Knotweed (Before Treatment)

Here are some images of the Knotweed problem.

This growth is by the lower football field and it shows how dense and the height the knotweed is. (Over 9ft). 

This area used to be used to stage a community bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night back in the 70's early 80's.

And somewhere in here is an old abandoned car.

Paws On Patrol

Please click on the article to enlarge it.

Summer Play Scheme

A Message from Pontarddulais Partnership.


Don't forget our FREE Summer Play Scheme this week at Dantwyn Park (Monday - Friday) between 1pm-4pm.
Next week, 30th July to 3rd August (Monday - Friday) we move on to Coed Bach Park between 1pm-4pm and continue there from 6th to 10th August.
All children 0-14 are welcome (under 8s must be accompanied by an adult). Scheme is run by fully trained and qualified Play Workers supported by volunteer play workers.
Don't forget NATIONAL PLAY DAY at Coed Bach Park on Wednesday 1st August - come along and have some fun, join our Balloon Race, tennis drop-in, Swansea Youth Bus, arts and crafts, climbing wall (weather permitting), Dragon Sports, Library Service, representatives from the Rail Life campaign (formerly the No Messin' campaign) promoting safety on railway lines), the Women's Institute will be providing cakes and refreshments. THIS IS A FREE EVENT AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING LOTS OF YOU THERE.


We at FOTP also invite you to take some time out and enjoy a little visit to the park and enjoy the sunshine (if it lasts)


If you have a dog please ensure that you pick up any dog poo and place it in either a litter bin or a dog poo bin located at the Coed Bach Entrance by the Football field traffic roundabout or the Glasfryn entrance.


Also if you are using the new pathways through the 2nd woods (from behind the swings to the rugby club car park or to the show field) please pick up your dog mess or litter as a lot of time has been spent laying the pathways for all to enjoy.


Please also do not light any fires as this damages the wildlife within the park.

Pontarddulais Carnival 2012

Here are a few pics from our (VERY WET!) exploits on Saturday 30th June 2012 at the Pontarddulais Carnival.

Our lovely Stall.

The Tombola.

Even the local School lollypop lady lent a hand :-)

Us taking shelter

For some reason Christine thought we needed a bit more rain so performed a rain dance.

Carnival Programmes 2012

There has been a change to the way that the 2012 Carnival Day Programmes have been issued.

This year no stall holders are required to sell any and they are from official sellers only. So no members of FOTP will be asked to sell any this year.

Signs

Our resident artist Gaynor Fuge has been busy making a few signs for the trees around the park.


We have so many different varieties of tree around the park these little signs will tell you what we are looking at.
Gaynor has spent a lot of time making these for us (and the public) so we say a big Thank You to her.
We also give thanks to Wyndsor Clarke for helping in identifying the trees and helping Gaynor to stake them into the ground.


Gaynor has a website which is currently under construction.
http://plumsumit.com/

And a Facebook Page.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Plum-Sumit/271851799569176

Images taken by Martin Hanson.
http://mph-photo.blogspot.co.uk/

Dawn Chorus

This is a Free event at Coed Bach park on Sunday May 6th from 6am  THE DAWN CHORUS there will be An early morning stroll through Coed Bach Park with a local bird expert to enjoy the sweet chorus of the birds in the park and Loughor marsh. This will be followed by a Bacon Bap now that's worth getting up for. 
Booking is essential contact Helen grey on 01792636893 or at helen.grey@swansea.gov.uk
Please ensure you wear suitable clothing and footwear.

AGM Friday 13th April 2012

We held our 1st AGM meeting on friday 13th April 2012 in the Mechanics Institute Pontarddulais the meeting was open to members of the public.
Our 2011-2012 comittee consisted of Vyv Fuge (Chairman) Christine Thomas (Secretary) Margaret Maden (Treasurer) Joy Walker (Vice Chair) Gaynor Fuge (Comittee member)

The 2011-2012 outgoing comittee
Rear Left Gaynor Fuge/ Rear Right Joy Walker
Front left Vyv Fuge/ Middle Christine Thomas/ Right Margaret Maden.

The Newly elected 2012-2013 Comittee consists of Catherine Thomas (Chairwoman) Kay Lloyd (Vice Chair) Christine Thomas (Secretary) Margaret Maden (Treasurer) Martin Hanson (Comittee member)

The 2012-2013 Newly elected members
Rear Left Catherine Thomas/ Rear Right /Christine Thomas
Front left Martin Hanson/Middle Kay lloyd/Right Margaret Maden

We the newly elected members would like to thank everybody for their efforts over the last year.

A few more images from the meeting taken by Martin Hanson on his blog site:-
http://mph-photo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/community-group-meeting.html

AGM and Public Meeting

On Friday 13th April in Pontarddulais Institute we are holding a general meeting and our 1st AGM.


The start time for the meeting will be 7.00pm and followed by the AGM at 7.30pm.


Please feel free to pop in and get involved.
Hope to see you there.

Football Container

Andy Cook has finished off spray painting the football field container for the Pontarddulais Juniors.
I think you will all agree he has done a Great Job as it has livened up the park with a nice big dose of colour.

Safety Warning

Over the last week we have had a very warm spell of weather which has been great for everybody.
BUT this does mean that the ground has become rather dry and over the last week there have been several fires lit around the Coed Bach Park area (a huge fire destroyed a reed bed on the marsh last week and this is a habitat for wild birds.)




Please do not light any fires within the park grounds as this could lead to a serious problem.


If you see any fires lit around the park contact the emergency services immediately.

A Campfire burn mark by the football seating.

News Update

Just a quick reminder that this Thursday 29/3/2012 we are having our monthly meeting at the Cricket Club in Pontarddulais the start time as usual is 7.30.

Good news, Doug and his wife Rose and I went to Ty'r Blodau to collect the conifers Doug took his trailer behind his car - we could only get 9 trees in but that is plenty. Then Vyv and Simon of the Friends met us in the Park to off load the trees and take them down to the bottom where Vyv then dug a holes for the 9 trees and so we've got them in BUT we need to keep watering them. A big thank you to Steve from Ty'r Blodau CC Swansea for arranging it and to Jeff and Jeff's helper for loading the trees into the trailer for us.                                
                                  

         

The trees near the lower football field

As you can see Spring is upon us and the Daffodils are in full bloom around the park.

Please feel free to email us your images from around the park and we will put them up on our flickr site
Our address is:-friendsofcoedbach@gmail.com 


We are looking into obtaining some Green dog poo bins and are currently in the process of sorting this out with Swansea County Council we will keep you informed.


A few parents in the park have expressed concerns that when they are in the children's swing area their older children take their bikes onto the BMX track and they are unable to see them due to the trees being in the way of their line of sight.
We have just started to clear this away and have already made a difference.
It will take us a couple of sessions to clear it completely.

Before

After

Keep your Eyes Out.

 On (Friday 23/3/2012) There was a fire on the marsh side of the railway line right opposite where we had planted the trees. A FOTP member called the fire brigade and two of the Friends was on site with his camera. It is awful that the reed bed in the Marsh has been burnt especially as there are special birds down there.
There have been reports of kids hanging around those areas.
If you see any suspicious behaviour in the area please contact the police immediately

March Meeting

Just a reminder that our next meeting will be held in the Pontarddulais Cricket Club at 7.30pm Thursday 29th March.


Hope to see you there.

South Wales Evening Post 20/3/2012

We are in tonight's South Wales Evening Post 20/3/2012 on page 11.

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

Evening Post Letter

A very nice letter from our friend Dougie in tonight's Evening Post.


Thank you Dougie it is very much appreciated from us all in FOTP.

Click on image to enlarge

Don't Forget

On Friday 16th March at 10.30am Peter Slee from the South Wales Evening Post is coming to the park as he is interested in writing an article on our group.
If anybody is interested could you please attend as the more people we have in the photo the better.
As usual we meet by the tennis courts.

Park Wildlife.

Friends of the park member Brian Lloyd has kindly submitted some great images of the wildlife that can be seen in the park.

You can view the images on our flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofcoedbachpark/sets/72157629292063683/


If you have any images of the park you would like to submit please email them to us at:- friendsofcoedbach@gmail.com and we will put them on our flickr site and give you a mention.

South Wales Evening Post Photograph

On Friday 16th March at 10.30am Peter Slee from the South Wales Evening Post is coming to the park as he is interested in writing an article on our group.
If anybody is interested could you please attend as the more people we have in the photo the better.
As usual we meet by the tennis courts.

News Update.

For the last few weeks we have been busy laying the wood chip paths around the children's play area into the 2nd woods.
This is all going very well as it is linking very nicely to the pathways going through the 2nd woods and people are commenting on how much easier it is to walk that route without getting too muddy.
Swansea City Council are still laying wood chip and are heading towards the pathway that brings you out by the entrance to the show field.

We have obtained some fencing for our flower bed by the tennis court car park this was donated to us by the King Hotel so a big thank you to them.


And we have been given a key to the notice board by the tennis court so keep your eye on that as we are going to be posting a lot more in there from now on.

Again our resident photographer Martin has been out and about with his camera capturing these images from the park on Sunday11th March 2012 you can view them on his blog at:-
http://mph-photo.blogspot.com/2012/03/another-misty-morning.html




If you have any images of the park you would like to submit please email them to us at:- friendsofcoedbach@gmail.com and we will put them on our flickr site and give you a mention.

Storm cloud over Coed Bach Park.

This link takes you to our resident photographer Martin Hanson's Blog site.


It shows a large storm cloud gathering over the park. on the 4th March 2012.


http://www.mph-photo.blogspot.com/2012/03/storm-cloud.html

Weekend of March 3rd/4th News Update.

We have had a couple of busy weeks around the park as we have started work on putting wood shavings on the pathways around the 2nd woods and by the swing area.


As usual a big thank you to the City and County Council of Swansea for laying the pathway from the rugby club car park into the 2nd woods.
And also for putting a small footbridge across the stream in the 2nd woods allowing the water to flow into the old boating lake.

Footbridge across 2nd woods stream

Wood chipping path around the swings towards the 2nd woods

We have also cleared a little area behind the swings so we can allow wild flowers to grow.
Several people remarked that the shape of the clearing reminded them of an eye so we are thinking of placing a sign in the middle with a quote on it.

A sign will be placed on here with a suitable quote.

Also a wall which has been buried under years of overgrowth has re-emerged after a bit of clearance work, It is believed to be part of the old jetty from where the old boating lake used to be......Needless to say we are looking into it.
Again this is visible from the children's play area.

Part of the Jetty?????