PEOPLES MILLIONS - 50K WON FOR WATER PLAY AREA
This is our latest news we have won the 50k for the play area from peoples millions thanks to your votes. please see other page on our website dedicated just to the PEOPLES MILLIONS PROJECT. We have the support of the following people: The Mayor of Lewisham..Sir Steve Bullock, Heidi Alexander MP, Suzannah Clarke Councillor Grove Park Ward, Groundworks London, Groundworks UK, Chris Ball Roofing, Lewisham Council, SIG Roofing and East London Business Place to name a few, please get in touch and let us know if you are backing our campaign.
Veolia Trust - November 2010 - application unsuccessful.
We should find out in the next couple of weeks if we have been successful or not in our application for funding through Veolia Trust for fencing to be placed around the perimeter of the main grass area at Northbrook park. This will ensure that the park has a nice picnic / family grass area to play games, eat lunch and a dog free zone for the community to enjoy. Unfortunately we have learnt that we were not successful in our application for funding through Veolia Trust. 8/11/10
MPGA - Metropolitan Public Gardens Association
MPGA kindly agreed to fund a mobility picnic bench for us, this was the first and only picnic bench to be installed in Northbrook Park and it was so well used we had a few more installed.
Section 106 Fund
There is funds going towards the play area from the 106 fund which has been approved. November 2010 - 46k
Playbuilder Fund
The funding for Playbuilder money has been agreed, which is great news after all the doubts that the park may not get it! - November 2010 - 41k
London & Quadrant Housing - L&Q - October 2010
We have been awarded a grant from L&Q community fund which will pay for colourful shrubs / plants to brighten up the park, mobility picnic benches and some logs for the children to sit on in the parkMagnifying Posts - Forest school - Wildlife area
Generous Donations & Community Support Magnifying posts
We wish to express our thanks to Kier London and Catford Couriers for our Magnifying posts in our forest school area at Northbrook Park, These companies kindly purchased these for us so that children can examine insects and objects closer under a magnifying glass in our outdoor 'forest school environment'. we currently have one local primary school visiting the area on a regular basis but hope to increase that in the future.
These are the first of their kind to be put in a public park in the borough of Lewisham, our group are really proud of them and the children love them. (see our pictures section for photos of them in use).
Kier London donated 3 normal size posts and Catford Couriers donated the Nursery children size post so that all ages can enjoy them. We would not have them in the park had it not have been for these companies generous offer to help us, the community payback team kindly installed them for us.
Grange roofing & property refurbishment, Aaron Fencing and Torry Hill Fencing have all helped us to get together fencing and gates to enclose our forest school area at Northbrook Park, this will ensure that dogs are kept out of the area and also that no children escape while they are enjoying having their outdoor forest school lessons at the park. Aaron fencing donated the big metal main gate and some post and rail fencing, Torry Hill fencing donated some more chesnut paling fencing and Grange roofing & property refurbishment donated two chestnut paling gates for the 2nd entrance to the area.
Forest School / Wildlife area entrance noticeboard
Greenbarnes Ltd kindly offered to manufacture & supply an outdoor noticeboard for us to be positioned at the entrance of forest school, this will inform visitors to the park what the area is used for and what they will expect to see. The design of the map was kindly done by Groundwork London for us.
Bird Champion Project
Our Bird Champion project is about to get underway and we could not have done this without CJ Wildlife Birdfoods, they have agreed to sponsor our bird feeding project at Northbrook in the forest school area in order to attract birds back to the park and create an interesting area for the community to sit in and the local school children to visit. If you wish to purchase bird food or feeders for your garden birds please call them on 0800 -731 2820, they give great service and offer great products for a wide range of birds. If you would like to be our bird champion and feed the birds on a regular basis please email us and we will contact you about the role.
Our Wildlife Pond, Hibernaculum, Stag Beetle Loggery, Bug Hotel and some bird boxes, bat boxes and hedgehog houses are in place for our wildlife project in Northbrook Park. We could not have done this without the help of Baring Primary School Pupils (who made one each with us), Lewisham's and Glendales conservation officer, Natures Gym, Catford Timber, Torry Hill Fencing, Travis Perkins in Lee and all of the donators listed below.
Chesnut Paling Fencing
Torry Hill Chesnut Fencing came to the rescue again when we were finishing off our Wildlife Pond and Hibernaculum, we needed around 12ft more of fencing - Torry Hill kindly offered to supply it again so we are now in the process of placing it around the pond and the Hibernaculum to ensure people do not trample all over the home for the amphibians as there are lots of air pockets and crevices for them to live below and if people were to stand on it or remove the pipes this could cave in their homes and kill them. We are also in the process of putting up signs next to the various features to give a little bit more information about them.
We held our tree planting day on the 20th April and we will planted 300 Hazels to make a coppice which have been donated by Cheviot Trees. We also had tree protectors donated by Ansini.
We wish to express our thanks to the following companies for donating things we have required for the Wildlife project at the park and making Northbrook Park a nicer place to be!:
www.pondkeeper.co.uk, Wickes (Barking) Catford Timber, Torry Hill Chesnut Fencing, Gordon Low Products, Travis Perkins (Lee) Paul bromfield Aquatics, CJ Wildlife bird supplies, Cheviot Trees, Chris Ball & Son Roofing Ltd,
www.nutbags.co.uk bird food(02380-894132) Thompson & Morgan Seeds (experts in garden - to request a catalogue call 01473 695224)
Homebase Kidbrooke - Donated Ready Mix concrete for our Tyre Trim Trail posts. Fawns Play donated the wooden posts and fixings and Grips Tyres & Wheels donated the tyres along with a £100 cash donation
Vine House Farm donated some bird food and a feeder for our bird area
Vegatable Seeds.net donated seeds
Arsenal Charitable Trust and Mark Harrod Limited have supported us in putting new goals into Northbrook Park after the old ones had to be removed due to them being illegal - these will be fitted in the summer by Glendale
Commense Ltd - Donated seeds
Cranswick pet Supplies supplied some bird treats and plastic feeders
Aero Arts have agreed to create murals on the containers at Northbrook with a wildlife theme to make them more interesting and appealing to the area and the community and WOW what a job they done.. Thank you James, you are a star!
Hertalan have agreed to supply the materials to create a green roof on the top of the containers although we still need a company to install it for us.. any offers??
Pets at Home Charlton kindly donated some bags of straw for our bug hotel and hedgehog houses
Majestic Wine Shops and Oddbins Wine Shops supplied the wine crates for our Hedgehog Houses and also our planters that we have made
Homebase Catford donated £35 worth of plants so that we could attract the bees and butterflies to our bug houses that the local Baring Primary School made and also provided us with all the log roll we needed for our forest school activity circles.
Coolings Garden Centre donated some Buddleias, sedum spectabile and some compost, again to attract the butterflies to the forest school area
Insectlore have donated 2 x school butterfly sets including the butterfly habitat and 66 caterpillars, Baring Primary school will be looking after these caterpillars untill they are ready to be released and then they will be taking them around to Northbrook Park to release in the Forest School area. Insect Lore also donated some kids rakes, spades and hats
Edwin Tucker & Sons donated a box of seeds
Straights PLC donated a Water Butt and stand
Catford Couriers ( 020 8297 0321) have sponsored one of our Magnifying Posts in the forest school area at Northbrook Park
Travis Perkins in Catford for their continued support with our mission to improve Northbrook park.
Wickes Charlton donated 7 Metres of Log Roll
Shirley Garden Centre donated lots of Tired plants and they are doing great now
Simpson Wreford & Co Accountants have donated £50 which will purchase a bird bath for the Forest School area from Primrose London who are offering it at discounted price and with free P&P
Wilkinson Plus in Penge have donated £40 towards our purchase of a 50 metre Hozelock Hose cart and hose
Qlawns.co.uk / Enviromat.co.uk have donated 30 SQ Mtres of meadowmat to create a wildflower area in the Forest school area, we will be laying this in the near future. This has been laid in the play area as we thought the community would benefit more from it there.
Suttons have donated wildflower seeds
Travis perkins in Forest hill donated Compost for our planting days
BritishBirdFood.co.uk has donated dried sunflower heads for the birds at Northbrook Park, the birds love them, if you wish to purchase any please call: 0800 121 6024
Travis Perkins in Lee have agreed to donate materials so that we can create a pathway into our forest school area and also create our Activity circles which will have bark as a surface.
Our Tree planting day on 27th March was a great success, thanks to all that joined us. The Royal Horticultrial Society donated 104 native tree whips for our 'forest school' area at the back of the park. Thanks to Travis Perkins Catford, & Travis Perkins in Forest Hill for their kind donations
The
community payback team have been busy clearing the 'old play area' at the back on the right hand side of the park, behind the stables and they have done a great job already. We hope to try and get an application in to improve this area but it looks as though the council may need volunteers to help upkeep the area, if you are interested in putting something back into the community and helping with weeding , general clearing up of that area as and when required please get in touch with us.
Painting of Railings to brighten the park up - October 2010
We recently had a very kind donation made from Travis Perkins in Catford and Dulux Paints, they have donated, Black Hammerite Metal paint, Paint kettles, Brushes and gloves in order for us to brighten up the railings and make the park look less run down. We contacted the community payback team who have been working very hard around the park every week since September to paint the railings for the community at no cost to ourselves. Well done to them and thank you to Travis Perkins, Catford and Dulux for their kind donations, we would not be able to improve the park without companies like this around.
Forest School Logs
We finally managed to obtain some tree logs for the forest school children to sit on at the back of the park on the left hand side within the tall trees, all thanks to City Suburban Tree Surgeons, we greatly appreciate their help in supplying and delivering these free of charge for us, they make great seats and the children from the local baring school are making use of them weekly on a Tuesday to have their forest school lessons in the park. Feel free to go their and sit on them and enjoy the surrounding area, its nice and peaceful over there! - Look on our pictures page for the photos of the logs in the park. Also a big thankyou to Lumley Designs more recently for donating and engraving a wooden plaque for our forest school area to tell the people that visit that area what it is currently being used for and why the logs are there.
PEOPLES MILLIONS CAMPAIGN We have been busy getting leaflets and banners printed in order to leaflet the community for support, the following companies have made this possible with donations or reduced cost printing: Chris Ball & Son Roofing Ltd, CopyFax Printers in Penge, Printed Banners and Designs and finally Arti Promotions in Greenwich for donating and printing our group t-shirts and Jackets. Thank you so much to all of you.
Raffle held - Peoples Day
We held our raffle on Peoples Day 10th July 2010 at Mountsfield Park and thanks to 'Surestart, downham' who allowed us to share their pitch. We raised £260 for the park and had some fantastic prizes which were donated by various companies and without them we could not have raised this money. This will be put in the groups bank account until we can find something suitable for it to be spent on. The donations were made by the following people: Tesco Express Grove park, Kingsmill, Co-op Downham, Vibe dance nights, Ceroc Bromley, Ceroc Greenwich, Drusillas Park, Diggerland, Build A Bear, Mahashri health hair and beauty, Young Driver, The London Dungeon, Charlton Athletic, Millwall Football Club, Manchester United, Marks & Spencers, The bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway, Horton Park Childrens Farm.SURVEY INFORMATIONThe results from our last survey back in the early summer 2010.1st place: play area 2nd place: fencing around main grass area 3rd place: cafe 4th place: toilets 5th place: picnic benches 6th place: plants / flowers 7th place: Water play area 8th place: school sports day 9th place: shelter 10th place: Tarmac area resurfaced 11th place: Football pitches marked out clearly 12th: forest school area fenced off 13th: football agility area 14th: dog agility play area 15th: basketball facilities 16th: bmx track / dirt track 17th: digging & growing area 18th: skateboard parkWe are conducting a consultation on the some of the things that the community have suggested to go into Northbrook Park, if you wish to see idea's of what these may look like please go to the pictures section and have a look at the photo album before voting or alternatively visit our facebook page - NORTHBROOK PARK COMMUNITY GROUP and you can also see them on there. Thanks and happy voting!It was suggested the following items in the following areas:1.Multi sports court - where the old basketball court is now on the hard standing tarmac.2. Shelter - undecided where but needs to be where the children are playing so if parents are sitting in there they can watch their children3. Forest school area, the idea for this one is right over the back on the left hand side corner where the tall trees are coming out of the grass area and it would be made to be more like forest school with mini beast area and digging area - a place for all to explore!4. Sensory Garden / Wildlife Area - There has been suggestions that the old play area which has been left to overgrow shoud be put to some use, although kept a reasonably quiet area, a place for your senses in the sensory garden and also a place to attract wildlife to the park, a proffessional landscaper would be required for this. 5. Pavillion - It has been suggested that we are in need of toiletsback in the park, a small cafe kiosk to get the odd drink / snack and changing rooms for the football teams especially the girls team that we have lost due to the lack of faciliites. This pavillion would also have an office for a park keeper should we be lucky enough to acquire one! We have not thought about he possible places for this yet.6. This is not on the survey but please contact me with your thoughts, a drinking water fountain, everyone gets thirsty when they are exercising / playing or when it is hot, water is already run into the park and just needs reconnecting and the fountain put in - what is everyones thoughts on this i am keen for you to let me know. 7. One last thing, did you know we have a gift from Lord Northbrook in our park, the site of Northbrook Park was a field known as the Ten-Acre field, although in fact it was nearer nine acres. The field formed part of the baring estates in Lee, and in 1898 Lord Northbrook offered to present it for public use, in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. A Sundial marks Lord Northbrook's Gift. Have you seen that Sundial, no neither have i, the brown piece of concrete where it use to lay on looks like it has been beaten and battered, would you like to see that piece of heritage restored back to how it should be? with a plaque detailing the history so all can learn a bit about our park. Contact me with your thoughts please. Thanks, Michelle