Marple Website Community Calendar
Archive => Archived Boards => Local Issues => Topic started by: admin on March 26, 2013, 10:31:32 AM
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Stockport Council are proposing savage cuts from the Parks and Open Spaces budget in 2014/2015.
£1M (30%) is planned to be cut from a budget of £3.9M.
The proposals include things like:
No longer employing people with any horticultural knowledge to look after flowerbeds, trees, shrubs and parkland.
Removing instead of repairing or replacing broken play equipment.
Removing instead of repairing or replacing broken fencing, seating, signage, and other street furniture.
Picking up litter in parks NO MORE THAN once per week.
Fewer staff based at specific parks (this will almost certainly impact Marple Memorial Park's staffing).
Removing support to Friends of Park Groups, leaving them to try and get on with a bigger work load on their own.
A cessation or reduction in the frequency of hedge trimming, cutting grass, removing graffiti, pruning, weeding and maintenance of parks.
These changes will severely impact the quality of Marple's Parks, especially Marple Memorial Park, which takes a great deal of effort to keep it looking like it does now.
This is just the start of the biggest threat to community parks we have ever seen, or are likely to see.
As a non-statutory provision green spaces are an obvious and easy target for ongoing cuts, especially if the community does not rise up and object this time around.
The council have set up an on-line consultation to give you the opportunity to have your say here:
http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/councildemocracy/yourcouncil/haveyoursay/programmeforchange/parkandopenspaces/
It is vital that as many people as possible respond to this consultation to show how highly the Marple Community values its Green Spaces.
The consultation continues until 31st May 2013. Please ask as many people as you can, all family members, neighbours, friends, etc to have their say.
The Friends of Marple Memorial Park and Stockport Greenspace Forum have asked for a paper version of this consultation for people who do not use the Internet.
Friends of Marple Memorial Park cannot stress strongly enough that this is YOUR chance to make your voice heard and to tell the powers that be that the voting public don't want this loss of service.
Please don't delay sharing your thoughts and ideas in this consultation, it is the one and only chance to do so. Do it for your children and grandchildren - imagine a time with no green spaces for them to enjoy.
When you are asked for your postcode in the consultation please fill it in so that the council know that in Marple we care about our parks!
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Done it!
I certainly value our parks and green spaces.
The survey is very simple and anonymous. All they want is your post code.
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done it too -took less than 5 mins
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Many thanks for pointing this out. Done!
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Thank you Sharky, Lily and Chicken Lady!
Please also tell all your friends through Twitter, Facebook, email and word-of-mouth too.
We managed to keep the Park Toilets open with a huge public response - we will need a bigger one if we are to succeed with this.
You can use the link below (plus your own words) to embed this page in Twitter or Facebook:
http://www.marple-uk.com/smf/index.php?topic=4979.0
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Just done it - it's a shocker, isn't it! But it's not hard to work out why it's happening now - as I understand it, the latest cuts are being forced on councils by the government's big reductions in Council Tax Benefit. Councils are having to decide whether to pass on the reduction to those who have been in receipt of the benefit, which means their Council Tax will go up, or absorb the cut by making savings. Trouble is, as Admin says, they can only make savings in non-statutory areas such as libraries, parks, museums etc. In other words, they are between a rock and a hard place.
So the wealthiest people in the country are getting a tax cut (down from 50% to 45%), funded by the running down and/or closure of parks and childrens' playgrounds. I think I'll stop now - I can feel a rant coming on..... :o
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Just done it - it's a shocker, isn't it! But it's not hard to work out why it's happening now - as I understand it, the latest cuts are being forced on councils by the government's big reductions in Council Tax Benefit. Councils are having to decide whether to pass on the reduction to those who have been in receipt of the benefit, which means their Council Tax will go up, or absorb the cut by making savings. Trouble is, as Admin says, they can only make savings in non-statutory areas such as libraries, parks, museums etc. In other words, they are between a rock and a hard place.
So the wealthiest people in the country are getting a tax cut (down from 50% to 45%), funded by the running down and/or closure of parks and childrens' playgrounds. I think I'll stop now - I can feel a rant coming on..... :o
done thanks for info
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done, but i still wonder why these survey's ask me stupid questions about my mobility, religion etc, what has that got to do with saving our parks ?
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Just done it - it's a shocker, isn't it! But it's not hard to work out why it's happening now - as I understand it, the latest cuts are being forced on councils by the government's big reductions in Council Tax Benefit. Councils are having to decide whether to pass on the reduction to those who have been in receipt of the benefit, which means their Council Tax will go up, or absorb the cut by making savings. Trouble is, as Admin says, they can only make savings in non-statutory areas such as libraries, parks, museums etc. In other words, they are between a rock and a hard place.
So the wealthiest people in the country are getting a tax cut (down from 50% to 45%), funded by the running down and/or closure of parks and childrens' playgrounds. I think I'll stop now - I can feel a rant coming on..... :o
As you know Dave there is a bit more to it than Council Tax benefits. Councils the length and breadth of the country are having to make unprecedented amounts of savings. I can't give a figure because everytime I look it seems to change although it only seems to change one way - it goes up instead of down. The last time I looked and understood the figure, Stockport had to take £45m out of its budget over a fixed period. So it really is a wonder that we've got any parks left at all. Councils are funded in the main by a "settlement" from National government. They are dependent upon this to run the services that they offer. This settlement is being systematically reduced. At one time this could have been offset locally by raising their Council Tax accordingly ( I didn't say that I SUPPORTED THAT Duke, just that they had it as an option) but now this option that has been taken away from them. So they are forced to step in line with the Coalition's "austerity programme". Add to that the treble dip - recession climate and the country is in a load of financial trouble. That's before we start to discuss the "deficit reduction"
I guess only a combination of Labour winning the next election nationally and when Stockport becomes Labour controlled in 2014 or 2015 at the latest, will the Austerity programme for Councils be rescinded but by then it may be too late for such things that do not come under the umbrella of "statutory requirement".
TOUGH TIMES EH !
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i have seen people on community service tendering the park.
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Done.
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I have completed my questionnaire!
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I have completed my questionnaire!
Thank you - please ask all your family and friends to do it too!
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On this new page on the main site are a series of posters that can be downloaded, printed and displayed to raise awareness about the council's consultation:
Please display some or all of them on your community notice board or in your shop window if you are a local business and show that you value our parks:
www.marple-uk.com/parks
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Continuing to try and raise awareness of the Parks and Open Spaces Budget Cuts Consultation with as many local people as possible, the following resources are now available:
A double-A5 Flyer:
www.marple-uk.com/parks/MARPLE-PARKS-IN-DANGER.pdf
The challenge with this is for everyone who cares about their parks to print off half a dozen or so of these and distribute them to your friends and neighbours.
A two page (or double-sided) paper version of the questionnaire:
www.marple-uk.com/parks/PARKS-CONSULTATION-SHORT-VERSION.pdf
This is for people who cannot access the Internet. You can print it off and get them to fill it out and then you can enter on-line for them, or it can be sent to me to have it entered on-line (72 Woodville Drive, Marple, SK6 7QX).
There is also a 6 page version produced by the council that can be sent to them via FREEPOST
(they will not accept the two page paper version in the post):
www.marple-uk.com/parks/Parks-and-Open-Spaces-Freepost-Questionnaire.pdf
Finally for now, here is a one page set of FAQs provided by the council about the proposed cuts:
www.marple-uk.com/parks/PARKS-CONSULTATION-FAQs-3-4-2013-1.pdf
Everything available here too: www.marple-uk.com/parks
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A BIG THANK YOU to All Saints' Primary School for including details about the park budget cuts and a link to www.marple-uk.com/parks in their weekly newsletter this week so that parents will be aware of the risk to our play areas due to the proposal to remove instead of repairing or replacing play equipment that breaks and giving them the opportunity to have their say in the on-line consultation.
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And thank you to Marple Hall School for spreading the word about the consultation on proposed Parks and Open Spaces budget cuts that will damage our parks in Marple: http://www.marplehall.stockport.sch.uk/index.php/news/story/217
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Done it. Must go and visit the Pitch and Putt to see what the fuss is about in Stockport Council.
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Green spaces boosts wellbeing of urban dwellers - study:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22214070#main-content
Another good reason to do the consultation on-line to save our parks from cuts:
www.marple-uk.com/parks
If you have done it already, please share it with some friends.
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@stockportlabour: Question from public gallery on Lib Dem plans to close 2 winter bowling greens and 7 summer bowling greens
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Just done it - it's a shocker, isn't it! But it's not hard to work out why it's happening now - as I understand it, the latest cuts are being forced on councils by the government's big reductions in Council Tax Benefit. Councils are having to decide whether to pass on the reduction to those who have been in receipt of the benefit, which means their Council Tax will go up, or absorb the cut by making savings. Trouble is, as Admin says, they can only make savings in non-statutory areas such as libraries, parks, museums etc. In other words, they are between a rock and a hard place.
So the wealthiest people in the country are getting a tax cut (down from 50% to 45%), funded by the running down and/or closure of parks and childrens' playgrounds. I think I'll stop now - I can feel a rant coming on..... :o
Sigh, Dave you really are thick sometimes
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Sigh, Dave you really are thick sometimes
Sorry for the insult Dave but you know the standard Labour Party line on this is utter rubbish.
Stock ports interpretation is wrong, there are better ways of financing parks. Sponsorship and big society is the way
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Stockport Council are proposing savage cuts from the Parks and Open Spaces budget in 2014/2015.
£1M (30%) is planned to be cut from a budget of £3.9M.
The proposals include things like:
No longer employing people with any horticultural knowledge to look after flowerbeds, trees, shrubs and parkland. I don't see this as a massive problem, outsourcing is fine and when not get the 'friends of XYZ park' to invite sponsorship for a year!
Removing instead of repairing or replacing broken play equipment.This is nuts, again sponsorship should be able to keep things in order, if the sponsor can have a hoarding placed around a play area and that will pay for upkeep
Removing instead of repairing or replacing broken fencing, seating, signage, and other street furniture. .agina, this is daft, again sponsorship should be able to keep things in order,
Picking up litter in parks NO MORE THAN once per week..Ok I suppose
Fewer staff based at specific parks (this will almost certainly impact Marple Memorial Park's staffing). Ok I suppose, empowering the freids of the park should do
Removing support to Friends of Park Groups, leaving them to try and get on with a bigger work load on their own.Ok I suppose again, as long as they are empowered to do the work and maybe give a bit of budget.
A cessation or reduction in the frequency of hedge trimming, cutting grass, removing graffiti, pruning, weeding and maintenance of parks. Ok the sponsorship idea civers the flower beds
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Duke,
As Treasurer of Friends of Marple Memorial Park I would like to invite you to "walk the talk" and become our sponsorship fund raiser.
Here's our current shopping list:
We need £1,700 +VAT before the end of May to hold a skateboarding and BMX event as part of Marple Carnival. Find it for us please.
We need a little over £15,000 to reach our match-funding target of £20,000 so that we can apply for a grant of around £80,000 to build a new skate park. Find it for us please - or even better - just find us £100k and we can get it built without all the messing about with grant applications.
We need around £5,000 to build a new bespoke set of Iron Railings around the war memorial for 2014 - 100 years since the start of WWI. Find it for us please.
We need somewhere between £50,000 and £100,000 for another project that we'd like to do to commemorate the Great War between 2014 and 2018. I should have a better idea of the cost soon but don't let that stop you - find it for us please.
Come and join us to help plant a new rose hedge around the war memorial beds tomorrow and between digging you can chat with me about your ideas of how you will raise all this fantastic sponsorship for us.
If you can do even a fraction of this for us over the next 6 months we'll help you with your campaign to become a Marple Councillor in the 2014 elections. We'll make you a local hero!
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Duke,
As Treasurer of Friends of Marple Memorial Park I would like to invite you to "walk the talk" and become our sponsorship fund raiser.
Here's our current shopping list:
We need £1,700 +VAT before the end of May to hold a skateboarding and BMX event as part of Marple Carnival. Find it for us please.
We need a little over £15,000 to reach our match-funding target of £20,000 so that we can apply for a grant of around £80,000 to build a new skate park. Find it for us please - or even better - just find us £100k and we can get it built without all the messing about with grant applications.
We need around £5,000 to build a new bespoke set of Iron Railings around the war memorial for 2014 - 100 years since the start of WWI. Find it for us please.
We need somewhere between £50,000 and £100,000 for another project that we'd like to do to commemorate the Great War between 2014 and 2018. I should have a better idea of the cost soon but don't let that stop you - find it for us please.
Come and join us to help plant a new rose hedge around the war memorial beds tomorrow and between digging you can chat with me about your ideas of how you will raise all this fantastic sponsorship for us.
If you can do even a fraction of this for us over the next 6 months we'll help you with your campaign to become a Marple Councillor in the 2014 elections. We'll make you a local hero!
As it happens, I could be seeing Decathalon & sports Direct in the next 2 months. If you can let me have the design for the skate park and perhaps and proposals of how much advertising space there can be, I will approach them. I am working tomorrow so I can't do the rose digging tomorrow but the next one, if I'm available, I'll happily put in a couple of hours.
What is needed for the BMX & Skate competition? Why £1700 + vat? It's not really my bag but there could be something I can do.
Not sure that the iron railings are needed, the memoprial looks good to me.
The little 5-a-side pitch on th epark could do with a spruce up, I'll have a think on poetential sponsors to provide perimeter advertising around the pitch.
In terms of sponsoring flower beds, I can take on two flower beds for the summer.
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As it happens, I could be seeing Decathalon & sports Direct in the next 2 months. If you can let me have the design for the skate park and perhaps and proposals of how much advertising space there can be, I will approach them. I am working tomorrow so I can't do the rose digging tomorrow but the next one, if I'm available, I'll happily put in a couple of hours.
What is needed for the BMX & Skate competition? Why £1700 + vat? It's not really my bag but there could be something I can do.
Not sure that the iron railings are needed, the memoprial looks good to me.
The little 5-a-side pitch on th epark could do with a spruce up, I'll have a think on poetential sponsors to provide perimeter advertising around the pitch.
In terms of sponsoring flower beds, I can take on two flower beds for the summer.
The designs are here:
http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/projects/skate-park-improvements.html
http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/memorialpark/Bendcrete-Marple-Skate-Park.pdf
http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/memorialpark/Acrete-Marple-Skate-Park.pdf
There is a 3D animated video of the Acrete design on the Facebook page (19 Feb 2012): http://www.facebook.com/marpleskatepark
I know nothing about advertising space, so hopefully you can sort that out and come up with some proposals.
Good luck with Decathlon - we approached them about some prizes for a raffle and they ignored us.
£1700 +VAT is the price quoted by an Extreme Sports Company to provide a professional skateboarder, a professional BMX rider and a compare and equipment to put on 4 x 10 minute demos on Carnival Day. They would be there from 10am to 4pm and in between the demonstrations they would coach local skate park users and possibly run a couple of small competitions. The purpose is to raise awareness of the skate park project, get the kids more engaged on developing the final design, raising money etc and to produce a video of the day with interviews etc that will help with the grant application. Pretty much all the details are in place, I just need the money please.
I wasn't asking you do decide if railings are needed - the Friends of the Park have decided that it is an improvement we would like to make. Your brief is to raise the money for it please.
There are covenants on the park that forbid organised team games like football and cricket so we might have trouble selling the 5-a-side idea but by all means come up with some proposals and we will see if we can make them work.
A sponsor for the summer bedding in the Diamond Jubilee Project bed would be extremely welcome. £500 would go most of the way to covering it. Please make your cheque payable to "Friends of Marple Memorial Park" and send to me at 72 Woodville Drive, Marple, SK6 7QX. Or even better, donate it through localgiving.com and we will get Gift Aid too:
https://localgiving.com/charity/fommp
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It's good to see Alan Titchmarsh speaking out about the same things that concern local Friends of Parks Group like our own and others throughout Stockport:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/394837/Alan-Titchmarsh-hits-at-cuts-for-city-parks
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The designs are here:
http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/projects/skate-park-improvements.html
http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/memorialpark/Bendcrete-Marple-Skate-Park.pdf
http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/memorialpark/Acrete-Marple-Skate-Park.pdf
There is a 3D animated video of the Acrete design on the Facebook page (19 Feb 2012): http://www.facebook.com/marpleskatepark
I know nothing about advertising space, so hopefully you can sort that out and come up with some proposals.
Good luck with Decathlon - we approached them about some prizes for a raffle and they ignored us.
£1700 +VAT is the price quoted by an Extreme Sports Company to provide a professional skateboarder, a professional BMX rider and a compare and equipment to put on 4 x 10 minute demos on Carnival Day. They would be there from 10am to 4pm and in between the demonstrations they would coach local skate park users and possibly run a couple of small competitions. The purpose is to raise awareness of the skate park project, get the kids more engaged on developing the final design, raising money etc and to produce a video of the day with interviews etc that will help with the grant application. Pretty much all the details are in place, I just need the money please.
I wasn't asking you do decide if railings are needed - the Friends of the Park have decided that it is an improvement we would like to make. Your brief is to raise the money for it please.
There are covenants on the park that forbid organised team games like football and cricket so we might have trouble selling the 5-a-side idea but by all means come up with some proposals and we will see if we can make them work.
A sponsor for the summer bedding in the Diamond Jubilee Project bed would be extremely welcome. £500 would go most of the way to covering it. Please make your cheque payable to "Friends of Marple Memorial Park" and send to me at 72 Woodville Drive, Marple, SK6 7QX. Or even better, donate it through localgiving.com and we will get Gift Aid too:
https://localgiving.com/charity/fommp
I must admit, I'm not that much of a fan of the concrete thing but I do think that provision of sports areas. My immediate thought was that £75k buys a lot of football goals which would get a lot more kids active. Nevertheless, to get sponsorship, there has to be something in it for the sponsor which means some constant visibility, advertising on the runs themselves of perimeter bill boards but I suspect the value of this will be more in line with general maintenance. When I were a lad, BMX was the craze and the lads who were into it made a bmx park out of bits of spare building materials and their Dad's then got together and made it a little safer. That skate park is still there and more popular than ever but it was done on a shoestring.
I'm saddened that there are covenants on the park that forbid team sports, what is a park for? there is a little five a side pitch, it needs another set of goals and a little bit of advertising along the side should pay for that.
As for flower beds, I was thinking more that local businesses 'adopt' a flower bed from Spring to autumn with a token payment of say £50 for a starter set - including a plaque etc and then the local business maintains the flower bed for the period. That way, the park is kept looking good and the business get's it's name in lights or flowers.
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I'm saddened that there are covenants on the park that forbid team sports, what is a park for? there is a little five a side pitch, it needs another set of goals and a little bit of advertising along the side should pay for that.
The covenants were made by the Carver and Barlow families when they donated the land to the community 90-odd years ago in memory of the Marple men who fell during the war. They probably had what were then good reasons to do so that we no longer understand. But as I said in my earlier post, if you come up with some realistic and practical proposals for the funding of a 5-a-side pitch then we will see if we can make them work. It would certainly get the support of the Bowling Community if it would stop kids playing football on the green. So stop talking and do it.
As for flower beds, I was thinking more that local businesses 'adopt' a flower bed from Spring to autumn with a token payment of say £50 for a starter set - including a plaque etc and then the local business maintains the flower bed for the period. That way, the park is kept looking good and the business get's it's name in lights or flowers.
The Friends of the Park have already adopted the flowerbeds. We had to in order to stop them from being grassed over a couple of years ago during the first round of park budget cuts. I understand that we were the only park in Stockport that managed to do this. We raised £1,500 to plant them out with perennials and now all they need is maintenance and top-up planting that can be covered by volunteers, plants donated by the public and a few quid here and there.
£50 is barely enough to buy a decent small plaque, let alone something to mount it on, and I don't believe you could find a local business prepared or able to put in the time required to manage a bed by themselves. But if you can then I'm happy to be proved wrong and we will make a bed available for them. But you need to hurry up because spring is upon us!
There are opportunities for businesses to sponsor flowerbeds - there is the replanting of the Jubliee bed that I've already mentioned with a budget of around £500. We have also just planted a rose hedge around the edges of the War Memorial beds as part of our plans to commemorate the approaching WWI centenaries. The cost of this is approx £200 and it could be sponsored by local businesses for that sum plus the cost of suitable discrete plaques to publicise the fact.
I must admit, I'm not that much of a fan of the concrete thing but I do think that provision of sports areas. My immediate thought was that £75k buys a lot of football goals which would get a lot more kids active. Nevertheless, to get sponsorship, there has to be something in it for the sponsor which means some constant visibility, advertising on the runs themselves of perimeter bill boards but I suspect the value of this will be more in line with general maintenance. When I were a lad, BMX was the craze and the lads who were into it made a bmx park out of bits of spare building materials and their Dad's then got together and made it a little safer. That skate park is still there and more popular than ever but it was done on a shoestring.
If you were in touch with what goes on locally then you would know that the kids built their own BMX track here too, in Brabyns Park, but the council destroyed it. The existing skate park in Memorial Park was built in 2000 as result of local users campaigning for it. Some of those same users are working with us now to try and improve it. You asked for plans and I've given them to you. Now I sense that after suggesting that you can talk to Decathlon and Sports Direct if you had these you are now wriggling on this and you are not really interested in trying to help at all.
No worries Duke, it's what I expected from you and proves to me that your talk of sponsorship is just that. Talk! Prove me wrong - I'll be delighted.
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The covenants were made by the Carver and Barlow families when they donated the land to the community 90-odd years ago in memory of the Marple men who fell during the war. They probably had what were then good reasons to do so that we no longer understand. But as I said in my earlier post, if you come up with some realistic and practical proposals for the funding of a 5-a-side pitch then we will see if we can make them work. It would certainly get the support of the Bowling Community if it would stop kids playing football on the green. So stop talking and do it.
The Friends of the Park have already adopted the flowerbeds. We had to in order to stop them from being grassed over a couple of years ago during the first round of park budget cuts. I understand that we were the only park in Stockport that managed to do this. We raised £1,500 to plant them out with perennials and now all they need is maintenance and top-up planting that can be covered by volunteers, plants donated by the public and a few quid here and there.
£50 is barely enough to buy a decent small plaque, let alone something to mount it on, and I don't believe you could find a local business prepared or able to put in the time required to manage a bed by themselves. But if you can then I'm happy to be proved wrong and we will make a bed available for them. But you need to hurry up because spring is upon us!
There are opportunities for businesses to sponsor flowerbeds - there is the replanting of the Jubliee bed that I've already mentioned with a budget of around £500. We have also just planted a rose hedge around the edges of the War Memorial beds as part of our plans to commemorate the approaching WWI centenaries. The cost of this is approx £200 and it could be sponsored by local businesses for that sum plus the cost of suitable discrete plaques to publicise the fact.
If you were in touch with what goes on locally then you would know that the kids built their own BMX track here too, in Brabyns Park, but the council destroyed it. The existing skate park in Memorial Park was built in 2000 as result of local users campaigning for it. Some of those same users are working with us now to try and improve it. You asked for plans and I've given them to you. Now I sense that after suggesting that you can talk to Decathlon and Sports Direct if you had these you are now wriggling on this and you are not really interested in trying to help at all.
No worries Duke, it's what I expected from you and proves to me that your talk of sponsorship is just that. Talk! Prove me wrong - I'll be delighted.
I can't say I'm really in touch with the history of the park, I've only lived here a couple of years but i suspect I know about as much as 99% of the park users. Most park users really just want it to be 'nice', that's not to say we should forget it's history but it must, primarily, be fit for purpose in a modern era.
I think the problem with the sponsorship you talk of is the word 'discrete'. Sponsors don't want discrete, they want to be noticed.
As you suggest, it may be a little late for this year but I'll get a company to take over a flower bed for next year.
As for the 5-a-side pitch, I think I can get a company to supply two goals and a perimeter fence in exchage for 3 years of advertising around the pitch.
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There is a further opportunity to possibly have some influence on the people making decisions on park budget cuts following the consultation that finished at the end of May.
Please sign this petition started by Friends of Cale Green Park. As with anything like this numbers will make a difference, so please share through FB, Twitter, email and word-of-mouth:
Please sign this petition to tell SMBC that we do not want their proposed cuts to our parks budgets.
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/stockport-council-abandon-plans-to-reduce-funding-for-parks-open-spaces-by-1-million#
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According to today's Stockport Express the council has now settled this issue with a limited range of cuts. So, for example, they will be replacing specialist trained staff with untrained people. However, some of the threatened cuts will not happen after all - broken park benches and playground equipment will continue to be repaired or replaced, and graffiti will be removed. So it looks like a welcome, if partial, success for the 'Save our Parks' campaign. :)
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According to today's Stockport Express the council has now settled this issue with a limited range of cuts. So, for example, they will be replacing specialist trained staff with untrained people. However, some of the threatened cuts will not happen after all - broken park benches and playground equipment will continue to be repaired or replaced, and graffiti will be removed. So it looks like a welcome, if partial, success for the 'Save our Park's campaign. :)
Isn't that a success for the Council consultation process rather than any campaign Dave.
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Of course it is, wheels - please pass on our thanks and congratulations to the Leader!
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Of course it is, wheels - please pass on our thanks and congratulations to the Leader!
If I ever see her I will
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If I ever see her I will
Some people have no time for home life these days : send her an e-card instead then ;)
Anyway, the article concerning the Council and savings cuts was posted on the Stockport Express website last week : http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/stockport-council-chief-grazing-llamas-4923311 (http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/stockport-council-chief-grazing-llamas-4923311).
The council’s savings target has now been slashed to £550,000 after public opposition. Council bosses have scrapped plans to no longer replace broken equipment, reduce litter picking and cut maintenance.
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I am not sure what the point of quoting a council press release is?????
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I am not sure what the point of quoting a council press release is??
The point of quoting a press release is to bring it to the attention of people who may not have seen it before, so thank you SGK for doing that.
And this is a (partial) victory for the campaign to prevent the cuts. If the consultation had not been widely publicised across the borough by groups like Friends of Marple Memorial Park then it would not have had the response that it did because far fewer people would have been aware of it. Of course it remains to be seen what the real impact on parks will be. It is not clear what the council's actual plans are yet. There has been no results of the consultation published yet, no feedback to stakeholder groups, particularly with one of the remaining key issues, which is whether they will support Friends of Parks group task days. Removal of support for friends groups will be counter productive for parks - if the council really wanted to save money then they would increase support to groups like Friends of Memorial Park. It's not rocket science - what gets more work done at a lower cost? A council operative working on his own or a council operative working with 10 volunteers? Simples - but the people making these decisions don't seem to get it.
Thankfully nobody seems to be listening to Dr Stephen Watkins Sheep and Llama grazing ideas either!
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Removal of support for friends groups will be counter productive for parks - if the council really wanted to save money then they would increase support to groups like Friends of Memorial Park. It's not rocket science - what gets more work done at a lower cost? A council operative working on his own or a council operative working with 10 volunteers? Simples - but the people making these decisions don't seem to get it.
Absolutely! Perhaps wheels could kindly have a quiet word in the ear of one of the 'people making these decisions' and ask her to sort this out.
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I see Dave that's how you think the democratic process should work is it.
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If it's good enough for Dave and Sam Cam, wheels....... ;) http://news.sky.com/story/1115922/syria-samantha-cameron-pushing-for-action
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Here is part of an email sent out by Stockport Greenspace Forum chair Sue Colman yesterday in relation to the Parks and Open Spaces Consultation:
A big vote of thanks is due to all the Friends groups and the Greenspace Forum for the response to the Council Consultation on the proposed £1m cut to the Parks green space maintenance budget.
Over 2,800 responses were received – the highest level received by any previous online Council consultation and this is due to all the work the Forum and Friends Groups did in organising local meetings, urging community groups to take part and making everyone aware of the threat to the maintenance of parks and green spaces.
On the 12th July the Executive Committee of Stockport Council accepted the results of the consultation and agreed to reduce the cut to the Parks budget to about £550,000, half the amount that was originally planned.
Stockport Greenspace Forum meets regularly with Councillor Stuart Bodsworth, Executive Councillor for Communities & Sustainability, Megan Black, Head of Public Realm and Barry Brockbank from SolutionsSK. During these meetings, problems reported by Friends groups are discussed and very often action taken immediately, and the views of the Forum are taken into consideration on a variety of issues.
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Be interesting to know if in their representations these people identified who else should alternatively lose services to save their parks. Or don't they accept that level of responsibility???
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I don't see why we should expect people to do that, as they are not always privy to the detailed information which would enable them to make informed suggestions of this sort. People should be entitled to make their case for council services they regard as important, and no doubt others will exercise their right to argue for the preservation of services which they are interested in. Then it's up to councillors to do what we elected them to do - make difficult decisions.
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Good point, Wheels.
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I don't see why we should expect people to do that, as they are not always privy to the detailed information which would enable them to make informed suggestions of this sort. People should be entitled to make their case for council services they regard as important, and no doubt others will exercise their right to argue for the preservation of services which they are interested in. Then it's up to councillors to do what we elected them to do - make difficult decisions.
Dave following that line I don't see that those objecting to savings in the parks budget have the detailed information to allow then to object to the savings either. I think if a group or individual is saying NO to savings in this particular area then they have a responsibility to at least identify what general area equivalent savings should be made from.
You want to save money from parks then lets take it from Adult social care, support for SMEs etc. Anything less just looks like self interest.
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If I remember correctly the Council have consulted the public previously on ideas and opinions on where to make savings.
This consultation was specifically about the parks proposed savings not the overall budget. Clearly these proposals were unpopular and the Council should take notice of these opinions and consider alternatives. As council tax payers and having elected our Councillors, we can expect the Council to come up with the alternatives. It is not the responsibility of those responding to a specific consultation. They are giving informed opinions on this subject. Anything more is in danger of losing the focus of the specific proposals in question.