Friends of Preston Park

You will be proud to hear that Preston Park has been recognised with another Green Flag Award for the coming year! This is recognition of a well-run park, used and supported by the local community and with an active friends group.

Well done to all those associated with making the park such a well-loved asset to the city.

While the recent rain is most welcome after weeks of drought, we will need much more rain to get back to previous levels. You may not know that the Wellesbourne River runs north-south about 35 metres under Preston Park, and pumps are in place around the park so it can be used to water the trees and flower beds, such as the Rose Garden. As this river is not mains water, it’s not subject to hosepipe bans, and keeps the soil moist deep down to the benefit of the larger trees during drought conditions. In addition, CityParks staff have been watering without fail, twice a week, recently planted trees including those in our cherry blossom walk and the fruit trees, usually early in the morning before most people are about.

A big thank you to them for their hard work.

Just to let you know that this event, an outdoor food and drinks festival and concert, will take place on the above dates, starting at 5.30 pm on the Friday. The build for the event starts on 12th September, with the busiest day anticipated to be Thursday 15 September when most exhibitors will arrive. The breakdown will commence on Monday 19th September and the Park will be returned to full use by the end of Wednesday 21st September.

The organisers have stressed that they have an experienced traffic management team which will oversee all vehicle movements and arrangements. They have also appointed expert noise consultants to manage noise levels. Music will stop promptly at 10.00 pm Friday and Saturday and 7.00 pm on Sunday.

Pub in the Park has a dedicated number and email address for you to contact with any concerns that you may have: 0203 728 6430 or operations@pubintheparkuk.com. These numbers will be operational between 13-19th September.

We hope that many of you were able to enjoy Pride Weekend, despite the loss of access to Preston Park before and after the event. We wanted to make sure you know that Pride and CityParks management always work closely together with local Councillors and ourselves, to keep disruption to a minimum and to ensure that Preston Park is restored fully afterwards. The Pride clean-up was mostly very successful, but they have asked us to explain to you some problems which they are still dealing with.

This year, it has been difficult to carry out what is termed ‘the micro clean’ which includes things like cigarette butts, cable ties, shards of plastic and confetti, as the ground is so hard and dusty. The machines to do this final clean were just picking up too much dust and getting clogged up. Pride management therefore consulted the Pub in the Park organisers and agreed to do this final micro clean after this event which takes place between 16th and 18th September (more details below). By then, the ground should not be so dusty and the machines will work. This will also ensure that this second event has a micro-clean as well. Pride also asked us to inform you that the confetti that you may have seen around the Park is fully biodegradable, but needs some rain before the biodegrading process can start.

An amazing new mural has just been completed in the velodrome. According to Community Engagement Worker Hannah Baker: ‘Congratulations to artists Rebecca Angel Creative and Dawn The Amazing Art Cart for their fabulous artistic skills; working with the local community and producing this wonderful new mural for the city’s Velodrome! Local groups involved included Brighton Multicultural Womens’ Cycling Club, Brighton Cricket Club, Preston Park Young Cyclists Club, Friends of Preston Park, Preston Park Local Action team) and supported by the local ward Councillors, Siriol Hugh-Jones and Leo Littman.  Residents worked together to select the chosen artist from those who responded to the public call out. Thanks also to all the artists who took the time to register their interest – we have a city with a huge wealth of talent.’

Take a look!

We had another wonderful morning enjoying art in the Park on Sunday, though we did actually set up in the Rockery on this occasion as the park was getting busy with Pride! It was a lovely session and again we ended up with a great selection of different artworks. Thank you to all of you who attended. Here are some composites, created by Rose Jones, which show much of the wonderful work that was done.

You’ll find many more images of the Rockery, artists in situ and the gathering at the end on our Facebook page.

Many thanks one and all.

Here is a photo from yesterday’s Tree Walk with local Elm expert Peter Bourne. We enjoyed a slow walk around the park hearing many interesting facts about elms, their heritage in this area, and the impact of elm disease which has led to the removal of many elm trees in parks and on streets over the years.

Peter also discussed the introduction of disease-resistant elms and showed us examples found in the park.

We were also given a leaflet produced by Vivienne Barton in conjunction with Brighton and Hove City Council. These leaflets take you on a trail around Brighton and Hove showcasing some of the best elms found here. Some of these leaflets can be found in the Chalet Cafe.

All in all, a very interesting and worthwhile event.

For those of you who missed the event, he will be running another session in August. Register here.

Fields in Trust champions and supports our parks and green spaces by protecting them for people to enjoy in perpetuity. They are currently looking to find Britain’s favourite parks.

If you would like to vote for Preston Park – and what a wonderful park it is – then you can vote here.

Thank you!