Fed up parents have launched ambitious plans to raise £10,000 to breathe new life into Woodlands Park in a bid to restore it to former glories.

Mum-of-three Emma Beadle, 30, of Victoria Road, Gravesend, sprung into action after she was disgusted by the park’s decline when on a recent family picnic.

She started the group, Revamp Woodlands Park, tasked with raising cash to return it as a popular recreational hub in Gravesend.

The cash will be used to mend and buy new play equipment, build a tuck shop to be run by school children and upgrade the park’s facilities.

Miss Beadle said: “It’s alright for the younger ones but there isn’t anything for the older children.

“Some of the equipment is the same from when I was a child.

“The council should do their bit but this isn’t down to them. We need to come together as a community to go down and help.”

The 15-acre park, on the boundary between Gravesend and Northfleet, includes a bowling green, children’s play area, outdoor gym equipment, tennis and basketball courts and a crazy golf course.

But the facilities have been blighted by vandalism with some equipment damaged or even destroyed.

In September 2011, the park cafe was burned to the ground in a blaze shortly after it was rebuilt by children from three secondary schools as part of their coursework.

Miss Beadle says she is keen for schoolchildren to help the park’s revamp once again but added people from all ages have contacted her with offers of help including a three-year-old child.

So far, the group’s Facebook page has attracted nearly 1,000 members.

She said: “When I was young I loved the park, it was an amazing place growing up.

“I used to love the wooden slides and the golf course when I had the money to hire the clubs.

“We want to get a tuck shop so you can hire the clubs and tennis racket but it has just gone downhill. We are sick of seeing it in a sad state. It’s just derelict.

“We are mostly parents but we also have members whose children used it 30 or 40 years ago, it’s a diverse range of people.”

Next month, the group hopes to stage a fun day in the park to raise costs towards the project but the council has raised concerns about parking.