Grangemouth is promised a rose garden

Residents overwhelmingly backed plans to improve the rose garden in the town’s Zetland Park – but they were less sure about a proposal to develop the garden into “an ornamental tribute to the petrochemical process”.

The council put forward plans to develop the rose garden as part of its £2.3m masterplan to regenerate the town’s Zetland Park – and volunteers from Grangemouth Horticultural Society will help make them a reality.

While 75 per cent of people who replied to the consultation about the regeneration of the park said they supported improving the existing rose garden, they were less keen to see it as a celebration of Grangemouth’s industrial heritage, with just 51 per cent favouring that option.

Now, a group from Falkirk Council’s design team and community stakeholders, including volunteers from Grangemouth Horticultural Society, will work together to co-design a revamped rose garden.

A spokesman for Falkirk Council said: “The consultation revealed a wealth of interesting and exciting proposals for how the rose garden could be revamped, so it will be the job of the working group to refine these ideas into an agreed design in advance of the lottery application.”

“Our eventual aim is to train and finance a small team of local volunteers to care for the revamped rose garden in the long term.”