Trying to win on the National Lottery can be an obsession but the Friends Committee has been working hard to do just that through the Community Spaces Fund. We submitted an application for funding for the following projects.
■ Creation of a proper footway between the car park off the A6 down to the lake through the wood
■ Further work to up-date existing nature trail and create a new trail for Big Wood
■ Works to combat erosion of the lake banks
■ Further clearance of invasive rhododendron and sycamore in Big Wood to allow native tree re-planting
On 16 July FOAP Chairman, John Menzies sent our application to the Lottery Commission Community Spaces Fund, beating the deadline by two weeks! In doing so John wished to acknowledge the sterling efforts of Committee member Edwin Slade, who, like John himself, has spent a great deal of time in co-ordinating the application. We also had a lot of good advice from Beth Golland who was appointed by the Fund as our facilitator.
At the Council we were given sound technical advice and help by several officers, particularly Hilary Nelmes, the Parks Management Team’s Landscape Officer, who deserves our special thanks. We are also grateful to Councillor Roy Webb for agreeing to act as our Referee.
A good number of ordinary members and local organisations have been very helpful in responding to Pat Sears’ consultation requests – thank you!
STOP PRESS:
We are pleased to announce that we have now heard that our application has been approved and orders for the work have been issued. The Committee is now discussing arrangments for a big launch event on the Park for Saturday 16th June 2012.
Sycamore Clearance: At the tjme of writing - 3rd November - members of the British Trust for Nature Conservation are clearing sycamore from the central part of Big Wood, followed by some rhododendron clearance. We will be re-planting with native trees and shrubs in the autumn of 2012.
Nature Trails: Committee member Bill Grange has now completely written and re-designed the leaflet for the existing nature trail (which goes around the lake) and composed a completely new one for Big Wood. Both have a wealth of photos of a wide selection of the Park's rich wildlife (actuiually taken in the Park), accompanied by much information. These will be produced in time for the big launch day in June. New numbered posts have been ordered for the woodland trail.
Lake shore stabilisation works and new path down to the lake from the main car park:
We hope that work on these projects will take place before the end of 2011.
