Hi All

This is to confirm that our meeting this Tuesday April 8th is going ahead. We shall be joined by officers  and at least one Councillor from South Gloucestershire Council, including a tree specialist and groundsman. The meeting is at 6pm in the Jefferies Room of the Village Hall, Emersons Green

The proposed agenda is:

1. Introduction and welcome (Chair)
2. Recent works in the park, rationale and practice – John Morris, Simon Penfold, Lee Hayward, from South Glos council and Councillor Colin Hunt
3. Questions and comments from members regarding recent works,
4. Future management of the park, John Morris, Simon Penfold, Lee Hayward, Councillor Colin Hunt
5. Questions and comments about future management
6. Current and potential initiatives regarding the park that members are interested in pursuing
7. Any other items that members would like to raise
8. Walk around the park with the officers for those who would like to ( approx 7pm)

 Also for those who might be interested:

Our Emersons Green Community Orchard Group meets for our first work session this coming Saturday 12th April at 10am. If you would like to join us and find out more about this venture, please come.

You can see more details about the project and its history at http://www.emersonsgreencommunityorchard.wordpress.com

This is to announce that we have decided to hold an inaugural meeting of the Friends of Emersons Green Park on Tuesday April 8th at 6pm in the Jefferies Room, Village Hall.

We have invited John Morris and other South Glos officers, who have a particular role in maintaining the park, so that we can ask questions about recent work, put our various points of view and get a better understanding about plans for future management.

We may also take a walk around the Park together with the South Glos folk at around 7pm if people would like to do this.

Please come if you would like to, but feel under no obligation. If you prefer just to be kept up  to date with what is going on by these messages, that is all good. The more people that know and care about what is going on in the Park the better.

On that tack, it is great to see the mud at the North end of the Park being removed so speedily. We should now see some regrowth there as Spring sets in.

It was worrying to hear that the desilting works have been put back to the autumn, because the few days work that were done on the pond at the North End have made such a mess. It also seems that silt has to lie about for months to ‘dewater’ before it is taken away. The upshot of this is that it seems that the Park is going to look a serious mess for the foreseeable future. The present mud must lie until the summer. If works begin again in the Autumn as planned then we will have mud lying all next winter. This means that the Park will not get back to anything like a good state for more than a year. This feels like a serious loss of amenity.

Thanks for your comments so far. The stagnant ditch pictured here is clearly a concern. I gather it is not a proper stream but just drains from houses in the lane.

Some people are also worried about the tyre tracks appearing on the edge of the path particularly at the rise on the way to the shopping centre where it may be that the council van is taking a short cut rather than removing the bollard. Again – picture here.

I am wondering if you would  like us to host a public meeting to hear some response from South Glos to the various concerns? I realise that there are different opinions about it all, but it would allow us to listen to one another and get more detail on what is planned. What do you think? I will call one if you want it.

Chris

Hallo everyone who has joined Friends of Emersons Green Park. You should get an email to alert you to this post when I publish it. Here’s hoping! I am no expert at this.

Friends will be interested to hear this news, just released by South Glos Council.

Message extract begins …“We will be starting the second phase of our operation next week, on Monday 10 February.  We estimate that the volume of silt to be removed is approx 710m3. The operation for de-silting will be as follows:-

1. Excavate silt from ponds and stockpile on land adjacent to the ponds to allow for dewatering.
2. Fence off stockpiles with Herras fencing whilst water drains out.
3. Reinstate areas and tidy up site.
4. Summer months revisit site to remove dried out silt.
5. Use excavator to load dumper.
6. Dumper to convey silt to lorries and load using JCB 3CX or similar.
7. Lorries to dispose at licensed tip.
8. Reinstate and tidy up site.

 Site notices will be erected this week informing visitors of the scheduled works.” …Message ends

My Comment: It looks like it might be hard to make the place look good this year. We will have to see what the piles of silt look like surrounded by Heras fencing. Here is a picture of Heras fencing.

I had hoped we might sow some wild flowers in Spring. This might still be possible. All ideas and comments very welcome. Chris