Hi,
I have been very disappointed to find that after all the money spend on doing up this park area there is now only a slide that is suitable for young children. As I would have thought that the majority of day to day use was by small children it seems very strange to take away all the swings & things for the very young. I now have to get in my car to drive my grandchildren to the park on the new estate or the one at Northway. I think it is very short-sighted of you.

Julia Balsdon

via email 19/04/2010

 

Reply:

 

Hi Julia,

Thanks for your comments regarding the lack of toddler equipment on the above play area. Just to explain, the Town Council run this park and 3 others with a budget of just 3000.00, which as you can appreciate does not go far. Funding for parish and Town councils is very limited, but we applied last year to the Government Playbuilder scheme and won 42,500 which was for the 8-13 year old age group - after much consultation with the local school, parents and families, the police and playbuilder representatives a design was chosen and installed. As there had been much Anti-Social behaviour down the park, the Police advised that it be moved to a more central location in the field. When the play area was being installed, the old equipment was removed - and a couple of the items was going to be donated to the local school, the blue slide and the arch, but once the workmen peeled back the 'soft' flooring, the equipment legs were too rusted to salvage. So, if the new play area hadn't of been installed, the old equipment would of failed the yearly inspection by our insurance company, and removed. I appreciate your comments and agree that more equipment is required, especially for the younger children. On setting about with this play area, a 'Friends of the Park' has been set up by residents with the same attitude to get more funding and more equipment - Charities and residential groups can apply for allot more funding avenues than councils can - and they want to achieve this ASAP. We are helping as much as possible, and as far as I am aware they already have, or are just about to apply for some funding. If you would be interested to join this group then I can forward on there details to you.

I hope this explains the reasoning behind question, but please do not hesitate to contact me again if you have any more questions.

Kind Regards

Andy Smith - Play Areas Chairman

Tewkesbury Town Council
 

28/04/2010

 

Hello Dave,

I came across your organisation through the recent piece in the Gloucestershire Echo about Tewkesbury Borough Council's objection to the proposed development on Mitton Bank between Tewkesbury and Bredon's Hardwick. I just wanted to make contact with you as I am trying build up as broad a coalition of opposition to this nonsense as possible.
We, the residents of Bredon's Hardwick, are horrified at the thought of this blatant piece of ribbon development, and I fear that ultimately this would lead to the loss of the villages of Bredon, Kemerton, Overbury and Kinsham into a hugely expanded "Greater Tewkesbury" stretching way to the north. Of course you are focused on the flood risk - and that is a huge consideration in the Mitton Bank development - and I am keen to piece together all the pieces of the jigsaw here, because these landowners/developers/consultants are not going to give up and we will need to be vigilant for many years to come.

Thank you for your attention, and I do hope you might keep in touch.

Rob Sly
Bredon's Hardwick
http://savebredonshardwick.robsly.com/