A councillor is hoping to brighten up a dark corner of Douglas.

Natalie Byron is determined to push on with her idea to open up the overgrown land that runs alongside the Cinder Path that connects Peel Road with the Hillside estate, despite a setback at the town hall.

Her initial proposal did not find full favour with the rest of Douglas Council, but a number of her colleagues have welcomed the principle of a project and encouraged her to go back to the regeneration committee with a fuller scheme.

She had suggested the creation of a recreational space within the copse, at the bottom end of the Cinder Path. Currently it is used as a dumping ground for everything from old prams to needles.

A subsequent report from the parks department suggested the installation of picnic benches, removal of fencing and thinning out of the woodland floor to create grass and wildflower areas, which could be done for £13,000.

The regeneration and community committee approved that idea, but, when it went to the executive committee, it did not receive support.

Miss Byron told the Manx Independent: ’Initially, I was quite frustrated. It had taken a long time to get to that.

’I am going to go back to the parks department.’

She added: ’The hope is to make something nice. I really wanted to have a community garden there, for the school and the people who live in the area.’

At the moment, she said, people would go through a hole in the fence and it was littered with all sorts of unsavoury rubbish.

She said the state of the land must be of concern to the residents whose homes and gardens backed onto it.

At last week’s council meeting, some of Miss Byron’s colleagues raised concerns about how dark the site might be and recalled instances of people passing through the pathway at night, using the land to ditch drinks and other things.

Miss Byron, who lives in the Hillside estate, argued that was a problem already and that opening up the area could improve it.

She offered to talk to executive committee chairman David Christian to discuss any further concerns.

Stephen Pitts threw his support behind Miss Byron, saying he was disappointed the committee had not given the scheme the go ahead.

Mr Christian said previous clean-ups of the area had revealed everything from old prams and bikes to bottles and dirty needles in the area.

Miss Byron’s scheme needed to be wider-reaching, he suggested, and incorporate issues such as lighting.

’In all honesty, this was just sticking a plaster on a sore,’ he added.

’If members are saying they want to do something for the community, then that whole area needs looking at and a proper scheme put forward.’