The recently formed Friends of Sandy Lane Park group celebrated a successful “Let’s make Sandy Lane Park beautiful again ” event last week ( 7th September).
23 individuals turned up including Deputy Lord Mayor Sherin Akhtar. Paths and steps were cleared by the volunteers during several hours of work. “It was a fantastic atmosphere and so many delighted passers by who were pleased to see the park being given some much-needed attention. ” says Chair Heather Swainston. “We were delighted that local young people Ellie and Felicity took the lead on creating two Bug Hotels which look fantastic. ” The group have also taken delivery of a solar powered duck food dispenser.
Heather explained how the group came together.
“The idea of a friends of Sandy Lane Park group has been around for a while and over the years people have talked about it, even set up a Facebook page but nothing much happened until now….
“In April a meeting was held at Cherry Grove Primary School and was attended by 29 people .The local councillor Elizabeth MacGlashan attended and there was lots of positivity, ideas and thoughts about what could be done and what people would like to be done. We needed to get a committee together and get a constitution. We held a meeting in May and formed the committee Chair – Heather Swainston, Secretary – Kirstin Hamer, Treasurer – Fiona Neame and the other committee members are: Juliette Hutchison, Denise Woods, Annie Scudds and Laura Walsh and also signed the constitution.”
A number of individuals and their companies have supported the group: Colum Wilde and colleagues from Clever printed the flyers and Mark Clayton from Tatton Consulting paid for the banner which was displayed at the regatta .Wendy Lewis at Stride studio designed the groups logo which really represents key elements of the park.
“Chester Regatta was held in June. This was a fantastic opportunity to promote Friends of Sandy lane Park and get more people involved. The banners made a real impact for our stall that day and also thanks to Walkers Plant Nursery who gave us some plants to make the stall really attractive. Many thanks to Chester Regatta for allowing us the space in their marquee. There was a lot of interest in the group and a fruitful relationship with the regatta will develop no doubt.” says Heather. The group subsequently set up a bank account with West Cheshire Credit Union and public line liability insurance.
Friends of Sandy Lane Park will be meeting on the first Saturday of the month from 10-1 with the next dates confirmed as 5th October, 2nd November and 7 December. Bulb planting will take place in October to provide colour in the spring.
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