Minutes of Meeting, January 2019 

FRIENDS OF MARYON AND MARYON WILSON PARKS

Minutes of Meeting, January 2019 

Venue:  Kinveachy Gardens, SE7
Date:  Thursday 24 January 2019
Present: (6) Steve (secretary), Gulle  (treasurer), Catherine,  Mickey, Alan, Alex.

1. Welcome and Apologies:  In the unavoidable absence of Christine, Steve welcomed a small group. Apologies (6) Christine (chair), Raj, Jason, Natalie, Evelyn, Anastasia.  

2. Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising:
– Rob from Parks and Open Spaces emailed to say that redevelopment of the Morris Walk estate could be completed sooner than the date of 2027 mentioned at the AGM.
– Helen’s name should not have been mentioned as she was not at the meeting.
– John has agreed to stay on the committee.
– For Picnic in the Park on Sunday June 30th we will have a stall and supply stewards.

3. Parks and Council News 
Voting has now closed on our grant application to the Neighbourhood Growth Fund submitted by Peet for improvements to the Animal Park.
David obtained three estimates for new post fencing for one side of the triangle area, which came out as approx £2,500 £4,500 and £5,500. These were obviously far too high for us. At the next Clear-Up (2 February) we will work on tidying up the existing fencing and stakes. Catherine has investigated low hedging.
The Council’s O. Davis emailed to say his application for a grant to help anti-flooding work had been turned down, although the GLA felt it was a good project. He hopes to do some work anyway to “daylight the culvert” and “fix the path where it is eroding away”.
The application for a grant towards the disused toilets in Maryon Wilson had been unsuccessful. We have not heard back from Cllr Dillon about alternative proposals.
The ladies toilet in Maryon Park has still not been fixed – Paul is aware and chasing – but the water fountain has been mended.

4.Community Garden report:  (see below)

5. Treasurer’s Report:
After paying for the hire of the hall and refreshments for the AGM (£51), plus £36 for hosting the new website, the current balance is £603.96 with petty cash of £8.02. 

6. Any other business:
a) At our December Clear-up we planted the 50 small tree whips supplied as part of the Mayor of London’s campaign for a greener city. In retrospect we should have insisted on the plastic guards to make it more obvious where they are but it will be interesting to see how many survive.
b) Interest in the tree planting resulted in 23 people turning out for the December Clear-up, with 16 in January, when extra work was done around the triangle area and ditch clearing etc near the wildflower meadow area.
c) Website: we have now been able to transfer the domain name FriendsofMaryonParks.org to the new WordPress host so it should be up and running shortly.
d) It was decided to stick to meetings every other month for now, and consider inviting an occasional speaker – suggestions welcome.
 
7. Diary dates:
Clear-Ups: Saturday February 2 and March 2.  Meet at our table in Maryon Wilson Park between 10am-midday for litter-picking and/or light park work. Next meeting: Thursday March 14 at Kinveachy Gardens, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Steve, secretary
Email: FriendsofMaryonparks@gmail.com

Maryon Park Community Garden
Maryon Park Community Garden is run as a constituted not-for-profit community voluntary project with its own officers, committee, treasurer and independent auditor.
Report January 2019

Open Days
Capital Growth have announced that the London-wide ‘Big Dig Day’ will be on Saturday 27th April 2019. The Community Garden will be open on the 27th not the 20th as previously published, to celebrate the beginning of the new growing season. The Eden Project have announced that the ‘Big Lunch’ weekend for 2019 will be Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd June. The Community Garden will host an informal ‘Big Lunch’ on the Saturday.

Gardening and Growing
It is the time of year for winter crops and various kinds of winter salads have been planted by plot-holders. The Garden has peat-free organic compost available for plot-holders to improve their soil.

Forest School
Windrush Primary School bring three classes of 30 early years children to the Forest School teaching and learning space on Wednesdays during term time, with their Forest School trained teacher and teaching assistants.

Outdoor Art
Simon, from COATS, continues to run individual therapy sessions in the Forest School.

Wednesday Volunteers
The regular team of volunteers now includes Dan, Dinah, Vanessa, Pat and Pam.
The teams of corporate volunteers will resume in the spring.

Grants
The Garden has received its second Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ Grant of £1,000. This Grant will pay for the replacement of the damaged park-side fencing panels. Applications have been made for Grants from W.H. Smiths, the Royal Horticultural Society and from RBG via the Woolwich Estates Grant Scheme. If successful these will provide non-toxic resin pathways and improvements to the ‘Garden Room’.

Maintenance
Alan is building steps up and down to the “Garden Room’ which provides an indoor office and meeting space for the Community Garden.

Garden Improvement Projects
The ‘Garden Room’, with its beautiful views over the park, will be ready for use soon and available for hire. The final project is to resurface the gravel paths with non-toxic resin pathways.

Opening Times
Volunteers and visitors are welcome on Wednesdays, the volunteer workday. The Garden is open to the public on the afternoon of the first Saturday in the month.

Tim MPCG Chair. Edna: MPCG Secretary and Coordinator