Schools

In March, the Friends of the Freshney were invited to do a presentation at local primary schools; we held talks at Cambridge Park, Grange Juniors, Western Juniors and Macaulay Juniors. The feedback from both teachers and pupils was excellent and we hope to continue raising awareness by working with more schools in the future.

I was invited to spend some time with the children at Healing Primary school who are very fortunate as the school has access to their own wooded area and orchard. Healing Primary is the only school in the area to be awarded a Silver Eco Award and they are keen to offer their facilities and resources to other schools in the area. This could be a great opportunity for us to start networking with other schools and make full use of our wonderful local natural resources.

Environment

We are organizing a litter pick on the 22nd April on the grassed area opposite the Wingate Parade shopping precinct on the Willows Estate. The event will take place at 10.00am, meeting along Barmouth Drive, off Wingate Road, Willows.

Also on the 29th April we are holding another litter pick and other activities on the Duke of York Gardens (Bully) again starting at 10.00am, meeting near the playground. Activities will include planting flowers/shrubs, painting and general light maintenance tasks; we would welcome volunteers to either of these events.

Over the Easter weekend, the D.O.Y.G. has suffered at the hands of vandals, numerous wheelie bins were set on fire on the bowling green and the pavilion buildings were set on fire too! According to local residents this happened after midnight. They also damaged 2 benches and uprooted another and threw it into the river as if this wasn’t enough they have bent over all of the railings that were straightened last year.

On a more positive note Water Voles were spotted along the Freshney, which is good news as they are currently Britain’s most endangered mammal.

Other News

Work has begun on repairing and painting the fence along Boulevard Avenue, the work will be carried out by Community Payback workers where those who have been given hours of community service work, pay back with unpaid work within the community. The capital for the repairs and painting has been secured through N.E.L.C. Chief Executive Officer’s Councillor’s community award.

We have had a number of new volunteers and membership enquiries lately including a gentleman who is offering to take up the role of Treasurer.

We have also been successful in our bid for a community grant from Shoreline of £240 which will pay for high visibility vests making our volunteers safer.

After talks with David Jackson (Environworks) and Paul Chaplin (NELC Tree Officer) we are hopeful that soon tree planting will take place between Laceby Acres and Wybers Wood we are also looking for volunteer tree wardens all over N.E.Lincs.

Proposed walks along the Freshney have been submitted to help promote walking for health. The benefits of walking are numerous and a number of Friends of the Freshney members have signed up to become trained walk leaders through the newly formed Walk Well scheme. Training for this will commence in May 2006.

A community meeting was arranged to discuss how we can get help with planning related issues, specifically regarding the old landfill site at the bottom of Macaulay Lane, however Alyson Linnegar (Yorkshire Planning Aid) was unable to attend due to circumstances beyond control. Without Alyson’s presence it was decided to have an informal meeting where introductions were made and we discussed our hopes and concerns for the future development of the site.

Lastly the next meeting of the Friends will be our 2nd AGM. This will take place at the Macaulay Area Action Group (MAAG) Hall on Tuesday the 9th of May 2006 at 6.00pm. As well as the usual AGM business we will be looking at creating a sub committee to concentrate on young people and schools.

For further information about any of our activities please email Chris Scott: friends.freshney@ntlworld.com