‘Bloomfield Park’ proposals to honour former mayor
HUNTINGDON’S town park could be renamed Bloomfield Park in memory of a past mayor, if councillors’ plans are approved.
HUNTINGDON’S town park could be renamed Bloomfield Park in memory of a past mayor, if councillors’ plans are approved.
The proposal is to be discussed at a Huntingdon Town Council working party meeting tonight (Thursday) after being suggested as a tribute to Mike Bloomfield OBE, who died in October.
It was Mr Bloomfield who, as mayor in 1981, announced that Huntingdon and Godmanchester Council – as it then was – had agreed to take over the responsibility of Grammar School Field, which subsequently became the town park, for a nominal fee of �1.
Mr Bloomfield died on October 29, aged 73, after a long illness. It was at his funeral in November that the idea was first discussed between councillors and Mr Bloomfield’s daughters, said Councillor Susan Mulcahy.
“The town council would usually name a road after a mayor, but this seemed a much more fitting tribute to Mike. He really had such a great involvement in the park.
“We have mentioned it to several people and they all seem to think it’s a good idea, and you almost couldn’t get a better name than Bloomfield Park.”
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Mr Bloomfield helped steered the redevelopment of the space to become “an area of peace and quiet” within the town, which included the planting of nearly 450 new trees and shrubs and 4,000 bedding plants before completion in 1985.
He was a member of Huntingdon and Godmanchester Council from 1979 until 1982, when the two separate town councils were formed, and continued on Huntingdon Town Council until 1991.
Mr Bloomfield was chairman of Huntingdon Constituency Conservative Association and served on Huntingdonshire District Council from 1992 to 1996.
He also served as chairman of the Freemen’s Charity, was a lay reader and Eucharistic minister in the Catholic Church, served as a school governor and raised money for the Papworth Trust’s Saxongate Centre in Huntingdon.
If the plans are given the go-ahead on Thursday, the decision will be taken forward to a meeting of the Leisure and Community Services committee in February.
• What do you think? Would renaming the town park be a fitting tribute? E-mail your views to editor@huntspost.co.uk
