The Big Lunch
Our annual big get-together is fast approaching on 25 June 12-3pm at the main park. Bring a plate of food to share and something to sit on. We're pleased to announce that the Sports Development Team from Winchester City Council are coming to join the event from 1.30 - for some games and activities to get us all burning off the picnic calories! We'll be having a cake sale again this year so please contribute to that if you can. There'll also be a bric-a-brac area, so bring along any unwanted, but saleable items. All proceeds go towards the running of the group, basically the £171.90 public liability insurance we are required to have in order to run events. If you are free to help set up, clear away and have a turn at running the stalls we’d love your help, please reply to this email. See the attached poster for further details - please feel free to print off and display in your window - and don't forget to invite your neighbours!
Consultation results
You may remember that the City Council ran a consultation event in February asking for your views on how to spend £70,000 on open spaces in Abbotts Barton. Having heard nothing about the results we contacted the Council and discovered that they had put the results up here in April:
although they did not appear to have publicised the fact. On looking at the results we were concerned that a key resident request had been missed. The option of a trim trail was offered in two separate locations, one location received 27 votes and the other 22. These votes have not been combined in any way so that, despite receiving 49 votes in total (from 38 different individuals), the trim trail was not chosen. Instead the community will be receiving a number of items for the new wildlife area such as timber sculptures and interpretation boards which received fewer votes. Similarly there will be no benches as these were offered in two different locations. The effect of splitting the vote like this means there will be no new benches in the park.
When we spoke to the City Council about this they said that there was additional money which hadn’t been included in the consultation so it might be possible to have a trim trail as well. Although this is good we feel that residents will expect that the £70,000 to be spent in line with the views expressed at the event. Otherwise why have a consultation?
From our experience of consulting residents over the last 4 years, items such as benches, dog bins and fitness equipment are consistently high on the list. We’re concerned that the expenditure plans are overly weighted in favour of the new nature park (area 3 on the consultation). Residents are already well served for inspirational natural areas locally; the new Barton Meadows nature reserve, the Abbotts Walk equipment and Winnall Nature Moors are only a short walk away. If there is additional money available that is great news but the focus should now be on some of the practical items which have been requested by residents over a number of years.
We are planning on asking the Council to look again at the £70,000 and include a trim trail and benches at the main park, instead of some of the more decorative items in the nature reserve. We are also planning to ask that any additional money is spent in line with residents’ requests at this consultation and previous ones. We are happy to give our time to sit down with Council representatives and our Local Councillors and help decide how the money is spent.
But before doing this, we want to know what you think about this issue: if it is only the two of us with this view, then we will save ourselves a lot of time and not worry about it! Please could you send a quick email to say whether this is an important issue to you? If you have specific ideas on how the additional money should be spent or would like to be more involved in the process yourself please do also include that information.
Annual General Meeting minutes and outcomes
Our AGM was held on the 21st of May. Our minutes can be downloaded from https://app.box.com/s/981mnwktbkpu5rcwhlj9s0vkjq2g3zz4
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