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Eaton Park

Eaton Community Park is a great resource where children can play safely, people can walk, play football or pétanque, exercise their dogs or just sit and enjoy the view. It's a much loved space in the village where wildlife can thrive and there's even a small community orchard.

EATON COMMUNITY PARK ASSOCIATION
ANNUAL AGM HELD ON
Thursday 11th May

From the Chair

 

Looking back at last year’s report I made the point that just having 5 trustees was unsustainable.  We have however managed remarkably well this year - with some help from friends of the park - and achieved nearly all the goals we set. 

 

I should thank Helen Smith, Kim Roberts, Kate Shepherd and Laura Harrison for their continued support and dedication to the cause. 

 

In addition there have been numerous helpers who have helped maintain the park and provide time and skills to ensure it looks good and is kept safe.

Special mention to Bob Skinner, Tony Allen, Sean Cayless, Mark & Shaz Roberts, Craig Smith, Heather Butcher, Les Bettley and very recently Claire Mountain for clearing the pétanque court. I should perhaps also mention the Belvoir Sawmill for all their offcuts for the bonfire.

 

This time last year we set an ambitious set of goals for the park:

 

Put the finances on a sound footing

Apply for grants

Develop the play area and remove the damaged wood

Improve the access to the park

Maintain and add to the existing assets

Continue with fund raising events

 

I am pleased to say we have achieved nearly all of these and our more strategic approach to development and maintenance, working with the Parish Council, has paid off,  thanks to their support for the zip wire, working with their insurer and their commitment for greater support.

 

Income from fund raising has continued - a joint event with the village charities for the Jubilee, a successful quiz night and bonfire party.  Costs have not risen largely thanks to free grass cutting by Bob Skinner.

 

Thanks to Kim as treasurer for maintaining our accounts and keeping us on track and especially for chasing HMRC for backdated gift aid which added considerably to our funds.

 

We successfully applied for four grants (we had lots of refusals)  - £400 from Warburtons, a Tesco Community Grant and, most importantly, 30k + from the National Lottery. We also received a grant from Melton DC for Jubilee celebrations and again, working with the two other charities in the village purchased a new, commercial quality gazebo.

 

Special thanks to Helen for all her hard work in chasing the National Lottery grant and persevering with all the requirements. There were lots of hoops to jump through and Helen negotiated these with great determination.

 

The National Lottery grant of course enabled us to finally appoint PlayScape, a local company, to install new equipment and remove old, damaged parts. We had been talking to them for over a year about the play area and I’d like to thank them for all their help, advice and patience.  

 

We have made progress with access and have plans in place to improve the entrance off Main Street and the pathway from Vicarage Lane. 

The pot holes have already been filled in and once we secure the finances - possibly with help from the Parish Council - we can move forward very quickly to get this phase finished. 

 

We also installed a table tennis table - currently sited on the pétanque court -  and provided bats and balls for users.

 

There have been a couple of maintenance mornings. The pétanque court has been cleared and the surround has been repaired.  The old picnic tables have been removed and new ones are on the horizon. The goal nets have been put up in one goal and the lines for the penalty area have been marked out. The zip wire, temporarily out of action, was repaired at great expense and with some support from the Parish Council. Huge thanks for their contribution.  The brambles have now been cut back and should now be easier to keep under control. 

 

Friends of the Park total 41 and it would be good if we could somehow develop their involvement. One idea might be to ‘adopt an asset’. A bit like Claire taking charge of the pétanque court or me emptying the bins! Could we persuade individuals to look after one thing?  

 

We planted trees - several horse chestnuts, some hollies and some willows. We also successfully created a wild flower patch where the bonfire was located. I’d like to thank our previous chair, Stuart Hogarth for the Horse Chestnut - recently planted.

 

On the topic of trees  - Helen has carried out a full survey of the boundary - identifying Trees with Ash Dieback and we now have a programme planned for the autumn to deal with these. One of these Ash trees has already been pruned - is that the right word - the one that overhangs the garden of 1 Main Street and this was found to be in an advanced stage of decay. We are also investigating the possibility of laying the hedge along the top part of the western boundary with a grant from DEFRA and adding more trees to fill in any gaps. We are constantly reviewing the state of the boundaries and have volunteers ready to help clear any problems.

 

The ride on mower has been successfully started so in conjunction with the big tractor mower we should be able to keep the grass under control. A small triangle of the park on the bottom slope has been left to wilding as an experiment - we will monitor that over the next few months.

 

Numerous successful fund raisers will be mentioned by Kim in her report and fund raising remains a priority - we have a curry night planned for September 30th and the now annual bonfire which was a great success last year is set for November 5th.

 

The Christmas Stars, I think, have run their course but we now have a new initiative, suggested by Sharon Dickinson, of Christmas Angels, with perhaps a children’s workshop to teach how to decorate them.

 

We are always looking for other ideas and on the possibles list are:

 

A bingo night

A quiz night

A table top village sale

A crowd funding campaign

 

Eaton has no school, no shop, no pub. There are three charities and we’ve all worked well together over the last 12 months. The greatest asset we have however is the park!

 

This has been a very productive and positive year - let’s hope we can continue this over the next 12 months and develop the park into an even greater asset for the village.

The Trustees

Derek Janes, Chair

Helen Smith, Secretary

Kim Roberts, Treasurer

Kate Shepherd

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