11/02/2026
This is the Chair's report for the 2026 AGM in full.
Chairman’s 2025 Review
It is a daunting task trying to summarise 2025 in a few paragraphs as there have been so many pivotal moments as a group, however, I shall try..
We walked into 2025 with the Knowledge that we had been nominated for the Kings Award for Voluntary Service – we quickly learned that we had passed that initial vetting stage and were due to be interviewed by members of their committee in the Spring.
The preparation that went into this was huge – compiling evidence of our achievements as a group, statistics etc took many hours of work.
We met with Ruth Hussey CB OBE and Robert Owen on 20th February 2025. We enjoyed a wonderful few hours with them, telling them about our wonderful park and what we do to keep it a well cared for, community space for everyone – they were blown away by our efforts and it certainly felt special to have this kind of spotlight on what we do.
After many more emails they were able to submit our application and we just had to wait like all other nominees for the outcome.
So, whilst this was bubbling along, we made our plans for the rest of the year…during January’s meeting, we talked about there being fewer things for our Park’s very young visitors – we got our thinking caps on and came up with the idea for Victor’s Pals, we had meetings to decide on what animals we wanted to include, then our fabulous volunteer Liz set about bringing them to life – thanks to donations from St Helens Rotary and Windle Ward Council funds we were able to run with the project and, after a successful competition with our young park community who we asked to give the Characters names, we were able to launch them ready for the summer holidays – again, this was hours and hours of work behind the scenes so huge shout out to everyone who played even a small part in making this happen. The project has proved a massive success with all park users, whatever the season, Victors Pals stand proudly around the park, to date have not been damaged or vandalised - they may be joined by more in the future – who knows. We have been blown away with the popularity of it – we bought leaflets we thought would last years, we are now needing a reprint…
Victor’s Pals has also been the topic of one of our two writing competitions of this year, the first was to tell us about an adventure the Pals may have been on – these entries were hugely entertaining and thought provoking as some did touch on environmental ideas. Our writing competitions are run by Sue Gerrard, another of our fabulous volunteers, who runs these each year for which we are very grateful.
Our events start usually in March with the fabulous Steve Prescot 10k, we supply volunteers each year for this at key points around the Park – we can never bank on the weather so you just don’t know what you are going to get – if you have never come out to support the runners, it’s worth a watch – these things should remind us of the good that happens around our Community all the time.
Community Garden work starts in March too – if you have never been there, it is a wonderful space, gardens beautifully maintained by not just FOVP, but other groups who come along on Tuesday afternoons to w**d, dig, plant and maintain this for all to enjoy.
Last year we also created 2 lovely wildflower meadows in collaboration with the Rewilding Group from Willowbrook Hospice. Week one we made seed bombs at the Hospice, the following week we sowed them (with the help of deputy Mayor Bisi Osundeko ) – FOVP paid for the seeds (not a cheap offering by any means) and we hope that these will have taken and provide stunning flowers this year for all to enjoy.
At Easter we had our lovely scavenger hunt – a wonderful time to see our park as it starts to show more colour and growth – giving hope for brighter days ahead.
June then sees the unveiling of the highly anticipated Green Flag awards – again, we were lucky enough to be awarded this prestigious title, as did other parks in the Borough.
Also in June we get to celebrate our amazing Armed Forces – we have been lucky for a few years now to have been chosen to host this - it is a huge day for the Park, with the input of many groups and under the banner of St Helens Council , we enjoy seeing the park at its most busy and vibrant, the wonderful shows from our Armed Forces, the fabulous vehicles, the uplifting music – all play their part in making it the most wonderful day.
We, as a group, love taking part in this, it’s labour intensive (not just on the day but meetings, site visits etc) – the Victoria Sponge Competition is a particular Highlight – the Mayor and Lord Lieutenant always get stuck in – free cake, be rude not to – the entries get tastier each year and there is always a queue afterwards to taste a winning slice…
As fast as we have dusted the tea urn off after this, we then roll into our Summer Bandstand Concerts – again these are hugely labour intensive, not just on the day but with planning and completing event plans, not to mention contacting acts to get them to perform for us. We thank Bob for all his help with these, he has all the gear ( we use his wonderful analogue PA system) and all the ideas to boot (he is quite a whizz on the guitar himself).
Last year we enjoyed performances from St Helens Concert Band, Eric and Alan from the Swamp Stompers and Six and Two, a fabulous Jazz Duo – enjoyed by all who attended - sadly our first planned open mic event had to be cancelled due to poor weather, but there was quite a bit of interest in it so we are going to run it again this year.
Also, in July, we started another joint project with Willowbrook, on the first Tuesday of every month, our Gate Lodge becomes host to one of their eight Chatty Café Venues across the Borough, these are becoming really popular – supported by volunteers from Willowbrook and run by me (I Coordinate the project for Willowbrook). We provide a warm welcome and even warmer conversations. We have additional support from Social Prescribers, Lynn Clarke (Windle Ward Councillor) comes to each event too, and we have have enjoyed many interesting talks (we even had a visit from Merseyside Police Crime Commissioner, Emily Spurrell), we love a quiz, enjoy music, swap books but more importantly, engage with each other – all are welcome and it completely free.
As summer draws to a close we then start to plan for Autumn and our busy Christmas schedule..
In addition to our hugely successful Fancy Dress Halloween Bat walk, we also did some spooky Halloween crafts this year, our younger park community created some marvellous painted pebbles to take home.
Then for the adults who enjoy the spooky side of things, we had another successful Ghost Walk run by Claire - there must have been a hundred people tromping through the Park in the dark searching for things that go “Bump” in the night, no spooky sightings but plenty of spooky park folklore is learned.
We also had another wonderful session with Dave Sherer, teaching young and old the art of Pyrography, this again is only the 2nd time we have run this event and it proved just as popular – people created some wonderful decorations to put on their trees and also enjoyed a wander around the park spotting Victor’s Pals.
Then we blink and it is of course, our Favourite part of the year when Santa Claus comes to the Gate Lodge.
This year we welcomed over 200 children and their families to see Santa and his Elves – it is the most wonderful yet exhausting thing we do over the year – we do this to provide an amazing experience for our young park family, in the hopes this will create lasting memories of the Park and help give them a sense of ownership of the space from a young age.
We also love our Carols in the Park, last year our tree may not have been as large in stature, but it has huge heart and our park goers have accepted it and even took the time to decorate it too – again, not once has it been vandalised. We accepted the kind donation of a living Tree from Rainfords Farm earlier on in the year, we have lovingly nurtured it and hope it will show growth year on year, we hope you liked our Candy Cane tape measure so you can watch your little ones grow alongside it.
The Community Carols are a lovely opportunity for us all to get together, enjoy some wonderful music, provided again from the fabulous Parr Band , a warming hot chocolate and look forward to special times with our friends and families.
You may not be aware of this but each and every event we undertake to provide requires hours of planning…
We need to complete applications to hire Council land (we can’t just say, oh, by the way, we are doing this today), events plans and risk assessments have to be completed for every single thing we do – indoor or outdoor, at least 3 months in advance.
We have to have public liability insurance – the cost for this is around £400 annually.
Our accounts have to be prepared and audited (thanks Ken) and this is at a cost of £300 per year – we may also have a tax liability – this year that was £161.
Each act we have on the bandstand has to be paid for - this costs around £450.
Victors Pals was our most expensive project to date – this came in at around £2000 (we did get financial support with this as I said).
We do make money on the Grotto, this helps, we also do really well with tea and coffee sales at armed forces day, this usually keeps us ticking over.
I hope this gives some valuable insight into everything that goes into that “afternoon on the bandstand” or the “Easter Egg Hunt”.
As I write this it does blow my mind as to what a few dedicated volunteers can achieve..
Can we please thank each and every one:
Ken - one of our longest serving volunteers and our Treasures. (who was also shortlisted for a Halton and St Helens outstanding contribution award last year – well done Ken)
Gwen – again wife of Ken and has given as many volunteer years-queen of the urn and excellent elf
Bob – our Secretary, musical organiser, community garden volunteer and also looks fabulous in red……
Sue – our writer in residence and again long serving volunteer.
Liz – our amazing artist and creator of Victor’s Pals plus other artistic support
Erich – fabulous community garden volunteer and great elf too
Richard – who looks after some of our social media
Claire – our story teller and always up for a bit of fun and dressing up
Jean – one of our newer volunteers who is also a keen community gardner but who has been invaluable helping with the children at craft events.
Cat – our environmental guru
Ellie and Niamh, our younger volunteers, elves, artistic support and both make a rather decent brew
Cath – who we can rely on for help on our larger events if we need support
On the periphery we have amazing Tracey Sherer, Environmental Projects offer who we certainly could not function without her support, her husband Dave, who runs our pyrography workshops and also helps out with decorating the lodge, creating props etc.
Violet Waring our youngest recruit, excellent writer, cake baker and all around wonderful young lady – although I think Sherlock and now Benji are big draws for her ..
We have wonderful support from our Windle Ward councillors, in particular Lynn Clark who supports our endeavours however she can.
St Helens Rotary are also great Friends of the Park -if we have an idea, however out there, they are happy to listen and provide valuable financial support.
Sadly as our year drew to a close we discovered we had not been successful in our application for the Kings Award, however, we still toasted our success at being nominated initially and this will certainly not stop us from carrying on doing what we love in ”our” Park.
Thank you to all “Friends” of the Park, for coming along to our events and your continued dedication to helping us look after our wonderful green space.
