Hounslow residents could help win £800,000 for a potential makeover of two of the borough’s parks, Crane Park and Redlees Park.  The money is up for grabs as part of a London-wide competition launched today (25 November) by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

The aim of the scheme is to regenerate ten open spaces, and Londoners are being given the chance to vote on which ones will get a £400,000 grant.  47 of London's parks, one of which is in Hounslow, have been selected as candidates for a cash boost to make them safer and more enjoyable.

Cllr Adrian Lee, Hounslow’s executive member for leisure and culture, said, "This is an excellent opportunity for the residents of Hounslow to get involved in a London-wide initiative and have a say in where the Mayor of London should be spending his budgets for parks. If you have a mobile phone, get texting. Your vote could be the one we need to win the grants".

Users of Crane Park will see the implementation of environmental improvements including signature river restoration works and the creation of a bridge to link the two boroughs within the park. New paths, bins and signage will also be introduced into the park. Furthermore the funding will contribute towards the funding of two new cross-borough roles of park development officer and park ranger.

An investment of £400,000 into Redless Park will enable Hounslow to achieve its aim of achieving Green Flag quality status for Redlees Park and re-establish the site as Isleworth's premier public park and a flagship open space for west London.

The grant will be spent on improving the park's crumbling hard and soft landscape infrastructure (e.g. signage, benches, shrubberies, etc), restore some lost facilities (e.g. the public toilets) and provide some important and much-needed and beneficial new features, such as a trim trail and provisions for young people.

Londoners can vote to choose which parks get the £400,000 simply by logging on to www.london.gov.uk/parksvote, by text message or by postal vote. Voting closes on Friday 30 January 2009.

There are three ways in which votes can be registered:

1.Online - go to www.london.gov.uk/parksvote

2.Post - You can request a postal vote form by calling City Hall's public liaison unit on 020 7983 4100

3.Text - Text 'parks' and your postcode to short code 62967. This will automatically vote for the closest park to where the voter lives in their borough. Texts will cost 10p plus your standard network rate

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “I urge residents of Hounslow to use their vote so the most deserving parks in the capital benefit from ten hefty prizes. This investment will make the capital's open spaces cleaner, safer, greener and more enjoyable places for Londoners to use.

“Parks provide a free place for families to enjoy time out and often simple improvements such as better play areas and improved lighting can make a real difference in making parks much more attractive and safer for people to use.”

London boroughs have nominated almost 100 green spaces in their areas and 47 have now been shortlisted by a panel of experts and are open for Londoners to vote on. To make voting easier and to ensure the money is used on parks across London, the parks have been divided into five London sub-regions (North West, North, North East, South East and South West) with around ten parks per sub-region to vote on. The winners will be the two parks in each of the five London sub-regions, which get the most votes.