A DEVELOPER’S £500,000 “gift” to a council means a country park can finally be opened up to the public.

Kevin Britton made the donation to Tendring Council to allow Brook Country Park, Clacton, to open.

The park is part of Britton Construction’s £30million out-of-town shopping development, which opened more than four years ago, with traders including Tesco, Pizza Hut and B&Q.

The country park was created under the deal which gave Mr Britton planning permission for the retail park, following a public inquiry in 2001.

But the gates of the 34-acre green space have remained closed while negotiations between the developer and council continued.

Now the freehold of the site, along with funding to maintain it, has been passed to the council by Mr Britton, although the council says work still needs to be carried out to prepare the land for public use.

Mr Britton said: “Instead of managing and maintaining the site myself, I decided to gift it to the council and have provided a figure approaching £500,000 to get it open to the public and maintain it for ten years.

“This will be good for everyone and I will be delighted to see it officially open.”

The council hopes to appoint contractors to build a car park, paths, signs and fittings in the next few months.

Neil Stock, leader of the council, said he was pleased all the legal work had been completed.

He said: “Tendring has been identified as not having enough large areas of publicly-accessible informal open space, such as country parks.

“Brook Country Park will make a significant impact on this situation for the Clacton area.”

Grass will be left long in much of the park and cut just once a year, to encourage wildlife. However, paths will be mown across the land with a hard path to allow disabled people to enjoy the park.