Doesn’t it seem a long time since the Festival? Now that summer is over, we have started to think about next year.
In relation to further festivals, we have taken account of two factors. Firstly, next year the Widcombe Association will be holding their biennial ‘Rising’. Secondly organising and running the festival takes a lot of time and effort which becomes excessive if it all falls, as this year, on only a few shoulders. We have therefore decided that we will not try to organise a major event next year but look to organising one in 2013 by which time we hope to have more of you actively involved to assist!
Instead we propose organising two smaller scale events, as follows –
1. A ‘Picnic in the Park’ on 1 July with perhaps a professional organisation to run a barbeque, a few buskers as entertainers and tree climbing with probably a bar, tea and snacks. There would be no organised events or games but the Bowls Club and Boules Clubs would be free to do whatever they wanted and parents/children might organise ad hoc games etc. themselves.
2. A ‘Spring Event’ on or around April 22 with activities such as a further talk about some aspect of the history of the Park and its surrounding area, some tree or wild life related walk or talks and possibly a photography exhibition.
However, the Alexandra Park Forum is more than just an organisation devoted to organising community events. In relation to the Park itself, we would like to take forward a number of initiatives in 2012, including some or all of the following –
* An application for a Green Flag Community Award in January 2012 and an entry in the Southwest-In-Bloom competition in April 2012; the purpose is to use these applications as a framework for planning, developing and taking forward improvements and enhancements to the Park;
* Horticultural related activities, such as improvement to the wildlife area, possible additional planting, educational talks and organisation of flora/fauna surveys;
* Park infrastructure improvements (signs, benches, rubbish bins, enhancement of the viewing points, etc);
* Volunteer days to supplement Council activity on litter picking and to assist in some maintenance tasks;
* A project to research more of the history of the Park including recording peoples’ early memories and anecdotes ;
* Improve publicity about the Forum, run a membership list and the website.
None of this will happen without more people becoming actively involved! What we would like to do it set up a number of small groups who would take forward particular aspects listed above and recruit individuals who will take responsibility for things like the membership list, web site and publicity. So now is your opportunity to make good on those offers of help that you made on the questionnaire!
Don Grimes, who organised the Festival this year has agreed to lead a group to plan and run events in 2012. Julian David lead the group taking forward the Green Flag award and Southwest-in-bloom applications, including the park infrastructure improvements as a development plan will be an integral part of the applications. But we need helpers who will join with us to plan and undertake the work.
We also need leaders and helpers for the other aspects. If you have an interest in any of the areas please let me know or contact me to talk more about what might be involved. Please don’t be shy about coming forward! Things will not happen unless more people get directly involved! If you can only help a little, we would like to hear from you.
If you are interested in helping or would just like to talk about possibe involvement, please e-mail -
alexandrapark@btinternet.com
