Newsletter August 2007

Knayton Football club's first match at the park

The Park is now in use, having hosted Borrowby Show in July and also the first football and cricket matches in August.

We have installed a drainage system throughout the 28 acre site which no doubt allowed the Show to take place when many in the area were cancelled.

We have made a start on our children’s playground with the toddlers’ section completed in time for Borrowby Show. This is only a small part of what is planned; more equipment is to be installed before the end of this year. We have a major application pending with the Big Lottery Fund which, if successful, will provide us with a further £130,000 on top of the £25,000 already secured.

The toddlers’ section is obviously not suitable for children older than 6 years of age and could be damaged if used by older (and therefore larger) children. Please can you explain this to any older children and ask them not to use the equipment, particularly if there are toddlers wanting to do so. They will soon have equipment which is designed specifically for them and in the meantime we have put up a goalpost so that they can at least kick a football around. We would also ask that some common sense rules be observed when using the playground:

• Do not ride or park bicycles, scooters, skateboards or roller skates on the playground,
• Do not leave glass bottles on the playground
• Do not allow dogs on the playground area (see below regarding dogs on the remaining 27 acres of the site)

We are looking for volunteers to carry out a weekly and monthly inspection of the children’s playground. These inspections do not require any specialist knowledge, simply the time to visit and spend a few minutes completing a checklist which we have compiled with the help of the manufacturers. We intend to sub-contract the annual inspection to RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), who offer this service to playgrounds across the country. If you are willing to help with this, please contact one of the people listed below. If we can recruit a volunteer, it will allow us to devote more time to fundraising – your help will be much appreciated!

The park is being used by a number of residents for exercising dogs. This is something we welcome, but we would ask that owners respect the need to keep the area free from dog waste. To this end we have bought and installed a dog waste bin next to the litter bin at the pedestrian entrance to the park. Please help us to maintain the site in a clean and safe condition by using the bins or by taking litter home.

We have been asked if the park can be used for things like bike riding and running. The park has a perimeter of some 1.4km, which seems ideal for use by joggers and a safer alternative to pounding the narrow lanes around the villages. We would simply ask that nobody goes onto the cricket square (unless playing cricket) and that bikes are not ridden on the cricket or football pitches. Children are welcome to play on the football pitch.

The park has already been used for two children’s parties for which donations have been made. We feel that this is a good basis on which to work, provided that all rubbish is cleared away. If you would like to have a party on the park, please contact us first to check that no other events are planned.

 

What’s happening next?

We have received grant offers from Awards for All and Hambleton District Council which will now allow us to buy a cricket pavilion of a similar size to the old one.

We have received grant offers from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, Awards for All and Hambleton District Council towards the cost of three new all-weather tennis courts. Together with discounts negotiated by way of a charitable donation from Tarmac Ltd and a grant from the Lawn Tennis Association, we now have sufficient funds to place an order to start the tennis courts this year. This is a real boost for us and means that we will have a new home for Leake Tennis Club before the lease on their current site expires next year.

As mentioned above, we have an application pending with the Big Lottery Fund Children’s Play Initiative for the main part of the children’s playground. We hope to have a decision on this before the end of the year and if successful we will build this next spring.

As you may know, we are working very closely with the Hillside Scout Group to build a Scout and Community Sports Hall. As well as providing the scouts with a new purpose built headquarters from which to expand, this will provide HRAP with a changing facility with four changing rooms and showers as well as a groundsman’s store for our tractor and grass cutting equipment. Such a facility of course will be very costly. The scouts are preparing an application to the National Sports Foundation. In addition, the scouts have a number of other applications which HRAP hope to add to in order to raise the funds necessary for such an ambitious building project.

 

Can you Help us?

If you would like to help us by volunteering some of your time or by making a charitable donation, please contact us or complete and return a gift aid form.

We need to appoint a safety officer to help us manage this issue correctly, if you can help with this please contact us.

Moray Finch, August 2007 Chairman, Hillside Rural Activities Park