Sunday 4th September – 2pm

At our temporary venue, Church on Farm, back of Opportunity Centre, Adams Rd. (Just 200 metres up the road from the Community Centre).

All park users and local residents welcome to drop in. This month we will discuss our aims and aspirations for the long term future of the park (see below), especially ensuring that all the agreed improvements and future staffing/maintenance happens as planned!

Plus regular weekly user groups sessions continue: egg:

• Monday walking group. Meet 9.20am at Downhill’s Park Rd entrance. All welcome.
• Mother & Toddler Group  Tues & Thurs at BWF Community Centre. 11am. All parents/carers and their toddlers welcome.
• Wednesday Dog Training, 1pm in the Main Field   All dog owners welcome.
• Trax Club - regular rides + weekly youth club   Info: www.thetrax.co.uk
• Friday’s green gym + community café (may be having a brief break) – contact Back 2 Earth, 8808 1829, to check if on
• Football teams - various days. Ask at the Community Centre.
• Lordship Wildlife Group - meet monthly.

Saturday Sept 24th, 1-5pm – Sporticulture Day: [Sports and Horticulture!] community event in and around the BWF Community Centre. See http://www.lordshiprec.org.uk/2011/08/sporticulture-day/

Church on Farm, at the back of the Opportunity Centre. [All welcome]

Lordship Woodland path wood-chip improvements work-in (unless raining).

Organised by the Friends. All welcome – more barrows & spades, and tea and cakes, would be useful!

At new temporary venue, Church on Farm, back of Opportunity Centre, Adams Rd. All park users and local residents welcome to drop in!

In our new temporary venue: Church on the Farm

- a meeting room at the back of the Opportunity Centre, Adams Rd (200metres to the east of the Broadwater Community Centre)

General News

1. The regeneration works have started at last. Works compound being set up at the main gate. The parks staff have moved into a container in that compound. Our old hut by the paddling pool will soon be demolished to make way for the construction of a new Environment Centre (to be completed by the end of 2011)… etc etc ….  There will be signs put up soon at the gates to explain things… Most of the park will remain open to the public for most of the time, but there will of course be quite a bit of disruption in some areas whilst works are going on. A temporary ‘road’ is currently being created through the main field so that the public can continue to use the paths safely and they are not damaged by heavy vehicles. Works are due to finish summer/autumn next year.
2. The Mother & Toddler Group are relocating to the Broadwater Community Centre from the beginning of April until we all return to use the community room in the new Environment Centre. Trax will be meeting again soon in a hired container by the contractor’s compound. Both the Trax and the Friends will be buying containers for longer term storage (to go by Freedom Way). The Dog Training Sessions continue every Wednesday 1pm near the main gate.. The Monday morning brisk health walks (meet 9.20am at Downhills Gate) continue as always.
3. Loads of volunteers co-ordinated by Back 2 Earth are helping create new Harmony Gardens around the Broadwater Community Centre. The Friday lunchtime cafe continues as always, 1pm-2pm, and the food just gets better and better. And its cheap, and there’s loads of friendly faces to chat to – so why not drop by?
4. The Friends event on March 6th was packed out – over 100 people watched the shadow puppets display laid on to launch the recent improvements to the island, and to say goodbye to our home for the last 10 years.
5. Unfortunately, despite all our efforts and protests, the Council voted through a 50% cut in Haringey’s parks maintenance, and some staff are facing redundancy. The Council has given a public guarantee to the Lottery that Lordship Rec will have improved staffing and maintenance for 10 years. This was a condition of getting the money to regenerate the park so we are determined to hold them to that. However we will continue to support parks staff and other Friends groups across the borough in opposing cuts. Naturally we are encouraging everyone to join the massive TUC national demonstration against cuts on Saturday. Meet up with us and many others at 10am Turnpike Lane to go there together…
6. The Friends of Downhills Park can at last announce the public opening of the new Community Cafe there (by the tennis courts) after 10 years of lobbying and campaigning. Grand Opening – Monday 28th March, 2pm. Please go and check it out! The Friends there have also created a wildlife pond just north of the woodlands in Downhills Park.

Loads more news… but come along to our Friends meeting/drop-in on Sunday 3rd April for more info and to discuss everything together..

Congratulations to us all!

Bring some food or drink to share if you can.

Best wishes and see you there

In addition, we’ll have the full, final application (3 huge ring-binder volumes) as sent in to the Heritage Lottery Fund for anyone who wants to look through it to check the maps, designs, charts, photos and small print!

And, if that’s not enough fun, some of us will go after the meeting to do some work in the woodland to thin out some of the shrubs, dogwood and nettles. Feel free to bring secateurs/shears…

Haringey has a variety of Parks and Green Spaces, from ornamental gardens to nature reserves, woodlands and sports pitches. These open spaces provide a huge range of opportunities both for wildlife and for local residents, some of whom have no other access to any sizeable free outdoor space or nature.

What do our parks and green spaces offer:

• Beautiful gardens for people to sit and relax in
• Havens for wildlife that people can enjoy and learn about
• Football pitches for organised, casual and school use
• Healthy walking routes for gentle exercise
• Playgrounds for children to gain new skills & experience adventure
• Safe tracks for joggers and cyclists
• Pleasant shortcuts to work, home and school
• Places for outdoor picnics and parties
• Places where the community can mix and meet
• Outdoor venues to study nature
• Opportunities for volunteering and conservation work
• Areas to play tennis and basketball
• Cafes where people can meet others
• Permanent jobs, apprenticeships and training

In short, all life goes on in our open spaces, where people relax, meet, play, exercise, learn and work.

Research shows that “ 87% of people have used their park or green space in the past year, more than any other public service, and 95% of people thought it was very or fairly important to have green spaces near to where they live.” …  “ if people are satisfied with their local park they tend to be satisfied with their local authority.”
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE)

Improvements… not cuts

Over the past few years, hundreds of local residents in Friends Groups have worked really hard to publicise our green spaces, and to ensure they are better managed and improved. As a result Haringey’s parks have gone from, in many cases, forlorn areas of neglect to blooming, attractive places where local residents want to  go. Although the number of Green Flag awards to parks in Haringey has increased, there is still a long way to go to get the resources necessary to maintain and develop green spaces for future generations. In the 1980s there were around 300 gardeners and park keepers, now there are less than a third of that number. Many park  buildings, facilities and equipment is in desperate need of repair and refurbishment.

A well-resourced park can be the heart of a community, feeding into all the positive aspects of human society. An under-resourced park can soon deteriorate and become a negative space full of fear and anti-social activity. It will not make any economic sense to make more cuts in parks and recreation budgets given the huge contribution they make.

Parks and green spaces offer fantastic value for money. In a time when one of the overriding social concerns is the need for community cohesion, our local parks and green spaces are an invaluable asset to the Borough.

Parks are a democratic institution, they cater for, and matter to everyone – people of all ages, backgrounds, interests and abilities. Like education, housing and health, recreation and access to nature is a human need and right. Let’s ensure all public services get the resources they need from local and central government.

Fight against all cuts in public expenditure
- increase spending on frontline public services!

Produced by the Haringey Friends of Parks Forum, the umbrella network for the 30 Friends Groups across the borough. 
See: haringeyfriendsofparks.org.uk

In the hut by the lake.  (Yes we know its Easter Sunday – feel free to bring some food to share!)

At the hut by the children’s playground/paddling pool. To discuss all the latest news about the planned improvements to the park and the wide range of activities being organised there.