Guest 937- Registered: 12 May 2013
- Posts: 145
I hope I have done right, left your email address for some people who wanted to volunteer. Someone from Princes Trust is going to check out any help available - no promises.
Guest 656- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,262
Pauline, thanks for your kind comments
I'm very pleased that you passed on my email address re volunteers, they are thin on the ground but so vital to this project at Connaught Park & of course many other projects around the town. I look forward to seeing you around the park.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i think cpag will have no problem with recruiting volunteers, maximum media coverage and dog walkers who use the park will see action taking place and take an interest.
Guest 937- Registered: 12 May 2013
- Posts: 145
Has anyone approached B&Q for DIY materials help or maybe plants?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
my understanding is that d.d.c. are providing plants and ancillary stuff.
Guest 937- Registered: 12 May 2013
- Posts: 145
That's great, just a thought.
Guest 656- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,262
Ah! indeed, yes Pauline, have approached many re supplies, materials etc. Paint & Decor are very helpful re discounts & MCL graphics too. DDC have supplied us with all all 'sorts of everything' from paint to gloves etc, & with plants which the nurseries release to us end of May. DTC & other funding already mentioned is helping with other bits & pieces along the way, its an ongoing project so there will be lots more to purchase as we proceed
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
plants,its a crying shame really,the growers threw thousands of pounds of plants away because of the cold wheather.and that's only in the last few weeks.
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,543
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Andy B
- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,818
I used to work there back in the early 80s when there was about 5 of us employed just to look after the park.Tennis courts were done first thing in the morning,everything was in good order all around.I went there last year and like most things now its been run into the ground.A once beautiful park now an embarrassing overgrown mess with only the main bits mowed because its quick n easy.Council should be ashamed.
Matey, The Gov and Judith Roberts like this
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,089
The state of many public spaces locally and indeed countrywide is indeed shameful.
I have just been speaking to my brother who yesterday returned from cycling from Bangkok to Hanoi with his wife.
He found up-to-date infrastructure, excellent roads and hardly any litter all the way. There was next to no crime or graffiti. Thailand was mostly full of Thais, Laos Laotians and Viet-Nam Vietnamese, all proud of their country and pushing the next generation into education through paying for tutors and after school clubs. The whole area had a feel of optimism and modernity in spite of bits of it being bombed to oblivion within my lifetime.
Having spent last weekend in the Caliphate of Londonistan (and I was in a nice bit) using public transport with people who seemed to be waiting for a stop at the Tower of Babel, stepping over beggars as I came out of the Concert Hall and now finding my clothing reeks of 'exotic cheroots' which the yoof seem to smoking on every corner, I honestly despair of this country.
It seems it is only private space into which the great unwashed are allowed on sufferance, like the Royal Parks, the Barbican, Canary Wharf & Kings Cross Coal Drops Yard, that one feels amongst civilisation in 2024 and can use a smartphone or check the time on a half decent watch without keeping your head on a swivel, but even there one does it to the sound of the NPAS 'ghetto buzzard'.
victor matcham likes this
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Matey
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 11 Oct 2021
- Posts: 178
Poor old Connaught Park, such a shame. We walk our dog there frequently and it’s seems that’s all it’s used for these days. I think parking is the issue here, with a lay-by big enough for about eight cars and a few street spots in Park Avenue. If we look at Kearsney, sometimes it’s a job to get a parking space there now, even with an extended lot. They ought to consider making part of the lower level into a parking lot. People will use it then.
Life without a dog is like a salad without lettuce.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,089
Kearsney Abbey and Russell Gardens are super thanks in part to a National Lottery Grant of £3.1 Million back in 2014. Just think what we could have done with the £34 Million Fastrack Money!
Realistically we should not be encouraging people to drive to Kearsney.
If I had a magic wand I'd be building a shared space Sustrans quality track from the sea-front to Kearsney Gardens for pedestrians, buggies, bicycles, scooters etc to encourage non vehicular movement the length of Dover and improving the half-arsed River Dour Trail which peters out near Buckland Bridge.
(More public parks and fewer private gardens I say. Haussmann had the right idea in Paris.)
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,543
The lack of a proper riverside walk wasn't helped when the London Fancy Box factory land was built on and there is no public access through even though there is a narrow path and footbridge.
I wonder how people do not know that there's a weir there?
https://maps.app.goo.gl/oTBMRY533XQAVnjC7Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,927
Got to say Kearsney Abbey and Russell gardens are great tourism attractions.
I was in Kearsny Abbey last week it was packed
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,068
Connaught's fine. It's a town park, not a recreation ground; anyone for tennis who needs a net and not a couple of jumpers can surely fling their balls and racquets into an open-top and drive to a club somewhere.
Building a car park there would destroy the park and reward bone-idleness. I walked there (and back) this morning (5 mile round trip), and plenty of people were walking up Connaught Road and Park Lane to get to the main entrance.
With tadpoles in the pond, robins and chiff-chaffs in the trees, cherries in blossom, all that's needed is a refreshment kiosk to replace the one that used to stand here:
The Gov and victor matcham like this
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
victor matcham- Registered: 5 Oct 2021
- Posts: 1,075
Yes they were the good old days of park keepers WHEN i WAS A BOY up there most week ends with my jar and the caffe was good to flower beds were the best and the old wale bones standing there and the bird aviary lawns were cut and no mud patches .
The Gov likes this
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,927
As a youngster we used to play tennis many times a week when the courts were good and the Groundsman in place .
But with the aviary gone , it's not looking as good as it did
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Matey- Location: Dover
- Registered: 11 Oct 2021
- Posts: 178
I agree that it is undoubtedly a beautiful place to pass a few hours, but why is it then that it’s not used as much as the others? Surely if some are not as mobile as others they need to park nearby, but where? Lazyites will use a park or recreational ground where they can park. I guess ‘use it, or lose it’ fits, DDC won’t put much money into something that doesn’t get used as much. Chicken and egg?
victor matcham likes this
Life without a dog is like a salad without lettuce.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,927
It was well used
But if you let a place go into neglect them obviously it won't be used
Andy B likes this
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
The Gov and victor matcham like this'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus