Monday, 12 July 2010

We Love Roundwood

We had a lovely day meeting everyone at the Brent Respect Festival, unfortunately I wanted to put some photos up of the stall on the day, but on the day we were so busy we didn’t have a chance to take any pictures so instead I’ve included the images we used to entice you all to come and talk to us.
As a reader of this blog you will know that I was a bit intimidated at the prospect of being on the stall by myself and was glad that my boyfriend and a couple of friends volunteered to help get me going. I quickly realised I had nothing to worry about as everyone we spoke to were really up for a community led organisation that could highlight the needs of the people in the area.
I have now had time to digest some of the information you gave us, which I’ll share with you. We have signed up 76 people who at the very least want to be kept informed of how the work of the group progresses, of these 19 said they would be prepared to volunteer some time to help us and 10 showed an interest in being involved with the management committee of the new group.

No surprises, you and your families love Roundwood Park and enjoy using the playground facilities, walking or dog walking, solitary or group sports, meeting friends, visiting the aviary and café, relaxing and attending the Brent Respect Festival. Some interesting uses were getting gardening tips from the parks staff and rollerblading!

Some of the key issues you are concerned about (not in order) are safety, cleanliness, expanding on what the playground has to offer and more activities/opportunities for children and young people, bringing the theatre back into use, better toilet facilities and concern about intimidating dogs.

We also asked what other creative uses we could put the park to and you suggested art in the park, shows in the theatre, open swimming pool, sprinklers and paddling pool, adventure playground, magic shows, BBQ area for families, dancing, wildlife area/woodland, city farm or zoo and more cultural festivals.

The next step will be to contact those interested in joining the management committee, create a constitution, set up a bank account, and create an equal opportunity policy and a child and vulnerable adult protection policy.

Thursday, 1 July 2010

Representing at the Brent Respect Festival

I have secured a stall in the momentum/hobbies area of the festival. The aim of the day will be to raise awareness for the group and get some people signed up to support it.



The council got back to me yesterday about the other groups with an interest in the park. Unfortunately only one got back to them, so I'm meeting with one other group on Friday about how to progress the the group. The good news is that the group carried out a similar exercise at the Brent Respect Festival a couple of years back and collected a number of signatures, so we may be able to use these.


I also found out yesterday that I was going to get a stall, so I plan to organise flyers, stickers and a couple of A0 posters, so the stall doesn't look too empty, hopefully before the end of this week!


I will contact Cllr Powney to see if he is able to offer any support on the day.