On the gloriously sunny day at the Village Sports Day on 8 September 2019, Mayor of Dacorum, Councillor Terry Douris joined an impressive turnout of Council Members and local villagers in congratulating (ex-Councillor) Rachel Heaphy and Councillor and Vice Chair Kathryn Magson and local teens for all their hard work to fund this new equipment. Teens had met with each other (and even set up a WhatsApp discussion Group) to discuss what they felt the village needed in June of last year and put their proposals to the Council. Then then helped run a Village Curry and Quiz Evening where they pledged a variety of jobs and services around the village at a silent auction to help raise funds. This sum was supported by a number of village groups (VPA, Gadd Soc, Football Club and Cricket Club) including money from the Parish Council, and finally augmented by an impressive contribution from Lawton Trust. Raising a whopping £15,000 in total which enabled the Council to make their ideas a reality in less than a year from start to finish!
Our thanks to Rachel, Kathryn and the rest of the Council, our village teens and their village supporters at various events together with all our sponsors for generating this impressive sum and then executing the plan so efficiently!
Councillor, Kathryn Magson would like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who helped make this significant project happen. This is a huge achievement for the younger members of our community.
Playing Fields Liaison, Councillor Lyn Hyde, campaigned/raised funds for the original Church Road play equipment 10 years ago and has worked tirelessly on the Village Playgrounds on Church Road and Cromer Close. She attended the ceremony and said “It’s great to see both old and young alike using the new equipment and it’s great to see our sports field space have so many facilities for our community to use.”
Lyn has recently been involved in making sure the equipment on both sites is safe and refurbished using Council funds for recent re-painting works, following our Annual ROSPA Report on the play facilities. Parish Clerk, Alastair Greene is now also qualified to carry out a monthly inspection after attending a playground inspection course.
Watch this space for further improvements to the Church Road Playground, including resurfacing of the flooring around the roundabout.
How to Contact Us
If you have any comments about the Playing Areas at Church Road or Cromer Close or have any suggestions about how they can be improved, please contact Lyn Hyde or Sarah Lawson in the first instance [click here for details] or come along to our monthly Council Meetings (held the third Monday of every month at the Village Hall at 8pm. For details of future Meetings and the Minutes of Past meetings, go to Parish Council, Meetings (Minutes and Agendas)
Authors: Sarah Lawson and Kathryn Magson