The organisers of an event designed to get the community involved in sprucing up Balloch Park are calling for the public to volunteer and 'muck in'.

The new 'Balloch Park Buddies' group - formed of members of Balloch and Haldane Community Council and community members, and supported by West Dunbartonshire Council's Greenspace team - are looking for people to attend their 'Muck In Day'.

The event runs on Thursday, June 1 between 2pm and 5pm, with volunteers asked to complete a number of tidying up tasks around the park, including litter picking and the removal of invasive plant species.

Organisers also say that efforts to improve the park will also include the training of volunteers as tour guides, with organisers hoping to assist the 30 staff for the site, of which only four park rangers are based full-time on the site.

One of the event's organisers, Jan Shields, said: "We're looking to start out small and grow bigger to be able to get access to charitable grants from the council. The whole project was first mooted late last year, but then one of the main figures behind it suffered a family situation and so that's held up the process.

"We've been going out there to advertise locally and meet as many people as we can, and we've also been welcomed by local shops, who have been happy to put information leaflets into their stores.

The project's organisers are hoping they can emulate the Friends of Levengrove Park group based in Dumbarton, and hope to transform the park into a visitor attraction to draw visitors into the area, including the hosting of small music events and wood carving demonstrations in the park's walled garden.

Jan continued: "We're hoping to make the park more attractive to visitors, as people don't really know where attractions like the wood carvings are. We're trying to set up a Facebook page and even if people are busy and can only commit for one hour, then that's fine.

"It's a friendly group and you can work and blether at the same time and we're hoping to engage with some older people and some singletons along to help them meet new people, as well as trying to get some of the secondary school pupils involved."