FRIENDS OF MARYON AND MARYON WILSON PARKS
Minutes of Annual General Meeting, 2023
Venue: St Thomas Church, Charlton
Date: Tuesday April 25th 2023
Present (11): Christine (chair), Steve (secretary), Natalie (treasurer), Gulle, Vanessa, Alan, Catherine, John, Hazel, Mickey, Cllr Jo van den Broek.
1.Welcome: Christine welcomed members to our 20th AGM.
2.Apologies: Jason, Rose, Nigel, Ronnie, Richard, Paul.
3.Minutes of previous meeting: Accepted.
Item 3d: The meeting requested that we should ask the Council again for anti-flytipping notices to be placed on the hill of Thorntree Road where all the flytipping takes place. Any other business: The litter bin by the Cemetery Lane bus stop has been replaced.
4. Chair’s Annual Report (below): In summary: A difficult year weather-wise for trees especially; animals doing well despite bird flu and subsequent restrictions, and Wednesday lunchtime tours have now resumed; steps down to Maryon Park re-opened after long delays for repairs; Picnic in the (Maryon) Park well received and takes place again this year on June 25th.
5.Community Garden Annual Report ( attached)
Highlights included 35 kg of produce during the year; Forest School well used by local schools; Green Room now with insulated walls and roof is available for hire at £5 per hour; successful fund-raising from pub quizzes.
6. Treasurer’s Report: Income raised from our stall at the Picnic in the Park was mostly spent on new equipment like shears and secateurs for Clear-Up days. Current reserves: £510.33
7. Parks News
(Mostly covered in Chair’s Report below).
1) Two local schools, Woodhill and Thorntree, are interested in using the parks for educational opportunities. One school will be visiting the animal enclosures with SEN children on May 3rd and the other will visit on May 4th, also under supervision from teachers, for a litter-pick and to help update our tree walk leaflets.
2) On Coronation Day, May 6th, we will not hold our usual litter-pick but will instead do one on Monday May 8th as part of the national volunteering day from 10am. Anyone interested in doing light world in the parks, please bring own shears or secateurs if possible.
3) It has caused considerable inconvenience early in the morning to Maryon Park users when gates are open at the bottom (Woolwich Road end) of the park but not at the top of the steps. We will request that all gates are opened as early as possible.
4) A new bench is needed at the Cemetery Lane entrance to Maryon Wilson Park.
5) We will inquire as to when Green Flags are to be awarded to the parks this year. Maryon Park, which has had one for some years now, is listed by the Council as beneficiary of some of the £1m improvements in parks as follows: Playground refurbishment , new outdoor gym equipment, tennis courts repainted , major repairs to retaining wall, path and step repairs, new bins and benches, wildflower seed sowing.
8. Diary dates:
Monday May 8th 10am-midday Clear-Up and Litter-Pick as part of national volunteering day (instead of the usual first Saturday in the month).
Thursday June 15th 7.30pm Friends meeting at Kinveachy Gardens SE7. All welcome.
Steve Tongue, Secretary
Email: FriendsofMaryonParks@gmail.com Facebook: Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Parks Website: Friends of Maryon Parks.org
Chair’s Report
I wrote my last report ahead of the new spring AGM only to be unable to attend as I was still slightly positive following Covid. However, the covid situation has improved during the year enabling us to hold a few more meetings and regular clear-up days.
Once again, our parks have continued to provide a vital service to the local and wider community but have also been hit by extremes in the weather. The long dry summer resulted in several large limbs being shed by stressed trees, most notably in Maryon Park over the circular path near the steps. Storms in November brought down a number of trees, several over the repaired top path, but were promptly cleared. Others that bit the dust were the three Cockspur (?) thorn trees behind Kinveachy Gardens that succumbed to a fungal infection and a huge oak close to the stream not far from the triangle area.
New trees provided were a replacement tree next to the covid memorial bench in Maryon Park, which was later felled, apparently as an act of vandalism, but was in poor condition due to the hot dry summer. The council plan to provide a 3rd tree with sturdier supports. A new Chinese Pagoda tree near the sweet chestnuts in Maryon Park was watered by Mickey and husband Terry, otherwise it too would have not survived.
Some specific events of the year are as follows:
Maryon Park – the updated playground has proved to be popular but there has been a small amount of misuse to some swings (now repaired) and the parent/child swing had to be removed for repair/replacement some months ago and a date for replacement has yet to be provided. In addition, the improved adult fitness equipment is popular with adults (and children!) and after some initial damage is now working well. A dead tree in the corner of the picnic area has been cleared and ivy cut from another there.
Repairs to the steps leading up to Thorntree Road had to be halted in the autumn when it became clear that large-scale work was needed which required a tendering process. Work finally got underway just before Christmas only to be vandalised before completion but it was finally ready to be reopened in the new year, much to the relief of those regularly using the steps and top path to access schools and buses on the Woolwich Road.
No more has been heard about funding for any other possible improvements to the park. The Lovells scheme adjacent to the park is now on site with an expected completion date of 2027.
Maryon Wilson Park – A ‘Mobile’ café was given a pitch close to the deer pen with support of The Friends. It proved to be a small container building and, despite the hard work of the couple running it, lasted 6 months – partly due to bird ‘flu closing off the main path for most of the year and partly due to a lack of power so that providing ice creams was difficult. It could be that something similar would work better in Maryon Park where a small kiosk existed about 30 years ago.
Planting – no bulbs ordered last year but we will be sure to put in an order this year when we might be able to call on some of the Thorntree School children to assist in our task.
The animal park – the animals are doing well despite almost constant outbreaks of bird ‘flu. The new RSPCA rescue deer, affectionally named ‘Spirit’, has settled in well and his ear has healed. Within the next 2 weeks another ‘melanistic’ male should also be added to the herd.
A new inner fence has been erected to minimize contact between the birds and the public and the pond drained and covered in line with current government guidelines on strict biosecurity measures to prevent access to watercourses or ponds to minimalize the risk of encouraging wild birds to land and contaminate the flock (Avian Influenza Prevention Zone). As a result, the path has been able to be kept open, which was a large concern to The Friends.
At the time of writing weekly tours have been resumed at 1.00PM with lower maximum numbers of 35, which is more manageable on the small tour patios. Our website may need to be updated about this. School tours have also restarted, that Richard has taken over organising and leading from the rangers’ service, and he’s pleased to say we are now fully booked, averaging 3-4 school visits a week now until the second week of June.
Finally, he is still trying to arrange an open day for this year’s sheep shearing, but at present does not have official approval but will keep us updated. He is hoping that we may be able to provide some assistance on the day IF an open day is agreed. Maybe just a litter pick after the event to reduce costs, maybe some volunteers to man the gates of animal pens etc?
The Community Garden – a separate report is attached.
Clear ups and walkabouts – we have met regularly on the first Saturday of every month, with varying numbers depending on the weather but always a hard core of regulars. On one of these Saturdays, we cleaned up the Victoria Cross memorial in Maryon Park prior to Armistice Day. The annual walkabout had to be abandoned before reaching Maryon Park due to heavy rain and issues were raised with the Tree Officer, Jo Driver, in an email later. Most of these have been addressed but some mowing of flower banks was not done.
We have kept in touch with the Greenwich Parks Forum and attended some of their meetings.
Picnic in the park – this event was organised by Greenwich Dance as part of their Summer in the Parks programme. It was well received and will be reprised this year on Sunday 25th June.
My thanks as always to Steve for carrying out the role of Secretary and Membership Secretary and to Natalie for providing her services as Treasurer. Also, to our committee members for joining in with consultations and walkabouts and all who contribute to clearing litter, supporting projects and reporting on disrepair and other issues.
Christine – Chair of the Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Parks.
Friends Of Maryon Park and Maryon Wilson Park 