Annual Public Meeting 2017
The Alexandra Park Friends annual public meeting was held on 8th June at 7pm in the Bowls Club.
Apologies were received from Jeremy Dymond, Mark Shelford and Mike Davies.
The Chairman, Collin Carr, welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Chairman’s report.
Collin reported on the year’s events and highlighted concerns, but also talked about opportunities for the future. A full copy of the report follows these minutes.
Treasurer’s report.
Mike Davies, our Treasurer, couldn’t be with us, but his report was given by Andrew Lawrence. We have a working balance of £2574.23. Picnic in the Park 2016 made a small final profit of £190.52. It raised £1961.44 and cost us £1770.92. It is our main source of income but also our main expenditure. Whether we break even each year is highly dependent on the weather!
Picnic in the Park 2017.
Judy Boyd reported that planning is going well. The main need is for help on the day, and also for raffle prizes. Judy has raised about £1000 in advertising.
The Bowls Club will be open for refreshments but cannot make their toilets available to the public because of a poor water supply. They will provide lunches for the First Aid volunteers, and will have experts on hand to coach those who want to try their hands at bowls, including young people. Their only concern is the safety of very young children straying on to the green. Collin thanked Stuart Reid from the Bowls Club for his help and for providing the electricity supply to the stage.
Election of Officers.
The current Chair – Collin Carr, Treasurer – Mike Davies, and Secretary – Sue Evans were happy to continue and were elected unopposed.
Future Plans.
Parking. We are still not sure what B&NES is planning regarding parking controls in the park, but obviously it would need to be part of a plan for the park and the surrounding streets as a whole. The school has been reviewing its ‘Travel Plan’, but the Head does not seem to feel he can control how the pupils come to school.
Stuart Reid expressed grave concerns about introducing meters into the park, as bowls games take place between 1-7pm and parking fees would deter participants.
Any other business. There were no other issues raised.
Chairman’s report
Highlights:
Picnic in the Park 2016: great weather, park full of families, live music and lots of events. A great success and many thanks to Judy for bringing it all together.
Wild flower seeding: young children planting seeds which are now becoming an array of colour over approximately 70 sq m on two plots.
More than twelve bird boxes cleaned and repaired ready for the breeding season.
A tree survey covering the whole park of more than 240 trees. They are all identified and logged. The survey has been given to the council and next step is to populate their website programme called Treezilla with this information.
Two stages of tree bulb planting. The first in the area of the old privet hedge carried out by volunteers and then about 50 sq m area of spring bulb planting by contractors.
The renewal of approx. 160m of low level barriers helping to reduce double parking and the associated risks to children and dogs.
The park now has its first log pile built by volunteers.
We have a new flag pole for our Green Flag. We will know in July whether we have been successful in retaining this status.
Once a month volunteers have picked litter in the park and ensured that paths are kept clear and that the park is in general good order.
Concerns:
Vehicles parking in the park, with up to 50 /60 at peak times and the large majority coming from the school.
Vandalism, the Green Flag pole as an example.
Cost of Picnic in the Park.
Membership of APF and how do we encourage new members.
CURO cable car? Is this an issue for APF?
Opportunities:
Possible disabled facilities for children’s play area.
A park outdoor gym. A suitable location has been agreed with the council.
Observation table for the viewing area. Now absorbed into the Bathscape project managed by the council.
Developing a scheme for parking in the park that is acceptable to those who visit the park, the Bowls Club and the Allotment Society. We need to understand what is success, accepting that the cars are not going to go away.
Barbecue pits, are they a good idea?
Biological Digester, probably an idea more suited to the allotment society but something that we might be interested in.
Possible threats:
Privatising the parks. If this was to be considered where would it leave Alexandra Park Friends? Hopefully, this will not materialise as an issue.