Friends of Preston Park

You may remember the pond by the Rotunda was full of tadpoles. They are now weeny frogs and Paul Baron emailed these pics of them – small but perfectly formed!

As a police community support officer (PCSO), I work on the front line of your local force, providing a visible and reassuring presence on the streets and tackling anti-social behaviour.

I have many responsibilities within this role. They include patrolling a beat (in my case Preston Park and Prestonville). I interact with the public, while also offering assistance to police officers.

The main roles of a PCSO are to:

• deal with minor offences
• offer early intervention to deter people from committing offences
• provide support for front-line policing
• conduct house-to-house enquiries
• guard crime scenes
• provide crime prevention advice

The boundaries of my beat are Preston Park Avenue and Beaconsfield Road to the East, Dyke Road and Tivoli Crescent to the West, Clermont Road and Harrington Road to the North and New England Road to the South. Centrally located is the wonderful Preston Park. I often patrol Preston Park and hold a street briefing at the Chalet Cafe within the Park.

To the East of Preston Park is Fiveways. The local PCSO for Fiveways is Erica Harkness.

Three elms have been felled in the park – all had a degenerative fungal disease. The first was near the north east entrance to the park. The second was in the line of elms near the tennis courts – it blew down the day before it was due to be felled. The third was in the same line.

We have received details of the stewarding details for this year’s Pride event:

Stewarding and Security provided by Select on behalf of BHCC (1)

This Summer, Friends of Preston Park, in conjunction with CityParks, will be staging a summer festival in the park. Our aim is to celebrate local talents, promote local businesses and community organisations and to provide a fun day for everyone living in the area.

You can help us to make this event a success. If you represent a local business, voluntary group, sports club, dance or musical group, then you might like to consider participating.

As an individual you can help too, by assisting Friends of Preston Park on the day.

However you’d like to take part, contact us as soon as you can using the contact form on this site (click on Contact above) or ring Sue on 01273 506363.

The pond outside the Rotunda is teeming with life at the moment. Masses of tadpoles, some fish and a really healthy number of newts make this a fascinating place for children (and adults) to study watery beings.

This picture shows Alan Griffiths and Andy Jeavons of City Parks conducting the second of our ‘Walks in the Park’ last Tuesday. Preston Park looks at its very best in May, so why not join us for our last evening walk on Thursday 26th to learn more about the park, its plants, trees and wildlife? The walk will begin from the Rose Garden and start at 6 pm. The walk will then head north and include the walled garden and rock garden, ending at approximately 7.30 pm.

On Tuesday 10th May a Texas Rat Snake was found basking on the grass near the mens bowls pavilion. This three foot-long reptile was worrying the dog walkers and passers-by. With the help of the PCSO, the snake was captured and taken to the RSPCA. The Texas Rat Snake is not a native species and it is thought that some careless owner is probably searching under the bed for it. Lets hope the snake is well looked after and not spotted again in the park.

Thanks to Garry Meyer, Park Ranger

Good news from Alan Griffiths of City Parks. Construction of the Petanque Terrain on bowling green no. 3 is due to start on Monday 16th May. The work is going to be carried out by one of the council’s highway contractors – Edburton Contractor Ltd. The whole of bowling green will be fenced off whilst construction takes place which all being well won’t take more than a couple of weeks, although we will have to let it settle for a while before opening.The Terrain will measure 15m x 32m in size and the rest of the old Bowling Green will be raised in level and re-seeded.

Thanks to Fred Hards for supplying these pics of the Easter Egg Hunt: