Latest news: There will be a special park quiz for adults and children running throughout the afternoon.
Travellers update
It’s been a torrid few weeks and months when we’ve seen Travellers come and go from the park on several occasions. You may have seen our letter in the Argus which was in answer to one from Caroline Lucas:
The Friends of Preston Park was glad to hear that Caroline Lucas is aware of park-goers’ anger and frustration at the continued incursion of Travellers into our park (letters, 16 June). We agree that there needs to be a change in the law in central government for other authorities to shoulder responsibility for providing sites. And of course we agree that this terrible situation should not be used as a ‘political football’.
However we do not agree that providing more permanent places in our city for Travellers will solve the problem. We have heard that many Travellers prefer to pitch up in our park for free rather than use dedicated sites for which a fee is payable – and the way things are, surely there will never be enough places for the amount of Travellers we have in our parks.
We feel the best answer is, long-term: for Caroline Lucas to continue to lobby the government to a) make other authorities provide sites for Travellers as she says, but also b) give powers to the police to evict immediately without recourse to the courts; and short term: to drastically speed up the current eviction process, the current time of about a week is not good enough.
Our members and the whole park community hold our local politicians and police responsible for the implementation and enforcement of effective laws to prevent the abuse of our community space. This situation of being muscled out of our own park is totally unacceptable.
We have now heard that the council has the go-ahead to construct a permanent Traveller’s site. This will be done pretty speedily apparently as funds are already in place for this. The Head of Tenancy Services, Housing told us:
‘We do believe that providing some permanent pitches is likely to have a significant impact in reducing Unauthorised Encampments in the city. We will be progressing this as soon as possible.’
We’re really pleased that this new site might mitigate the problem, but whether it will solve the problem remains to be seen . . .
We have just had this communication from Councilor Leo Littman:
As you may have heard, Eric Pickles has now decided not to get in the way of the building of a permanent Traveller site in Brighton & Hove. Although, as the press release below points out, this will not by itself provide a complete solution to the problem of unauthorised encampments, it should help a great deal by providing an authorised place for travellers to camp and, when not full, giving the Police additional scope in dealing with any unauthorised encampments.
Press Release
Plans for a permanent Traveller site which have been approved by the South Downs National Park Authority will now not be called in by the Secretary of State.
Plans for the site, adjacent to the recently re-opened traveller transit site at Horsdean, have been drawn up by Brighton & Hove City Council and funded by a government grant.
The plans show 12 new permanent pitches alongside 21 retained transit pitches. Each permanent pitch will consist of space for a static caravan and other vehicles, plus a kitchen, bathroom and dayroom in an amenity block.
The plans will also see the Traveller Liaison Team move to a management building on site, to ensure closer and better working with the community and to reduce management costs. Councillor Pete West, chair of Brighton & Hove City Council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee, said:
“I am relieved the Secretary of State has stopped thinking about calling this in, so we can now get on with building these much needed additional traveller pitches. The impact unauthorised encampments on the city’s open spaces has on local communities cannot be underestimated coupled with the expense of eviction. The permanent site will help ease this issue and give greater stability for travelling families and strengthen existing links with the local community that already exist with the transit site. By adding pitch capacity it will also reduce the likelihood of unauthorised encampments.”
The site will be aimed at Travellers with a local link, many who already regularly occupy spaces on the transit site. This should increase the council’s capacity to deal with unauthorised encampments, although the permanent Traveller site will not provide a complete solution. Tenants will have to sign a secure tenancy that will, like all social housing, ensure that any anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.
The Rookery (Rock Garden)
Andy and his volunteers have a busy month ahead: American Express staff will be paying 3 visits for ‘community days’ in July, and at the moment, there are work experience students as well as a group from Hurstpierpoint college who will be working on the steps in the woodland area.
Here’s a pic of a sparrowhawk taken in the Rock Garden – he’s a regular visitor:
Wild flowers
The wild flowers in the old bowling green are beginning to bloom. Rain’s forecast so that will help to speed things up. They already look good. The beds beside the A23 have been getting many complements too.
The Rotunda Pond
Since the pond has been mended it has teemed with life – tadpoles, newts, frogs, waterboatmen and all sorts of wee creatures. (More plants in special planters will be added soon.) It has been almost impossible to walk over the stepping-stones of the pond without stopping to peer at all the watery activity. Here’s a couple who just couldn’t pass by:
The pond in the Walled Garden . . .
. . . has finally been mended. So the cracks have been filled and the water’s back in. Again, this pond is teeming with life: fish, newts, frogs, beautiful dragonflies . . .
Here’s the pond experts – Pete the Pond, Caroline and Kevin – waiting while the pond fills up:
Pride, Saturday 2 August – noon to 10pm
We’re very pleased that the Pride organisers are keen to involve the Friends of Preston Park in the consideration of park-goers before, during and after the event. We’ll be putting up posters around the park to let people know what’s happening when.
The festival site will start to be erected on Monday 28 July and everything should be off the park by the end of Tuesday 5 August. You can check for up-to-date information on the Pride website on which they’ve created a page for park residents: www.brightonpride.org/residents.
After the event Pride will conduct a feedback session to help minimise future disruption.
BioBlitz Day
Today the Friends of Preston Park were delighted to be involved in the first BioBlitz day, organised by the Sussex Wildlife Trust. About 250 school children participated in a quiz about the flora and fauna of Preston Park. The weather was great and the children had a fantastic time.
Katie Eberstein of the Sussex Wildlife Trust said:
‘Thank you firstly for your help herding children today, and secondly (and most importantly) giving us the idea of using the trail as a starting point. Without this, I think the event may never have happened! We had a wonderful day – 250 happy children all learning new things about their local park. In the feedback, nearly every child said they had discovered some place in the park that they didn’t know before.’
Removing the stones
The old disused bowling green was discovered to be infested with huge stones. So, before the area can be seeded with grass, stones have to be removed, which is what is happening here. Don’t forget to use the Contact Form to let us know what, in your opinion, should be done with this area.
Treatment of the old elms
The Aboricultural (tree) Department of Brighton & Hove council are considering some treatment of the old elms that line the main road. The treatment will make the trees more healthy and will therefore probably prolong their life, but the nature of the treatment will have a big visual impact on the look of the park. So we need your opinion on this important dilemma.
The thought is to aerate the roots of the trees and to then cover the ground underneath the trees with wood chip to help the roots to ‘breathe’. The wood chip area would be large – about the circumference of the canopy of each tree – so the park-like look where these trees are will be lost.
It’s difficult to say how long the trees will last, they are already pretty old. If nothing’s done they might last another 20 – 30 years or so. If they are ‘treated’ they could go on for a lot longer. Here’s a website link about the treatment which is being successfully carried out in Kew Gardens and Wakehurst Place.
We have asked the Aboricultural Department to do a trial on one of the trees so that we can see what it will look like. They’ve agreed and will carry out the trial on an elm near the tennis courts. We’ll let you know when this will happen.