St John’s Priory Park residents have enjoyed a fantastic Christmas dinner at the local pub, the event was well attended and included a raffle with many prizes. The Association are looking forward to lots more social events in 2016!
St John’s Priory Park residents have enjoyed a fantastic Christmas dinner at the local pub, the event was well attended and included a raffle with many prizes. The Association are looking forward to lots more social events in 2016!
St John’s Priory Park residents have enjoyed carols around the Christmas tree accompanied by the St Lawrence Church Choir, despite the cold weather 60 residents turned out to enjoy some festive singing and to help with the switch on of the lights on the park’s newly planted permanent Christmas tree. The event was organised with the help of the Park’s Resident Association who are doing a great job in organising many different social events for all residents to enjoy.
Successful coffee mornings at St John’s Park and Takeley Park have raised valuable funds for Macmillan through their World’s Biggest Coffee Morning event.
St John’s Park raised over £700 at their coffee morning with residents enjoying a wide variety of home baked cakes with their cuppa- a fantastic achievement! Takeley Park Residents Association also raised £650 with more than 80 visitors attending to sample the wide variety of home baked cakes on offer.
Well done to all the volunteers who helped organise these events and raise such a fantastic sum in a short period of time!
Takeley Park has received a Bronze award from David Bellamy as part of his Conservation Award Scheme.
Launched in 1996, the David Bellamy Award Scheme looks at how residential and leisure park home sites across the country are looking after their natural environment. The scheme assesses the park’s commitment to promoting natural habitats for wildlife, reducing energy usage, encouraging recycling and how waste products are reused. Members of local conservation bodies and wildlife trusts assess participating parks and report their findings to David Bellamy who then reviews the report and decides if the park has met relevant criteria for an award.
The bronze award achieved by Takeley Park recognises our commitment to supporting the natural environment as well as providing suitable habitats for birds and animals on the park.
In addition to joining the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme Takeley Park has also taken the ‘Honey Bee Pledge’. This scheme recognises the importance of the native honey bee population and ensures planting schemes on the park help the bees to thrive. Bee hotels kindly constructed by some of our residents and installed throughout the park further encourage the bee population.
The Takeley Park Residents’ Association have worked fantastically hard alongside the park wardens to help with the installation of additional planting schemes, bee hotels and bat boxes, for which Turners Parks Group are extremely appreciative and thankful.
Following the success of the scheme on Takeley Park, we will be looking to roll this out to other parks in our portfolio during 2016/17 as well as working towards achieving a Gold award on Takeley Park!
Over the past few months the Takeley Park Residents Association have been working in close partnership with Turners Parks Group to raise money for local charities throughout a variety of events. These have included a quiz, bingo and race nights.
On July 25th the first joint summer fete to raise money for St Clare Hospice in Harlow was held. The day started with two gazebos blown away in the early hours of Saturday morning. However the sun came out, the rain and wind moved away and by 1pm the fete was ready to rock. St Clare must have been looking down on us.
Over two hundred residents, family and friends enjoyed the fete. There was lots of fun and laughter on everyone’s faces as they enjoyed games and excellent food. Attendees were also able to buy items at bargain prices.
Takeley Park has a great community and so many people gave hours of their time to make the fete such a success. Over £1500 was raised in just three hours for St Clare Hospice.
This has really shown what can be achieved as a community in partnership with the Park Managers.
On Saturday 25th July Tregatillian Homes Park residents celebrated the installation of their own Defibrillator supplied by FLEET Trust of Wadebridge, Cornwall .
Through the initiative of the Tregatillian Residents Association, fund raising commenced four months ago.The residents of the Park, surrounding community of Tregatillian, together with Turners Parks Group Ltd, St Columb Town Council and Councillor Pat Harvey achieved the £3,354 needed to fund the project.
With the very supportive help of FLEET Trust the Defibrillator was unveiled with a Fun Day Fete on Tregatillian Park. In the afternoon. there were table top sales, competitions held in the Marquee for best cake, best fancy hat, best home grown vegetables and best flower displays. Bingo commenced at 2.00pm and fun games such as Splat the Rat, name the Scarecrows as well as a BBQ and refreshments were all enjoyed. The day was rounded off with a fish and chip supper, and some well-earned liquid refreshment.
Takeley Park Residents Association will be holding their first fete on Saturday 25th July 2015. The fete is a joint venture between the Residents Association and Turners Parks Group.
During the year the Association is supporting local charities through a variety of fundraising events. This is in the context of their partnership approach to work with the community of Takeley Park.
The fete will be the main focus of these activities with the aim being to raise money for St Clare Hospice near Harlow.
One of the resident’s on Takeley Park has been a key fundraiser for St Clare for over twenty five years, as a recognition of her service she will be attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace. All residents are really looking forward to the event with a variety of stalls and attractions on offer.
St Clare will be sending a representative to the fete and also distributing promotional material on the day.
Thank you to Pauline Hope from Westgate Park for kindly submitting the article below:
Westgate Park began about 40 years ago as a Caravan Holiday Park. Over the last 25 years or so it has become a Permanent Residential Park Home Site.
The older part of the park, Westgate Park, is situated on a slope from higher ground, the lower part of which was bounded by a hawthorn hedge.
Below this was a lower pasture area which ends at a dyke which drains surplus water to prevent the River Slea from flooding.
This area was eventually developed and became The Paddock, Westgate Park.
Prior to the development of The Paddock, the area below the hedge was used as a waste area for rubble, rubbish, garden waste indeed anything which needed to be disposed of and it now forms ‘The Bank’.
The public area of the bank is about 100yds long, 20ft wide top to bottom sloping at an angle of roughly 45°.
The hedge no longer exists as the hawthorns have grown into trees and this forms the rear boundary of 4 homes since situated at the top of the bank.
I was looking at it as I passed one day and thought how boring it seemed, unpruned shrubs in a variety of greens with seedlings of sycamore and hawthorn with goosegrass [ Cleavers] growing apace underneath. There was some colour from some shrubs and bulbs but not a great deal, despite the efforts of the previous Warden to deal with an area which required far more time than he had available.
So I decided that, as I enjoy gardening I would take it in hand and try and make it more visually attractive.
Then Carole Barrett, also a keen gardener, appeared at the top of the bank and she joined me [a bonus was instant friendship] and over the years we have, together, put many hours of hard work into making it a pleasure to look at.
Taking out diseased parts of trees, removing saplings of elder, hawthorn and sycamore. Digging out planting spaces, first removing rubble, old paint tins, bricks, wood and even an old car bonnet.
Residents and Carole and I have contributed plants, bulbs, donations to purchase perennials etc. No one disposes of any plant from their garden before asking if we ‘want it for the bank’. We have also had donations from the Park Owners and from Lifesure Home Insurance.
The end result has been worth it all.
Last year, Carole and I were given a Sleaford in Bloom Award for the Best Neighbourhood Community Garden.
Such a surprise, though the end result of our labours provides a colourful picture and gives pleasure to those who live around the bank as well as those who pass by.