Palacerigg animal campaigners want to focus on crowdfunding campaign

Palacerigg Animal Park Community Interest Company has ambitious plans to re-instate many of the favourite breeds to the rural spot which controversially lost all its livestock last year.

North Lanarkshire Council said it could no longer afford to keep it on and saved £69,000 by winding up the operation - and has made much of the fact that a new £400,000 adventure playground has opened at the park.

However, many locals have insisted that the facility is just not the same without the animals.

The group’s fundraising focus to date has mainly fallen on the sale of a children’s book penned and illustrated by Moodiesburn man John Rankine called ‘My First Animals.’

Spokesperson Jennifer Milne said explained: “The GoFundMe was set up in November but we decided to concentrate on delivering the 90 book orders we received through our Facebook page, in time for Christmas

“So we have now started to spread the word of our go fund me campaign.”

“We’ve applied for different grants in order to make this possible but this is a long process and in order to start the ball rolling we are looking for help with set- up costs.

The aim is to raise £5,000 for start-up costs and a link to the funding page appears on the group’s own Facebook page.