Arson attack on hut will not stop park’s volunteers

Tuesday, 13 January 2026 11:39

By Richard Hunt

A voluntary group which looks after Moor Park in Bispham is looking into the options of using a more robust meeting place after the current one was torched in a vandal attack.

The park’s wooden hut was seriously damaged after the arson attack on New Year’s Day, with firefighters called out at 8.54pm.

Members of the Friends of Moor Park were devastated by yet another vandal attack on their shed, which is intended to provide secure storage for tools and a meeting place for volunteers involved in maintaining and improving the park.

Now the hut is boarded up and out of use, while police investigate the crime after bei8ng given a suspect’s name.

Despite the setback, the volunteers will continue to actively work to maintain and improve the park and say they won’t be deterred.

Blackpool Councillor Jon Bamborough, a member of the Friends of Moor Park said: “We’ve held a meeting to discuss things and in the meantime we boarded up the hut and made it safe.

“We’re still looking at the potential option of using shipping containers instead of a wooden shed, as one possible option. It would be much more robust, it’s just a question of how to transport it and put it in place.

“In the meantime the police are following up their inquiries. They have been given a name so they are actively pursuing a suspect.”

The hut was funded after two years of community fundraising by the Friends group but it has become the repeated target of vandalism since being installed in November and now its future is in doubt.

But Cllr Bamborough added: “We’ll be doing what we always do, it won’t stop our work.”