July 2019

July 2019

The month started with some disappointing news that the Ash die-back fungal disease has reached the park. City and County of Swansea are attending to a large number of affected trees in the county to remove trees with signs of infection to improve the park for other trees and users. The Council will be working in the park with machinery to remove this.

Fundraising Continues

Paint was delivered by City and County of Swansea and a special THANK YOU to Pontarddulais Fire Service who really came to the rescue and volunteered to get our play equipment cleaned for painting! 

The Pontarddulais Fire Service have a fire cadets night for 12 to 18 years contact the Pontarddulais Fire Station.

In addition to our other volunteers and those from the Fire Service, we are also grateful for the work that our Duke of Edinburgh students do in the park. They were also able to join us for the clean up. Thank you Dylan and Tom.

Green Flag Award Winners !!!

We are very proud to winners of the Keep Wales Tidy Green Flag Award for another year running. Please see the separate post on the award for our report details and information. 

Fundraising Continues

uzan Jones, Cllr. Kevin Griffith's and Windsor Clarke chairman of friends of coedbach park being presented with the cash that Suzan and Melanie have raised so far for doing their sponsored walk up Snowden to raise funds for the pathway in the Park. Huge thank you to them and everyone who has given their support. The just giving page is still open!  https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kevin-griffiths-5?utm_term=mprYDVYBE&fbclid=IwAR06xiznopewpdAKJQ2UZcFtcDM7KkGo47UqUiSeV8Nsc2meRySDejp9VCs

Zip Wire news

The Local County Councillors and the Town Council have bought a zip wire, this to be installed in the next few months in an area where the friends have planted apple, pear and cherry trees and two lavender hedges (for the ecology of this area).

Green Flag Status Achieved Again! 4 years in a row

June 2019

June 2019

Another busy month in the park!

The Football fields were reseeded and fertilised, users were asked to stay off the grass for a short while to allow this to bed in.

Annual 5K was hosted at the park, the event was well attended and raised money for the Annual Fayre.

Tennis has been running on Friday evenings, supported by Swansea Tennis Club.



Some safety/appearance issues were raised with the playground equipment so Swansea Council have attended to fix the equipment, installed two new gates (£900 each) and have arranged for paint to be delivered to spruce up the play equipment.



Annual Summer Fayre was hosted in the park, this went well and was a full family day.

May 2019

Lots of progress can be seen this May in the Park.

The conservation in the second woods allowed for yet another spectacular display of native bluebells amongst the ancient forest of Oak trees. With thanks to the friends and Our Place members for their help.

The Our Place Team are working very hard in the park, clearing and planting in and around the park.


With thanks to Swansea Tennis Centre for the FREE Tennis sessions have resumed Fridays 5pm onward at the park.



The Pontarddulais, Hendy and District Annual Photography Competition has returned. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a photo of the park amongst the entries? Information below.



We're welcoming photos on our Facebook page too, and one park user spotted these visitors a few weeks back! They do say, the grass is always greener...

With thanks to those of you who've commented in person or online on the volunteer work we do, it really does drive us on and gives us another place to get feedback.

The planters are in full bloom. From the donations we have been given the Friends were able to purchase plants and revive the planters by the tennis courts. Thank you to the members who look after the planters.

As part of the Grow Wild 'Can weeds be beautiful?' campaign we've included some beautiful weeds into our Facebook feeds. https://www.growwilduk.com/can-weeds-be-beautiful

2019 AGM

A successful AGM was held on Friday 26th April 2019, and the Committee were re-elected as follows:

Chairman - Windsor Clarke
Vice Chairman - Clive Davies
Treasurer - Jane Harris
Secretary - Christine Thomas.

With thanks to all for your contribution over the last year, we look forward to working with you in 2019-2020!

Chairman’s Report 2018 - 2019

Another busy year in the Park for the Friends Group with the invaluable help from the
Our Place Team. We were awarded the Green Flag Community Parks award 2018-
2019 and on Monday 29th April we are being judged again so fingers crossed we get the
award for the coming year.
The woodchip paths are being continually topped up and the tennis courts brushed and
kept free of leaves. Two picnic benches and tables and two Interpretation Map panels
were purchased and installed thanks to the Tesco Grant (blue tokens) and help from
the Parks department. Thanks to the Dwr Cymru grant, we planted 118 Lavender Plants
to form a small hedge of Lavender, this is good for bees as well as looking nice. We
have added to the hedging plants that were planted by the Scouts at Coedbach Road
entrance, it will take a couple of years before this hedge is established. Flowers, shrubs
and bushes have been planted on the bank opposite the lower football field, this is on-
going and we have purchased flowers for the flower planters at the entrances to the
park. We have kept down the spread of bulrushes in seasonal pond in 2 nd woods and we
continue to cut back the undergrowth so that the bluebells have a chance to grow and
blossom. We planted donations of gunnera and perennial plants from Clyne Gardens
and roses from the Bowls Group and the C. C. Swansea Tree Unit and the Parks
planted a specimen tree called Paulownia Tomentosa, we are looking forward to seeing
it flower.
We organised and assisted the baccaularete pupils from the Dylan Thomas School to
maintain the BMX track by topping it up with stone duff and chippings that we
purchased and they also painted the football container, the one where the graffiti design
had worn off. We also organised our annual Fungi Foray with our guest expert Teifion
Davies. We attended the Friends of Swansea Parks Forum and have participated in the
formation of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Swansea Council and the
Friends of Parks groups
We supported the Sustrans's initiative to get a cycle path to connect Pontarddulais to
Grovesend cycle path, unfortunately their bid for European Funding was not successful.
We put an exhibition in Library about the “Christmas Friendship Tree” and gave a talk to
the local Mothers Union and the Senior Citizen’s group about the Friends of the Park.
All our activities are published on our Blog and Facebook page. Our thanks to everyone
for their support.
Windsor Clarke (Chairman)

Local Community Groups Contacts

Please follow these groups media channels for community and park news.

Friends of Coed Bach

https://en-gb.facebook.com/groups/550777668395584/

Pontarddulais Partnership

https://www.facebook.com/CanolfanYBont28/

Kevin Griffiths, Community Updates

https://www.facebook.com/Pontarddulais-community-updates-1288944484559787/

Pontarddulais Juniors

https://www.facebook.com/ptfcjuniors/

Carnival Committee

https://www.facebook.com/Pontarddulais-and-Hendy-festival-committee-623186657709569/

February

Friends of Coed Bach Park members continue to work alongside the Our Place team members with planting projects throughout the park.

Also our volunteers have been out and about doing the annual clearance work for this years crop of bluebells.

Swansea city council have kindly donated a tree to replace one that was damaged in a storm 2 years ago. We would like to thank Martin Bignall for this generous offer.
The tree has been located at the Glasfryn entrance.

We have obtained some Helibores and will be adding them to the existing ones near the boardwalk in 2nd woods.

And a Brimstone Butterfly has been spotted in the park during this mild February weather.

Your opinion is needed with regards to this major new project in the park. (Please contact the Canolfan y Bont on Dulais road via the FB page or pop in to speak to Cath.)

https://www.facebook.com/CanolfanYBont28/photos/a.2296691727049064/2296839333700970/?type=3&theater

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