IN its centenary year, Sunnyhurst Woods and its Friends have a lot to celebrate and even more to look forward to thanks to a dedicated bunch of supporters.

The wood was acquired by public conscription to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII in 1903. The 85-acre site was opened to the public in July the same year.

Peter Jepson, a professional ecologist and chair of the Blackburn Naturalists' Field Club, works closely in conjunction with the Friends.

He said: "The woods are very special because most areas throughout the country are referred to as semi-natural and Sunnyhurst Woods is an ancient wood. This means it's a very natural environment and it's been wooded for centuries without any interference from man.

"The woods was selected as a Biological Heritage Site through a partnership comprising of professional ecologists, Lancashire County Council, Lancashire Wildlife Trust and English Nature, meaning the site is important in a county and national context."

Friends of Sunnyhurst Woods was established in 2000 and a call for help attracted more than 80 keen residents to the first public meeting.

Dennis Gillibrand, Friends chair, said: "We set out the chairs for our first meeting and we were inundated. It meant a lot to me that so many people were interested in the upkeep of the area.

"We set up a wish-list of everything we wanted to do and set about doing it."

The group now sees a core group of 25 people at each monthly meeting and has 80 members in total.

Mr Gillibrand said: "We exist as a pressure group and liaise between the council and members of the public. The group is a forum for people to get their views across and we can apply for money that the council can't obtain for us. An important part of the group is encouraging people to use the woods and promoting what we have here in Darwen.

"Members spend a lot of time in the woods, walking dogs and enjoying the nature. This is why we are in such a good position because we can see what's going on and then make suggestions ."

In the past two years, the group has attracted more than £1,000 for benches in the woods for visitors to the beauty spot, as well as a £3,250 National Lottery Awards grant to repair a 95-year-old drinking fountain. Blackburn with Darwen Council gave £74,000 to the Friends for the removal of sick and dying trees at the beginning of the year.

Mr Gillibrand said: "We have 7,000 trees in the woods and we had a survey done because some of our members noticed that a fair few were not looking too good.

"Experts discovered that 900 of them were either sick, dying or dead and so we obtained the cash to have them uprooted. It made the area look much better."

National Urban Parks Forum director Alan Barber said: "This groups is a great example of how the community can work together to preserve an area of natural beauty."

Seven out of the borough's 11 parks have supporters' groups and the council's onus is on developing more.

Bold Venture Park in Darwen is in the process of establishing itself and has already created a logo for the group and organised park clean-up sessions for local volunteers to get involved. Ashton Park is also attracting supporters to its cause and council parks chiefs are looking to begin a group around the area.

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen council said: "The parks and open spaces of Blackburn with Darwen play a major role within people's everyday lives. The council has been working in partnership with the various supporters' groups to develop parks across the borough."