Felicity and Hilary, two of our regulars at the Wednesday morning gardening group, representing the Friends at the Awards.
We’re delighted that the Park and everyone who helps to make it such a special place has been recognised with two more awards. The trophy cabinet is bulging! Hats off to all the volunteers and HDC Parks and Countryside Team.
After a gap of many years, this was our second year entering the Large Park award. We won Silver Gilt again but this time we were only one mark off Gold! How frustrating but that makes us all the more determined to get there next year. It’s always useful to get the insights of an expert outsider and the judge’s comments give us, HDC and others involved, some helpful things to work towards to make the park even lovelier and a fantastic asset for the community.
In the It’s Your Neighbourhood category – we won ‘Thriving’ again (Level 4/5) but we’ve come a long way since our first entry 3 years ago when we were at Level 2 ‘Improving’. This award relates directly to the work of the Friends and we were recognised as ‘a very well structured and active group… with a strong record of engagement with schools and other charities’. Our focus on pollinator-friendly planting, sustainable gardening and our informative website were also listed as achievements. Development tips include being more ambitious on our composting given the number of beds we look after and addressing the recent vandalism at Poets’ Corner.
