December Roundup

We kicked the month off by winning another award at the Fields in Trust award ceremony held in London.
This year we won for getting active on a Fields In Trust site. Which was fantastic result for our team as we have been very busy in the park through out the year and it is a great reward for all our members hard work.
This year Windsor Clarke accepted the reward on behalf of the group.

Windsor at the Fit ceremony

Also this month the Neat team has returned to help with the construction of the new BMX track which is being extended along side the current track. Pupils of Pontarddulais Comprehensive will soon be joining them to help out.

And we are now having articles published in the SA4 magazine which you can find in various places throughout the Swansea area.
We are looking for people to come forward to help us write the articles and if you know of anyone or are interested yourself please contact us at the email or phone number at the top of this blog.

Following on from the Friendship Tree tagging event a few weeks back the tree has become a focal point in the second woods with plenty of people stopping off and reading the tags.
We even found out who the tree originally belonged to (but if you want to know more you need to follow us on FB.)

As usual we are busy as ever on our Twitter and Facebook pages, if you would like to join us there please feel free as we always like to hear about peoples experiences around the park.

We would also like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a Happy New Year and we at FOCBP thank you for your continuing support.

Friendship Tree

This year we grew a bigger crowd to the tagging of the Friendship tree in second woods.
150 tags were placed on the tree by group members and members of the public who came along to support this event.
We would like to thank everybody that gave a donation to have the tags displayed on the tree and each message is personal to every individual that left a message which makes it all the more special.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank You.

We at Friends of Coed Bach Park would like to thank the following companies that have been kind enough to donate materials to our project over the last few weeks.

Ark Fencing who not only supplied the wood to build the boardwalk but also kindly donated the bench.
http://www.arksupplies.co.uk/

B&Q Gorseinon store for donating plants and bulbs for our recently installed planters.
http://www.diy.com/store/gorseinon/BQ_GOR205


And Pontarddulais Garden Centre for also supplying us with plants and bulbs for the planters and other parts of the park.
http://www.pontarddulaisgardencentre.co.uk/

We would not be able to carry out some of the work we are doing in the park without the kind generosity of these stores.

!!!Thank You Everybody!!!

From the Focbp

November Roundup

The big news this month is of course the Seasonal Pond Boardwalk has been completed.
The NEAT team faced more difficulties than they originally expected, but they got the job done. Since it has opened it has become quite the attraction in the park with a lot of people commenting how great it is.
There are one or two little tidying up jobs to do around the area but the weather is delaying this at the moment. And as soon as we get the chance we will be straight in there.
We also give a huge thank you to ARK Fencing who provided the wood for this project and also kindly donated a wooden bench for people to sit on.

Planters have been placed by the Coed Bach and Gwynfryn rd entrances to the park and we are in the process of deciding what to place in them.

Work parties have resumed this month with several teams of volunteers clearing overgrown areas by the Coed Bach entrance and other areas around the park.
And of course litter picks are ongoing.

This month also saw an exhibition of the FOCBP Christmas tree tags and work we have done in the park being displayed at the Pontarddulais Library.
We thank Gaynor for her effort in setting this up for us as it does take a lot of time and planning to hold such a thing.

We finished this month off by holding a stall at the Pontarddulais Comprehensive Winter Fayre. Thank you to everybody who turned up to help run the stall. It was all worthwhile.

This year we decided not to produce any Calendars and have instead produced Christmas cards. These are for sale throughout Pontarddulais and can also be purchased directly from us for £4.50 for a pack of 10.
If you want to know where you can purchase the cards you can contact us through our Facebook page (link at the top of this page.)

There will be no monthly meeting in December as we have decided to head for the nearest pub instead to hold our annual FOCBP Christmas party.
But we will of course keep you informed across our social media sites on any park news as it happens.

Sky Walk.

A team of Sky tv engineers who give up their time to support local causes yesterday (Tuesday 10/11/15) came into the park to help us out with some new pathways and drainage issues.

We would like to thank Matthew Garratt a regular park user, and his team for helping us out in the most awful weather conditions that nature could throw at them.
We would also like to thank Sky Television for allowing your engineers time off from their normal duties to help out in the park.

There was also a photographer present from the South Wales Evening Post.

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Pontarddulais-park-transformed-team-gone-extra/story-28149198-detail/story.html

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Donation to the FOCBP

FOCBP would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to the members of Pontarddulais Rugby Club who have given our group a donation of £250.
The Eggheads and Dumbo's (That's what they call themselves :-)) meet every Sunday evening in the club and hold a little quiz to which they then donate all money raised over a period of time to various organizations in the Pontarddulais area (and also to other organizations.) 
Myself and FOCBP Chairwoman Gaynor Fuge accepted the donation this evening from the group, and we as a volunteer organization already know what to spend the money on.

October Roundup

Boardwalk

The work on the Seasonal pond boardwalk is still ongoing and the Neat team is inching their way towards the pond.
A lot of members of the public have been taking their time to stop and have a chat to the team and they have also suggested more seating areas in the second woodlands. Several fallen trees have been identified as potential natural seating for this area as well as having some seating on the boardwalk itself, the Neat team will see to this once they have finished the construction of the walkway.

Volunteers discuss seating for the Boardwalk.


Tidying Up
As usual FOCBP members have been out and about in the park on litter picks and generally tidying up little areas of undergrowth that need attention.


Tennis Courts

Due to safety and security reasons the Tennis courts will be locked in the evenings over winter as some people are using the courts for other activities for which they are not designed.
If these courts are damaged through misuse it will be difficult to repair the surface.
A group of people who were seen misusing the courts recently informed a FOCBP member that there were no signs up and we did not have a leg to stand on if any damage had occured to the surface.
Obviously some people have no common sense at all and need a sign for everything to tell them how to think!

Fungi Foray

Teifion Davies held his third Fungi Foray in the park recently and again we ended up with another haul of Fungi.

As usual it took us 20 minutes to leave the Tennis court car park area as there were plenty of Fungi just in that area alone.

The amazing thing about these walks is that every walk has been different and different species have been found on each one.

Meeting

Our next meeting is to be held at Pontarddulais Cricket Club at 7.30pm Wednesday October 28th.
As usual everybody is welcome to join us for a Drink and a chat.



As usual you can find us on Facebook and Twitter (Click on the tabs at the top of this blogsite to take you to our other sites.)