AN AREA of wasteland in Runcorn has been completely renovated after an £81,000 makeover and is once again open to the public.

The Dukesfield Gateway, a patch of land under the Silver Jubilee Bridge in Dukesfield, was officially opened by Halton Mayor Peter Lloyd-Jones in a special ceremony last week.

The area, which lies between Egerton Street and Lord Street, used to be just a collection of rubble before the clean-up project was launched as part of the Groundwork Mersey Valley Neighbour-hood Pride scheme.

The three-year project involved clearing the site of rubble and graffiti and adding several large murals, created with the help of children from All Saints Parish School and a group of local teenagers.

This phase two of the project involved resurfacing the site with tarmac and adding six new street lights, a project that was paid for with a grant from the Waste Recycling Environmental group (WREN) and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Andy Battersby, project manager with the Groundwork Mersey Valley Neighbourhood Pride scheme, said: 'We got the idea from a resident and decided to adopt it for our neighbourhood pride project.

'This was originally a dark, derelict and intimidating space and people didn't really use it.

'We hope that it will be much safer now that it has had lighting put in.

'It cost about £75,000 for all the resurfacing and the other £6,000 was spent on the new lights.

'Our fundraisers have really done us proud.

'I must say I am very pleased with the way the project has gone over the past three years, not just here but with two other projects the Neighbourhood Pride scheme has been running in Widnes.'

Gordon Darlington, of the contractor WAP Lawton and Son Ltd based in Knutsford, said: 'We haven't been involved with the whole project ,but we are pleased with what we have done, mainly the resurfacing.

'I'm very proud of what we have achieved with Kirsty Lander, the landscape architect for Groundwork Mersey Valley, as well as other neighbourhood pride projects like the ball court we are working on for residents in Dukesfield.'

Ian Lifford, head of Halton Borough Council's landscape services, who was also involved with the project and said: 'It's very good that we can reform a rather underused area.

'The artwork here looks very good and we have successfully reduced the amount of graffiti you can see.'

The Dukesfield Gateway was opened to the public in a ceremony and featured several activities for children including a bouncy castle, some large building bricks and a huge 'connect four' game while parents were treated to refreshments.

One of the local residents visiting the site for the first time since the make-over was Tracey Jones, of Lord Street.

She said: 'I think this area is very good for kids now.

'I walk my four-year-old child through here from our house to school every day and it is an awful lot safer now without all that rubble left here.'

Another local resident, Sharon Morrow, added: 'I think it looks a lot better than what it was.

'I know that areas round here have been improved a lot recently, especially round the River Mersey, and I think things really are getting better in Run-corn.'

Special guest Peter Lloyd-Jones, Mayor of Halton, said that he was thrilled at the difference the Neighbourhood Pride project seemed to be making in local areas.

He said: 'I think this project is fantastic, a huge improvement on what used to be here and this just goes to show what can be done when we get a bit of money to spend.

'As to how new people feel coming into the Runcorn for the first time, this all adds up to making parts of the town as attractive as possible instead of giving the impression that we have seen better times.

'I'm even more pleased to see that this area is still being respected - no cars have been parked here and there has been very little graffiti since the mural went up.

'I would like to see the clean-up happen in more streets, but in some of them this sort of project just isn't suitable.

'Its a shame too that we happened to choose an opening day that was so cold, but the children who did turn up are all having fun out here playing.

'It all looks so much better, it's just what we wanted.'

The next and last phase of the project is to add some bushes and trees to the site some time in the future.