Thank you

A Big Thank You to Pontarddulais Garden Centre for the donation of these packets of bulbs which we put in last week.

We have no meeting now until the last Thursday of January at the Cricket Club at 7.30 and that we wish everyone a Joyful Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Tree Planting 19/11/2011

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who turned up to help plant the hedge row with the trees provided by the Woodland Trust and also to Ioan and Cath for stepping in to take the pictures as unfortunately our "official" photographer, was absent from the event (He was busy shopping for xmas then later on seen in a local pub :-).   
So a Big thank you for your efforts guys.
We would also like to thank the Swansea City Council guys that work in the park for clearing the strip of ground below the 2nd football field so we could do the planting.

We as a group would also like to wish everybody a healthy and happy Christmas and say that our chat and chop sessions will be taking a break over the winter months but we will resume these in the Spring.

Everybody moving at high speed :-)

Planting a tree.

Windsor (In Typical workers pose minus a Tea cup)

Our chairman Vyv (Pretending to look busy)

Snookie just found the day a bit tiring so opted for a lift

We would love more young people to come and join us your input is as valuable as the next persons.

Trees Planted each one is surrounded by leaves mulch to protect them from frost and surpress the weeds

Hopefully this will grow into a nice new addition to the scenery

One day this will be taller than the people.

We gave Joy the Honor of planting the Royal Oak.

The Royal Oak long may she grow

 

November Meeting

Our next meeting is on Thursday 24th November at the Pontarddulais Cricket Club.
Remember the start time is at 7.30.
Hope to see you all there.

Birds and other wildlife Of Coed Bach Park.

As you know we have 2 woodland areas in Coed Bach Park and there is an abundance of birds and and other furry little animals that live and pass through year in year out.
We would like to you photos of the wildlife in the park so pleas feel free to email your photographs to the group at.:- friendsofcoedbach@gmail.com.
Please do not replicate any images unless permission is given by the owner.




Our 1st 2 images were taken by Brian lloyd

Chaffinch

 

Nuthatch

Tree Planting 19/11/2011

The Friends have now received a pack of 105 All Year Round Colour Bare Root Tree tock from the Woodland Trust as part of the Trust's Jubile Woods Project. We will be planting them in the Park this weekend, starting on Saturday morning at 10.30. The Location is just below the football field. We hope that by creating a boundary hedge between the Park and the Old Railway Line we can help to minimise the environmental impact should the Pontarddulais By Pass Road be given the 'go ahead' in the next few years. All are welcome to join in the planting session.For more details please contact Chris the Secretary on 07890416892.

Update

We have some good news, the gorse is cleared and the lads have rotervated the soil so we can now go ahead and plant the Bee Friendly Plants we had from the Keep Wales Tidy Grant money.   So if anyone is free Saturday morning from 10.30, weather permiiting of course, we can go ahead and get these plants in.   

 

Our next monthly meeting is going to be in two weeks time on Thursday 24th November ! doesn't time fly.

 

Hope to see you Saturday and even if you can't make it but know someone who is interested in what we are doing tell them to come along and make themselves known because our next project is planting the 105 hedging trees that arrived today from the Woodland Trust including one "Royal Jubilee Oak Tree" from Her Majesty's forest. 

 

So all volunteers will be most welcome.

5th November Chat and Chop

Seeing as we have had a nice couple of weekends to get some work done. The Friends took the opportunity to spend a few hours in the park on saturday 5th november  clearing away some more of the nettles.

The gang have a few moments of fun showing off some of our new litter pickers.

We do stop (only for a few moments) for a cuppa but then we carry on

We also managed to plant a few flowers in the traffic island (Thanks to a donation from maragret)  but there was also a football match going on so the pics will follow later.

4th November News

Just a quick bit of news we have had  3 donated bags of daffodils and some gerenium plants for the the roundabout border so hopefully we will get into the park tomorrow afternoon and get planting.  The lads (Parks People of CC Swansea) apologise that they haven't had time to pull out the gorse but the weather has been against them and they are hoping to get it done next week.  And if anyone is over 60 and free next Wednesday there is an invite to take part in a study at the Uni. see the message below.  I've taken part in study's before and they are good fun, so if you are interested give them a ring.

Let us hope for a dry day tomorrow afternoon.

We are in the evening post and other news.

We are in the Evening Post today (wednesday 2nd november page 20) 

A bit of Good News! The earth has arrived and has been put in the brick roundabout by the gate so ........ if anyone has some spare daffodil or crocus bulbs then these would be most acceptable and we can plant them in this container.  Also a few members have said that they might have some spare Geranium Plants and I am sure you will agree these would be nice to plant up in the container next year as they are such a cheerful colourful plant.  Anyway, any other ideas would be most welcome as would a volunteer  who can mix a bit of cement so that we can fill in the missing bricks in the container.  I have sand, cement and bricks but I can't make cement, come to think of it I can't make cake either.

All the best

Chris

Thursday October 27th Meeting Time Change.

Sorry but we have a change of time for this Thursday to 7.30pm and it is likely to be this time for the foreseeable future.

Paul Evans Community Safety Project Officer for City and County of Swansea/Safer Swansea Partnership will be there at 7.30 to explain the initiative he set up called "Paws on Patrol" see attached evening post article.

Apologies for not sending agenda and minutes but I will bring copies on the night.

Hope to see you on Thursday

all the best

Chris

Next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 27th October at the Pontarddulais Cricket Club back room.
At the usual time of 7.15pm.
Please come along and support us and we are also going to discuss a Christmas Lunch for the FOTP members so if you have any ideas as to where and when we can go then feel free to make a suggestion.

Parks Contact Numbers

The link below can take you to several contact numbers if you need to voice any concerns over Anti social behavior to general inquiries.

http://www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5121

A walk around the park with Kevin and Adam

Thursday 19th October 3 of the FOTP members met with Kevin the parks manager and Adam for a quick walk around Coed Bach park to discuss several issues. From planting some new flowers and tidying up the pathways.

Discussing the Pathways and Orienteering posts (With our 4 legged friends in tow)

Adam/Christine and Vyv with some of the new plants.

A blue tit box made by Mr Gwyn Lewis

New Nets

Well I am pleased to tell you that our new nets have been delivered and are now in place and within minutes were being used by a regular set of players.

Fotp with the regular tennis players.

Fotp members from Left to right Vyv/Wyn/Martin/Margaret

Some of the Friends have a quick game to christen the nets.

The courts are used all year around.

News

 

We have some good news, the tennis nets and posts have been delivered and Dai the Supervisor will hopefully be installing these in the tennis courts this week so if anyone is free on Thursday morning at 11.00 am (29^th Sept) for a photo shoot that would be great. Dust off your tennis racket and shorts as the weather prediction is that we are going to be having an Indian Summer. Martin will be there to take some photographs, thank you Martin. Also thanks to Vyv getting in touch with the Parks Manager we now have a new bin installed in the Park at the Coedbach Road entrance and a new innards for the bin in the Playground. Thank you City and County of Swansea and thank you Dai the Supervisor who cemented the new bin in.

We had a successful day at Pontarddulais show, the weather was kind to us, and we raised some money so to everyone who donated items, who helped sort out the donations, stick the raffle tickets on the items before hand and who helped out on the day, thank you very much. We have some pictures taken of our stall at the Pontarddulais Show on the day and these are up on our Blog site.

Some Advance Notice - there is a Friends of Parks Forum meeting on the evening of Wednesday 19th October in Swansea. This is a chance to meet up with members of other Park groups in Swansea, to share ideas and perhaps see if we can access some joint funding bids. Anyone who would like to go please let me know by email or phone or tell me at our next meeting this Thursday.

Kay, myself and Delyth Higgins (Sustainable Swansea) met with Amy and Rachel, teachers at Pontarddulais Comprehensive school, to discuss the school’s involvement and it was all very good and positive – more about that at our next meeting. 
Look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

September Meeting

Just to remind you that our next meeting is on Thursday 29th September at the Cricket club Pontarddulais at 7.15pm.
We will also have Adam Mason the City and County of Swansea Community Parks officer to answer any questions you may have.

Pontarddulais Agriculture Show 2011

On Bank holiday Monday the 29th 2011 we set up our 2nd stall of the year at the Pontarddulais Agriculture Show.

Kay, Brenda and Margaret our Treasurer also helped man the stall in the morning so a big thank you to them.
And we also give a big thanks to everybody else that also turned up to help us set up.  

Julie is holding up a blue plant pot at the start of our day and the table is well covered in Tombola items all donated by our members - a big thank you to everyone

The items ranged from a tin of sardines to a Voucher from Arwels of Pontarddulais for a Cut and Blow Dry at his salon.  Thank you very much Arwel.

The lady who won the bird feeder donated by Emlyn's Pet Shop of Pontarddulais was very obvioulsy very pleased with her prize. 

 

All tombola tickets had been sold by 2pm and Margaret and her grandson did a wonderful job of manning what then became our book stall.

 We had fun and raised money for the Friends which was absolutely brilliant

All Images ©Christine Thomas 2011

Saturday 10th September

We are planning another chat and chop (weather permitting) this saturday morning 10 till 12 if you would like to attend please meet us by the entrance to the bowling green in the park.
Hope to see you there.

Chat and Chop/Next meeting

We had a successful day at the Pontarddulais Show and a big thank you to all who donated items and who helped out on the day.

We are hoping to have a Chat and Chop this Saturday morning in the Park from 10 am till 12 pm and we are hoping to carry on clearing the undergrowth opposite the Tennis Courts.  If it is bad weather then we will not be meeting.  I'll keep you posted on the next one.

Our monthly meeting will be 7.15pm September 29th at the Cricket Club (last Thursday in the month) hope to see you there if not before.

Thanks again for all your support

all the best

Chris

Sec.

Meeting agenda for 25/8/2011

Dear Friend,

First I must apologise for sending out the minutes so soon before our next meeting which is on Thursday 25^th August 2011 at 7.15pm at the Pontarddulais Cricket Club meeting room.

With the minutes is an update on the Short Term and Long Term Actions that we put together at our 2^nd Meeting and considering we only began in April this year we are making steady progress and increasing our membership.

We have been successful in obtaining the grants from the Community Chest and from Keep Wales Tidy so we will discuss these at our meeting on Thursday.

Just a reminder if you have anything for the Tombola and you can bring it with you to the meeting that would be great - all donations will be gratefully received.

Agenda for this Thursday Meeting

1. Actions arising from previous minutes

2. Community Chest Grant Bank Holiday Monday

3. Keep Wales Tidy Grant

4. Manning the Stall at Pontarddulais Show August 29^th

5. Update from Adam CC Swansea Parks Development Officer

6. Any Other Business

See you on Thursday

Best wishes

Chris

22.08.2011

Up Date on Action Plan created at Monthly meeting 26th May 2011

Up Date on Action Plan created at Monthly meeting 26^th May 2011

Short Term Actions and Results to date

Action from 26.05.11 - Increase our membership and awareness of the Friends –

Result 21.07.11 - Our membership is steadily increasing we have more than doubled our number since we began in April this year which was only 3 months ago! Hopefully we will attract people when we have our stall at the Pontarddulais Show.

Action 26.05.11 – Kay’s suggestion that it would be good if we could begin to clear the area next to the children’s playground after we finish the area opposite the tennis courts.

Result 21.07.11– We still have to clear the ground opposite the Tennis Courts. We got diverted because of the Himalayan Balsam that appeared to the right of the Children’s Playground – this we seemed to have stopped by catching it before the flower heads seeded. We still need to keep an eye on the area. We are also being careful when we are clearing the ground opposite the tennis courts as we do not want to disturb the ground too much in that area because that is where the bluebells will regenerate next year. This is ongoing.

Action 26.05.11 - All were agreed that it would be good idea to put up bird/bat/owl boxes, and to plant trees shrubs and flowers.

Result 21.07.11 – Thanks to the donation of wood from D. G. Heath Ltd., Mr. Gwyn Lewis, Brenda’s husband, has built 2 Owl Boxes, 4 Blue Tit Boxes, 1 Great Tit Box and 2 Little Owl/Jackdaw/Dove boxes. We are waiting for support from Sean Hathaway of CC Swansea to get these put up in the trees around the park.

Long Term Actions and Results

Action from 26.05.11 - To get rid of the invasive species such as Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam.

Result 21.07.11 – The Himalayan Balsam is easy to pull up by hand and the stalks left on the ground to rot. The Knotweed is harder to get rid of and there is a very large prominent patch of knotweed growing to the right of the park as you come in from Coedbach Road entrance. The advice we were given from the CC Swansea is to concentrate our efforts on small areas that we can tackle for example there is a small area to the left of the Children’s Play Area where we could, with the help of the owner of the properties that back onto the park treat the knotweed and so stop it spreading into the Park. Maybe if we can take care of the small areas perhaps CC Swansea will tackle the larger more prominent problematic areas!

Action from 26.05.11 - To get more seats, bins and maybe some kind of shelter.

Result 21.07.11 - When we submit the bid for the Lottery Awards for All Grant this will include a figure for seats and bins. We needed to get the feedback from the questionnaires first and also we needed quotations from 3 suppliers – hopefully this bid will get submitted in October and we should know the result in the New Year and then if successful this will give us projects to work on for 2012. The Park’s Operations Manager did say that he would get a bin for the Coedbach entrance from Coedbach Road. Adam Mason the Community Parks Development Officer is going to gently remind him. The Parks Operations Manager was unsure regarding a shelter as so many of these in other parks have been the target of really bad vandalism – this is something we need to look into further..

Action 26.05.11 - To get more people caring for the Park Environment and more woodland management.

Result 21.07.2011 – I was speaking to the man who collects the litter from the bins in Coedbach and he said that Coedbach is one of the cleaner parks in the City and County of Swansea and I think that is down to most of us who pick up the litter when we see it and put it in the bins so I think we are doing a great job. Also as we continue to care for the Park I think we are setting a good example and this will attract more people to be mindful of what a wonderful open space we have here and will want to look after it. The Parks Operations Manager has put in a request for the Trees to be looked at but as this is done by another department it is out of his hands as to when this will happen, Adam is keeping track of this and is making enquiries on our behalf.

Action 26.05.11 - Autumn/Spring/Autumn - It was agreed that getting primary school children involved in collecting and planting acorns in pots and nurturing them and then replanting them in the park was a good idea.

Result – 21.07.11 - Delyth Higgins Sustainable Swansea is working with Vyv and Kay to set up a meeting with the local schools to take this project forward. In the mean time we are requesting a free tree pack of 100 trees from the Woodland Trust for the Park, we should know the outcome of this by October.

Action 26.05.11 - To tackle the controversial ex-boating lake area and try and find a satisfactory solution that is acceptable by community at large.

No Result as at 21.07.11 – this is a long term idea that needs community input.

A Thank you letter to D G Heath of Pontarddulais

Below is a copy of a letter that has been sent to D G Heath Pontarddulais thanking them for their support for FOTP.

You can find their website at http://www.dgheath.co.uk/




Dear Mr Heath.

I am writing on behalf of all the members of Friends of Coedbach Park to thank you very much for your kindness in donating wood so that we can make some bird and bat boxes to put in the park.

We really appreciate your support and shall acknowledge this on our blogspot.

With all good wishes

Christine Thomas

On behalf of Friends of Coedbach Park

FOCBP would also like to say a huge thank you to Mr Gwyn Lewis who has made us the 1st of the boxes (a photo will follow shortly)

Thursday 21st July Meeting Agenda

Dear Friend of Coedbach,

Our next meeting is on Thursday 21st July at 7.15pm at the Pontarddulais Cricket Club meeting room, we had to bring it forward a week as they are using their room on the last Thursday of this month. It is very kind of them to let us have the use of their room and we are very grateful for this support.

Below this post are the main results of the survey we undertook in the Park on the day of the Carnival. I think all of us who were there thought it to be a very enjoyable day and the standard of the floats this year was very high. We have booked a stall for the Pontarddulais Show and hopefully we will be as successful at recruiting new members as we were at the Carnival. We will be running a Tombola to help pay for the cost of the stall so any donations for this would be gratefully received.

Agenda for this Thursday Meeting

1. Actions arising from previous minutes

2. National Play Day Event in the Park on Wednesday August 3^rd 2011 organised by Pontarddulais Partnership.

3. Pontarddulais Show August 29^th Bank Holiday Monday – items for Friends of Coedbach Stall and manning the stall on the day

4. Any Other Business

It would be really good to see you if you can make it especially as a few of our regular attendees unfortunately have other commitments on the 21^st but if you can’t make it and want to make any comments based on the agenda above then please get in touch with me and I can take your views to the meeting. Thank You for your support.

Chris

P.S. For those members who couldn’t make the last meeting here is a brief synopis of the presentation by Delyth Higgins of Sustainable Swansea. Delyth is hoping to work with local Community Groups in Pontarddulais such as us “the Friends of Coedbach”, the WI, the Chapels and Schools over the next 6 months to help inspire change to a more sustainable lifestyle by discussing issues around waste, energy, food, biodiversity and travel. She will then be producing a map of Pontarddulais showing what we have in the area around these themes such as the location of the recycling bins, the local produce market, our open public spaces etc. If you know of a group that would be interested in making contact with Delyth her address is Sustainable Swansea, The Environment Centre, Pier Street, Swansea SA1 1RY Tel 01792-480200

Questionnaire Responce

Below is a response to our questionnaire which was carried out during the Pontarddulais Carnival 25/6/2011

Answers ranked by number of responses

68 Improve litter/dog bins

66 Improve seating

54 Improve play facilities

51 Designated wildlife area

47 Improve Sports facilities

40 Improve pathways

38 Improve Tennis Courts

38 Fitness trail within the park

37 Improve teenage equipment

36 Improve signs/information panels

36 Improve Drainage

30 Improve Horticultural displays

30 Heritage interpretation

22 Improve boundary

10 Improve access

Additional comments listed by number of responses

Better paths: 6

Skateboard provision: 3

Loose dogs a problem: 3

Toilets to be opened: 2

Grassy kids area desired: 2

Lake to be reinstated: 2

Netball courts to be created: 2

Refreshment stand: 1

Park warden wanted: 1

Teenage provision: 1

More lighting: 1

More family activities: 1

More park benches: 1

Drainage a problem: 1

Clean up dirty play equipment 1

Natural displays to be developed: 1

July Meeting

Hi All.

Just to let you know that our next meeting will take place on Thursday 21 July 2011 at 7.15 it will be held in the back room of the cricket club.

Hope to see you all there.

Feeling Fit?

Keep Wales Tidy Needs You!

A team of KWT staff and volunteers will be donning their running gear on October 16^th 2011 to raise vital funds to support volunteers and help make Wales a cleaner, safer Country.
The ‘Litter-ish Allsorts’ team will be running the Cardiff Half Marathon in a bid to raise much needed funds and we would welcome some extra runners. Due to budget cutbacks we have a much reduced budget this year to support our fantastic and dedicated community groups therefore, any money raised will be put towards supporting these  groups throughout Wales.
Fancy a challenge?
You can either;

• enter the marathon yourself and raise valuable funds for KWT  (see Cardiff Half marathon website for details of how to enter)
• sponsor the ‘Litterish Allsorts’ team at  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/keepwalestidy2011
• Encourage others to run on our behalf. Please pass this e-mail on to anyone you think may be interested in running for KWT.

If you run for us, we will provide you with sponsor forms, a free KWT T-shirt, training programme, Hi-vis vest for road running, water bottle and a bag of KWT goodies!  We will also be organising training runs through the summer. Just let us know if you want to join the ‘Litterish Allsorts’ and we will add you to the team page. Places are booking up fast so please let us know ASAP if you are interested in running for KWT.
Your sweat and tears will be a small price to pay in the creation of a cleaner and safer Wales.

 

More Help Please!!!!!!

How would you like to spend a couple of hours in the fresh air in the Park as a Friend helping to clear the undergrowth? 
It is a great way to meet new people and keep fit at the same time.  
Tools and gloves are provided.  If you think you've a couple of hours spare a week please ring or text Chris Thomas on 07890416892.  All help is very much appreciated.

Fun Run

On Sunday 3rd July about 25 people competed in a 5k fun run/walk starting from coed bach following a route around allt y graban road and back into the park took place.

The organizers are keen to make this an annual event.

This is the sort of activity that FOCBP would like to encourage as it brings more people into the park and raises it's profile and of course the 2 organizations are able to work with each other to promote such events around the town.

A big well congratulations to all who took part in today's event.

2nd July

A big thank you to everybody that has attended our latest clearance this morning (Saturday 2nd July)

Today we concentrated our efforts by the park swings where we have a lot of growth of Himalayan Balsam which is an invasive species of flower.
So a big thank you to all our members that worked hard (and sweated a lot in the heat)


Below are a few pictures of our day and also a few links with some information on the plant.

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/himalbals.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_Balsam

The following photographs are copyrighted to friends of the park.

Himalayan Balsam

The cleared area

Log removal

Removal

Team work

Workday

Hi All.

Just to let you know that our next workday is on Saturday 2nd July starting at 10am-midday.

If you would like to come along and help out please meet by the entrance to the bowling green which is just by the tennis court car park you cant miss us.

If you require further information please email Christine at:- friendsofcoedbach@gmail.com

See you there.

Next Meeting

Just to let you all know our next meeting is on Thursday 30th June at 7.00 pm it will be held in Pontarddulais Cricket Club.
Everybody is welcome.

The minutes of the last meeting dated Thursday 26th May are now available to read you can email :-
 friendsofcoedbach@gmail.com 

And request a copy from Christine.

Pontarddulais Carnival.

Hi Everyone.

First of all a big thank you to everybody that helped out on our stall at the coed bach park carnival field on saturday 25 june.
The weather was against us but we soldiered on and made over £160 for the Friends Of The Park funds.
And we also were able to sign up a few new members to our ranks so please keep spreading the word so as we can continue to expand our organization and go from strength to strength.

I would like to thank all our volunteers that took the trouble to spend a few hours in the wet cold wind asking questions and of course Gaynor for her painting skills which were appreciated by everyone concerned and was kept very  busy by plenty of requests for face paintings.

The following photographs are copyrighted to friends of the park.

Meeting and greeting new friends

Gaynor practices her skills before the crowd turns up

The finished job

Our chairman joins in the fun

Guess my name

Pin the tail on the donkey

A young customer raises to our challenge

We have a winner

Oh!!!!! nearly

Answering our questionnaires

And of course the winning name to guess my name