Friends of Preston Park

Britain’s elms have been devastated by a deadly disease. Brighton is the last stronghold in the south. But even there it’s a constant battle for survival.

Film by Tim Friend

Do you enjoy the outdoors and talking to young people? Are you community-oriented? Do you want to help young people enjoy the local parks safely? Could you do street-based youth work?

The Local Action Team for Preston Park and Fiveways is seeking volunteers interested in working with the community to help make our parks safe for our young people over the summer and beyond.

If you’re interested, please come along to the first, exploratory meeting facilitated by youth workers from the Trust for Developing Communities

When: Monday, 5 July 2021, 6 pm
Where: Preston Park Clock Tower
Contact: Let us know if you can come at ppflat@gmail.com

PPFLAT is the Preston Park and Fiveways Local Action Group. Local Action Teams are resident-led and focus on specific areas, in our case the Preston Ward, to provide the space for local residents, organisations, businesses and groups to collaborate on projects that benefit the immediate community by addressing local issues. It is open to all residents, as well as businesses, schools, sports clubs, local government organisations and Friends groups like us. The three local councillors and our team of three Police Community Support Officers also actively attend meetings.

The first project that the group is working on is anti-social behaviour in Blakers and Preston Parks. These include some nasty incidents in both parks in recent weeks, including a mugging and more serious assaults, as well as endemic graffiti on our heritage buildings and most other surfaces. The project will focus on reporting anti-social behaviour and crime as soon as possible so that more police resources will be focused on the parks. Unless people report incidents, we will not have the police manpower to deal with anti-social behaviour. The campaign will launch with posters and communications soon.

If you would like to take part and achieve positive change together in our Park, please contact ppflat1@gmail.com. The PPFLAT welcomes any individual local resident who wishes to take part and contribute comments and ideas. Community safety in our parks is very important especially at a time when we all value our outdoor green spaces more than ever.

Brighton & Hove City Council and the Brighton & Hove Green Spaces Forum have published this map showing the special trees in the area, including Preston Park.

Special Trees of Brighton & Hove (PDF)

According to The Argus, Brighton and Hove provides the best opportunities in the country for children to play tennis and numbers in Preston Park have doubled.

See the Argus article

If you would like to volunteer and you are not yet a member of Friends of Preston Park, sign up here and tick the box for volunteering. If you are already a member, use our contact form to register your interest. For more information, go to our volunteering page.

And here’s a nice article in Sussex ByLines about Preston Park garden manager, Andy Jeavons, and his gardening volunteers.

A famous elm tree which had stood in Preston Park for more than 400 years before it had to be felled will be turned into a piece of art. See article in Brighton & Hove Independent.

Also see this video report on ITV.

These are frogs in the rockery pond. Reports on March 17th testify to there also being hundreds of frogs, toads and newts in the Rotunda pond, plus frog and toad spawn.

There’s good news that City Parks are planning improvements to the play area through rebuilding and refurbishment where necessary, as well as some new equipment. The work, which is still at the planning stage, is expected to be completed by the October half term. We will let you know more details when we receive them.

Meanwhile, is there any new equipment that you and your children would like to see? It’s probably too late for this round of spending, but it would be good to have community views for the future. For instance, is there the right equipment for all ages, is it the sort of equipment that children enjoy, or something new you would like to see?

One thing we would like to see in the Park generally is some outdoor gym equipment for older people. What do you think of that? It does not have to be complicated equipment and can be as simple as beams to walk on to improve balance. We think Preston Park should have something for all ages to improve fitness and, as now there are no bowling greens left in the Park, an outdoor gym would be helpful for flexibility, strength and balance.

Please send us your views on the play area and an outdoor gym by replying to this email, through our Facebook page, or using the contact form.