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.
Topic: Parks and Open Spaces Consultation - SAVE OUR PARKS (Read 15069 times)