This morning (Sept 1st) a large digger made its way up the lane by the Langley to begin the next round of desilting works. No doubt we shall all watch its progress with interest. It should be moving to the South pond next week. Many people will welcome getting these ponds back.

We have also seen the placing of ‘dragons teeth’ posts as a means of demarcating the community orchard.

The orchard is just beginning to mature. Gooseberries and jostaberries have been good this year and, if you know where to look, you can even find some red grapes just now! They are called Triomphe D’Alsace.  Next year we might see some fruit from the apple and plum trees.

We are very pleased to report the removal (at last!) of the offending bollard, so that the council officer should no longer drive his van across the grass and cause the deep rutting

The top area between the ponds has been cut again and is now looking good, as has a similar area on the West side of the South pond.

The litter bins have been a major problem over the summer with Joy and Margaret despairing at times of the service the council have been able to offer. A new regime has been agreed for September, which will be satisfactory if enacted.

John Morris is planning a meeting with a landscape architect to consider the overall situation regarding planting round the ponds. Everyone will be aware that substantial regrowth has occurred this year, with the stumps forming coppiced wood at higher density than before they were cut. We look forward to hearing the plans for the future.

I am thinking we should call a meeting in the autumn to hear South Glos on these longer term plans. It might be to our benefit now if we were a formally constituted group with bank account etc that could receive funds. What do you think? We could vote that into place at our autumn meeting if there was interest to do so.

Finally, to reassure those who are concerned, plans are now in hand for the works  to the deep culvert near Emersons Green Lane and I hope they will be made available to us soon. Also the sludge should be removed from the footbridge area as part of the desilting work.

I hope you all had a good summer. Those of you who knew my dog Bracken might be sad to learn that she died last week. She was a great friend and loved the park.

Chris