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Well here I am back in the saddle after two weeks of being struck down by the awful flu bug. Many thanks to the guys who wished me well, really appreciated your good wishes, always welcoming when one is feeling so very ill. I'd only had the flu jab the week before I was floored and as Carole said it was like being run over by a portacabin although in my case it felt more like a truck full of portacabins. Still onwards and upwards now and I'm so thankful to be on the mend.
Re Connaught Park, it was full steam ahead after my meeting at the Castle Forum evening starting with a follow up meeting and a detailed walk around the park with Denise and Liz from the Castle Forum. They are both very committed with lots of ideas and we are working very closely together to help kick-start our plans into action. We were fortunate on the day to meet with the Park Keeper, a lovely and very dedicated man called Alan. We learned a lot from him and told him about our plans to formulate our ideas into helping with the upkeep of the park.
As we already know funds have been secured for the repair of the ornamental pond and works are due to be undertaken this financial year (weather permitting). I am now very happy to report back that as part of the programmed works there will also be the refurbishment of the last remaining Victorian shelter as well as minor footpath repairs and additional soft landscaping works including pruning and tidying. As I understand it, DDC are currently investigating the possibility of external funding through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Apparently they are looking at using Kearsney Abbey as the initial site and if successful they would look at a similar scheme for Connaught Park as it is deemed to be one of the Council's main strategic parks. Naturally, I'm disappointed that Connaught is not their initial site test park, as personally in my view, it would make more sense as Connaught so desperately needs to get back up to scratch. However, there is no doubt that Kearsney Abbey is the more obvious choice, it attracts more visitors including people from neighbouring districts made more likely of course by the cafe on site and that all important asset, parking facilities which Connaught so sadly lacks.
I had my second detailed walk around the park with none other than our own KCC/DDC Cllr, one, Nigel Collor. Nigel is very enthusiastic indeed and is also helping me with lots of sound advice. Currently I have still got some important and influential people to see as yet with regard to funding etc, as I got a bit waylaid recently with that dreaded flu bug so lots more avenues to explore yet. I was happy to see that the long grasses on the renowned snowboarding slopes have been cut.
Meanwhile, I have settled on a name which will be C PAG, Connaught Park Appreciation Group under the umbrella of the Castle Forum. I will endeavour to get some cards printed shortly. In the first instance I envisage starting on the lower part of the park just inside the main gate where the aviary is situated. This aviary is very well looked after by a lovely lady called Janet and indeed is a great credit to her. To my delight, Alan, the Park Keeper has told me that apparently the area that runs right along from the aviary down to the absent cafe space (this area is in a sorry state at present) is to be tidied up entirely by the Council hopefully in the New Year, again weather permitting and if so (I will get confirmation of this soon) we could start to sow seeds there in the New Year after taking advice on when and what to sow from some experienced gardeners. Also I would endeavour to plant in the four flower beds and the larger fifth one, the one with the birdbath that sits opposite the once occupied cafe area. The benches along that area are on my agenda too, sanding down and repainting, they need doing very badly indeed. Some are missing too, so I will look at replacing them. The dilapidated hard tennis courts are currently unlocked so they need new strong padlocks to be put in place for over the Winter period. Poster boards at the pond area also need sorting as they in a bad state of repair.
Needless to say, I am looking for volunteers willing to put their names into the hat to help with the projects mentioned above at weekends. Of course you don't need to be available every weekend, I appreciate most people are busy but maybe you might be able to spare the odd few hours. I will be approaching some garden centres and paint suppliers for help with the materials needed towards our first baby steps. Just email me if you can join the volunteer list.
There are oodles of other ideas swimming around in my head but we need a starting point. As we go along we can tackle other issues such as improved tennis facilities, in the summer months particularly around Wimbledon time and we need new nets too. We need to look into the possibility of including Connaught Park on the bus route to help those less able to get to the park, of course parking facilities would be the answer, but I'm guessing that's a long way down the line if ever. Perhaps a mobile refreshment van for the Summer period, space already there of course. Also approaching various schools in the area with view to students taking over a part of the park to cultivate and plant flowers. We could also look into the Community Payback Scheme too which I suspect is a little more complex.
Must mention that awesome picture postcard that Kath posted, it was wonderful to see the Park in all its splendour
That's it for now folks.