25/08/2026
6 months into our community group - a lot of negativity online about what has been achieved!
So here's a list of what we've done in just 6 months:
Balsam .... bashed ✅️
There is a small window to balsam bash each year and we have just reached the end of that window. Why do it? Well it helps us get our native plants back and it strengthens the river bed. It may seem like this is all we have done over the last few months and that's because it had to be.
Benches ... getting replaced ✅️
Thanks to some lobbying we managed to agree with the council the old benches were not suitable and they have officially replaced them all with benches with backs
Funding...applied for ⭐
First funding application for £28k has been submitted, decision will come in November. We can only do this because we are now a community group. This has opened doors to many more opportunities even if this doesn't come to fruition.
Bank account and constitution set up ⭐
This may seem like a small thing, but this has taken a lot of effort to sort and puts us in the position we are now in to apply for funding
Trees ... getting sorted, you should see the council working on this as we speak ✅️
And things we are working on:
Our next volunteering activity - meeting scheduled
Our next grant application - currently working on
Paths (pending UU) 🙏 - working with the council to get UU to agree to path remediation has part of their work in the park
Mowing schedule 🙏 - lobbying the council to mow sections of the park
Planting bulbs and wildflowers 🙏
This is what can be achieved when we come together positively as a community. It takes a small amount of time to leave a horrid comment or complain, it take so much time to make this place better. Thank you to all our volunteers who are showing what this place can truly be for the community ⭐
