January 2010

Wishing you all a very happy new year – despite the recent snow

We are keen to attract new members in 2010 and to encourage lapsed members to sign up again as Friends. We really rely on your membership fee, small as it is, to cover the costs of the website and printed newsletter. Here is a link to our membership form and Standing Order form, should you choose to set up a regular payment each year. We will be seeking sponsorship during the coming year also, so that we can begin to hold the occasional event and widen our involvement in the community.

So, what did we do last year? We worked closely with the borough council on refining the design of the community bridge across the lower lake. We initiated a volunteers group which helps with gardening and related work in the park and estate. Through our Park Watch representative, we enhanced the police presence in the park (after the desecration of the bandstand). We even raised some funds through our Christmas card sales.

What are our plans for 2010?

Most important is ensuring that we get continued and increased funding for the park. Central to this is Cheltenham Borough Council’s contribution. The council produces a budget each year which sets out how it will allocate money and generate income. The draft budget for 2010/11 was approved at a cabinet meeting on 15 December. The Budget Consultation is on the council’s website at http://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200110&documentID=563

Appendices D, I and J are the key ones for us.

£300,000 earmarked for Pittville Park to be reallocated

Friends of Pittville, actively supported by co-opted member and Pittville Ward Councillor Diane Hibbert, is very concerned that £300,000, which had been earmarked for Pittville Park, has been returned to central funds. The loss of this money is very important because it means we have no financial commitment from the council to support any submission we might make in 2010/11 to national sources such as the national lottery or to private industry.

Furthermore, £250,000 is now set aside for the Everyman Theatre which has submitted a bid for funds for refurbishment to the Arts Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Of course, we recognize that the theatre is, like Pittville Park, of national importance and deserves support. However, there are doubts in some quarters about this, and the Budget Consultation is seeking your views on this specific question.

Despite money spent over the last three years, much of the park is in poor repair and condition. Priorities are restoring the historic Pittville Gates, at the end of Winchcombe Street; upgrading the dilapidated paths in the Central Cross Cafe area and Pittville Lawn; improvements to security to help prevent further incidents such as the recent damage to the bandstand; and refurbishment of other gates and railings.

The cabinet seeks the public’s views on the draft budget. You can write a letter or e-mail; you can complete an online form; or you can download a version to complete by hand. The form is on the Budget Consultation  in the CBC website (see above also). Please submit or send your response before 26 January 2010.

If posting it, the address is Budget Consultation, CBC, PO Box 10, Municipal Offices, Promenade, Cheltenham GL50 1PP.

Or you can e-mail moneymatters@cheltenham.gov.uk . If someone you know would like to comment but does not have access to the internet, they can telephone the borough council for the form on 01242 775 115 and ask for Mr. John Whitlock.

After the public consultation, the cabinet will review the responses and prepare a final budget. This goes to a meeting of the full council for approval on Friday 12 February at 2.30pm in the Municipal Offices.

This meeting is open to the public if you would like to attend.

Changes in the Executive Committee

Our Chairman, Dave Prince, and committee member, Ron Pattinson, have resigned recently from the Executive Committee after three years of sterling service. We are grateful to Dave for being a major force behind setting up Friends of Pittville in September 2006, and to Ron for his excellent work as Secretary until May 2009. He will continue to manage our website.

Judy Langhorn has taken on the role of Acting Chairman until the AGM in October. As usual, all the members of the Executive Committee shall retire from office, although they may be re-elected or, in the case of co-opted members, be re-appointed.

The committee: Chairman: Judy Langhorn; Secretary: Fiona Clarke; Treasurer: Paul Weston; Members: Colin Eynon, Anne Roberts, Christine Sharpe; Co-opted members: CBC Pittville Ward councillors Tim Cooper and Diane Hibbert, and Park Watch representative Desmond Fitzgerald.

Whaddon Safer Community Team

Steven Yetton (PCSO 249046 from Pittville Area Gloucestershire Constabulary) is asking for your help. He wants to find out your views and concerns about our local community and what can be done to improve it. Given the damage to the bandstand and other instances of gratuitous violence it is really important to think of new ways in which we can try to prevent such things happening.

Here is a link to the Community Engagement Questionnaire (in Word doc format). If you could complete it and e-mail it to  whaddon-sct@gloucestershire.police.uk Steven would be very grateful.

The deadline is 24 January 2010.