legacy Fund