PARKS and green spaces in Crewe are suffering at the hands of the Conservative council, opposition members have claimed.

Labour councillor Roy Cart-lidge, speaking ahead of the beginning of national Love Parks Week on Saturday, urged residents to make their feelings known on the state of municipal parks and gardens.

He said: 'The focus of this campaign is Queen's Park, and although a lot of people said they are happy it is being restored, there doesn't seem to be much happening at ground level.'

He claimed since the Tory group came into power, Queen's appeared to have slipped off the agenda.

'I don't think the park effort is being helped by the administration we've got now.'

Cllr Cartlidge said Love Parks week coincided with a massive survey being undertaken by the Greenstat organisation into the quality of parks and gardens across the UK.

But borough council Queen's Park project officer Alan Lear said the work to restore the park was still very much under way, despite a few minor setbacks.

He added: 'We were awarded the money from the Heritage lottery fund, but we still had a lot of design work to do.

'It's just taking longer than expected to programme everything in, but we are quite advanced with the master plan now.'

* To take part in the Greenstat survey, visit www.greenstat.org.uk