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Weston on the Green gets a playground.......

On April 21st 2007 we held the formal opening and the children are playing on it...............

Some of the long and complicated history of the project is below.

Another special meeting of the Parish Council met on 24th January 2007 and resolved to place the orders for the Post Installation Inspection with RoSPA, to order the sign, and to order the goal-posts. Hooray!

Article from the Village News, November 2006...

Full Parish Council Meeting on Wednesday 1st November 2006.

On November 1st 2006 the full Parish Council voted (for the second time) in favour of ordering the playground from Playdale in front of around twenty-five Parishioners and members of the public. 

Two resolutions were passed in line with detailed proposal submitted by the Weston Playground Association (an advisory committee to the Parish Council), for the best quality safety surfacing, Wetpour rubber, and for full fencing on all four sides of the Playground. 

However the third resolution was passed to place the Playground on the bank beside the pitch, by the tree and bench backing onto the waste-land behind Church Close houses, and this location was selected in spite of the recommendation of the Crime Prevention Officer and other professionals in the field of play equipment that the original site beside the gate was preferable. 

However Weston IS going to have a playground finally and the installation is due to start before Christmas, although the opening is likely to be in the New Year. 

The members of the committee who worked so hard to raise the monies and prepare all the information are celebrating that it will be a reality shortly after the Village News is published. We are working on a suitable way to celebrate the opening of the village's Playground, and several suggestions are being followed up. Work is also in hand on the final details of the Playground. For example, the signs needed to let people know whose Playground it is, and how to report faults etc. Also we need the proper 'inspections' to take place before the children of the village are let loose on it!

Parish Council Meeting on Tuesday 24th October disrupted...

First an apology for putting out leaflets with the wrong time on it! The Parish Council meeting was called for 6.30 pm for the FIRST TIME in ANY ONE’S memory, WE MADE A MISTAKE for which we apologise to the people who turned up to support the Playground project at 8.00 pm.

The Parish Council meeting began at 6.30 p.m. and after about 15 minutes of discussion and debate, was interrupted by a member of the public attempting to ask a question who was asked to leave by the Chairman. However before he did a Councillor left the Council Table without the bidding of the Chairman and began to man-handle the member of the public. At this point the Chairman had to adjourn the meeting. No decisions were made at the meeting.

A Special PUBLIC Parish Meeting was held on MONDAY 16th OCTOBER.
Excellent frank discussion at the meeting and the following motion passed.

"This Parish Meeting wishes the Resolution of August 2nd of the Parish Council to be respected and enacted -- to have a Children's Playground installed as soon as possible to the detail and specification as recommended by the Playground Association Report in all details of equipment, supplier, location, safety-surfacing, and fencing. This order to be confirmed to Playdale within 14 days of the next Parish Council Meeting, scheduled for 1st November 2006."

 The P.C. "Recreation Ground" Committee seems to want to site our Children's Playground up by the old sewerage farm -- a full one hundred yards away from the one voted for by Councillors in August. This presents more than a few problems….  The Thames Valley Police Crime Prevention Officer visited on 13th October and had viewed the sites on the field. He endorsed that the most suitable site for the playground was the original suggestion, the one by the road to the West of the entrance gate. 

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We have been offered a further grant of £5,000 for the Playground. This is very good news and brings the amount raised in grants and donations to £31,000, so with the £14,000 in the bank already we are able to build a proper playground to the specification originally planned.

The Public Parish Meeting strongly criticised the 'anti' Parish Councillors and the following files are the details

 Minutes of the Parish Meeting held on 16th October 2006 at 8  Minutes in WORD

And these files are available for reading in Acrobat....

Microsoft Word - COUNTDOWN no 5.pdf

Microsoft Word - Text of email from Playdale.pdf

Microsoft Word - TVP Visit 13100621].pdf

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Previous History of the Playground...

For over ten years different community groups in Weston have run disco's, fetes, boot sales, and coffee mornings all to raise money for a Children's Playground. Weston, unlike all the villages around it, has never had a proper playground, but that is about to change.

In the early 2000's a group got the playground project to quite and advanced stage, only to the thwarted when the landlord threatened to refuse a renewal of the lease on the field where the Playground was to be sited because of a lack of maintenance by the Parish Council. A rapid and enthusiastic effort by village volunteers improved the state of the field and brought the fencing to an acceptable standard and the lease was signed. In the last ten months a concerted effort by the Playground Association has raised over £26,000 (now £31,000) in grants and donations toward the overall cost of the playground.

On August 2nd 2006 the Parish Council passed a resolution almost unanimously to place an order with Playdale, and this was enacted on Monday 21st August by three councillors placing the order in a ceremony in the Memorial Village Hall. The Chair of the Parish Council, Peter Hicks, was present and praised the work of the Playground Association. He then supported the project by a handshake with David Whiteside, area manager for Playdale. 

The installation will be during the month of October 2006 and already the Playground Association is turning its mind to the ideal way of celebrating the opening of the Weston Children's Playground.

Excellent Excellent news..........

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This "July 2006 report" is one of the most pleasurable reports for me to write since we started this project in earnest. 

 In the space of a single week in June 2006 we first received confirmation that we had passed all the requirements of planning application and that we could proceed with the installation.

This was closely followed up by the excellent news that the grant we had applied for from Cherwell District Council had been awarded, and that this was the full £10,000 that we have applied for.

This was almost topped off by the news that the most significant grant we also needed from the landfill tax, The Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment, had also been awarded, again at a level of £10,000.

And finally we heard that the long vaunted Lease has been agreed signed and exchanged so that we have secure tenure for the next 21 years.

We now have the minimum funding we require to proceed this year with the installation of the Playground and we are hopeful that some of the money-raising activities, such as the Village Day, and other grant applications for smaller sums will improve the specification that we can consider for the Playground. 

We held a “turning the first ground” ceremony at the start of the Village day on June 17th which was organised primarily by a sub-committee of the Village Hall Committee and other volunteers. On this day there was a variety of activities around the Village Hall and the Hall has agreed to donate the majority of the monies raised toward the Village Playground. Particular thanks are to be given to Bernita Long who is donating all the proceeds of the Big Breakfast on the morning of the 17th to the fund. 

The Fencing is completed! And we have the lease signed...

Grateful thanks go to the people whose efforts, and loan of machinery, and expertise has made this possible.

Caption: "Now you see the fencing on the roadside, ...and now you don't!"

The Duchy of Cornwall's agent (Landlord)  inspected the work on August 4th 05. Although he was entirely happy, the Highways, showing great intransigence, insists that the fence be moved, and it now has been.

Views of the new fencing in place ready for inspection by the authorities.

The Play Committee has been re-convened and met on a couple of occasions in April 2006. 

Next meeting will be after the Parish Council meeting on 10th May 2006 and we are hoping for the following programme.

1) Obtain news on grants in the June 06.

2) Get the Play-ground up and running during the summer of 2006.

(Oh! the optimism of youth!)

Keep you posted. Lets hope this is successful after so many false starts.