February March April Update.

2017 is zipping along at an alarming rate of knots. One moment you are celebrating Christmas and New year, and the next you are looking back with a feeling that Christmas was only two weeks ago but in reality it was a lot longer than that!

Since the beginning of the New Year the Park is absolutely thriving with activity taking place on an almost daily basis. The Our Place team are super busy in the Park for four days a week and the volunteers are up there whenever possible, and of course we have a new park manager who along with his team of guys are working flat out to improve the park wherever they can.

Awards

On Friday 24^th March three members of the FOCBP Christine Thomas, Windsor Clarke and Martin Hanson were invited to attend a presentation evening in the Pontarddulais Institute to receive certificates and a cheque for £200. Also in attendance were other organisations based in Pontarddulais who also received cheques and several individual awards were given to people who had made a huge difference to the town.
We would also like to take this opportunity to Thank the Town Council for their help and support over the last few years.

Bike Path

Members of the FOCBP are backing a scheme to run a bike path from Pontarddulais and connect it to Grovesend/Gorseinon more info can be found below.

https://sustrans.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/walesrdp-stakeholder-pontarddulais

Scouts

On Saturday 18^th March members of the 4^th Lliw Valley Pontarddulais Scouts Group joined FOCBP members in planting some new trees and shrubs at the newly repaired Coed Bach entrance.

Thank You all for your help and we hope you enjoyed getting your hands muddy.

Coed Bach Entrance

After being in a bit of a sorry state Swansea City Council were able to get a team out to the Coed Bach entrance and straighten the gates up and replaced the old fence with a brand spanking new one.

The approach from Coed Bach road now looks better and you now also have a better view into the park itself. The volunteers will look at adding a splash of colour to this area, and come the warmer weather the park will look even more of of an inviting sight especially as the wildflowers patch is near this entrance, the view should be superb.

The Park management team have also taken some time out of their busy schedules to help improve the service road that runs around the football fields to the Coed Bach entrance as in parts it was getting muddy and people were getting stuck with prams and power chairs.

The effect of the clearance is that while it can be a bit rough underfoot (It has always been the same) it is less muddy and drainage is a lot better than before. Once the loose stones bed in to the ground it will be even better to walk on. And more people will be able to get to other parts of the park that previously they were unable to access.

We give a big THANK YOU to Kelvin the Park manager and his team for all the help they have given to us since they have come into the park.

Photo by Kelvin Carpenter

Our Place Team

The Our Place Team based at the Canolfan y Bont have been working full tilt in the park since the beginning of the new year.

As usual they are continually topping up the woodchip pathways around the woodland areas, and despite some bad weather turning parts of the pathways into mud the team manage to persevere and patch up the worst bits.

It is also fantastic to see people taking time out of their walks to stop and chat to the team members and they take the time to get to know the service users and make them feel welcome in the park, and some even let the guys have a play and pet of their dogs. This is community at its finest.

The big project since February has been to construct a wigwam/tipi on the pathway running between the edge of 2^nd woods and the show field.

This project has been a huge hit with the children of Pitter Patter Nursery on Dulais road who are now visiting the park on an almost daily basis. And of course children exploring the woodlands while out on walks with mums and dads and grandparents are all making the most of it, which again is fantastic to see.

The Lord Mayor of Swansea David Hopkins and Councillor Beverley Hopkins visited the park on Wednesday 15^th March to meet volunteers and Our Place team members. During his visit the Lord Mayor took the opportunity to plant some new trees and the visited the wigwam/tipi to officially open it.

And we were delighted to see some regular park users in the tipi enjoying a picnic in the afternoon sunlight. The mayor took his time and spoke to all members of the teams concerned with the park and thanked everybody for all their efforts.

The Our Place team members have also placed two wooden benches in the 2^nd woods by the Friendship tree, this should be a fantastic place to sit once the Bluebells come into full bloom.

The current project is to build a small picket fence around the Helibores/Crocus patch which is near the wooden bridge that takes you towards the show field.
And the team even found time to plant some new trees around several locations in the park.

 All Tipi/Wigwam photos Sian Thomas.

PTFC

Following the planting of crocus bulbs by FOCBP members and members of the public and Football teams a few months back.

The letters P T F C came into bloom on the bank of the upper and lower field.

PCSO's

And of course we have to give thanks to our superb team of PCSO's working in Pontarddulais. Matthew and Hayley are in the park as often as they can be keeping an eye on any potential problems, and occasionally are fed information by members of the public and FOCBP members who are keeping an eye out for any naughty activities that occasionally take place in the Park.

We have always had a great relationship with them and we give them a Huge THANK YOU! For all their efforts in these difficult financial times.

We look forward to our next chat over a cuppa.

UPDATE

A few weeks ago a group of youths decided that the park was their own personal racecourse for their motorbikes, several members of the public and volunteers were in the park during this incident and were able to contact the Police with information regarding the riders. We have been informed the youths were spoken to and next time their bikes are seen anywhere near the park they will be removed from their care.

All images SWPSwansea Twitter Account

AGM

The yearly AGM meeting will be held at Pontarddulais Cricket Club on Wednesday 26^th April 2017 and will commence at 7.30pm. We are looking for fresh volunteers, we need new ideas, we need more people to help.

Like any group you can only exist for so long and if nothing changes then one day it could all come to an end, and then what.........?

Please! Please! Come and join us we need your help to take the Park forward not only for our future, but that of your children and Grandchildren.

 As usual you can follow our FB and Twitter Links and you can email us at the address at the top of this blog or you can contact us via our social media sites.

Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/550777668395584/

Twitter.
https://twitter.com/FOCBP?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Until our next Blog Update Have Fun In The Park.

March Update

March has been a very quiet month activity wise for us in the park. 
Our Volunteers have been out and about where possible sorting out some of the pathways throughout the woodland areas which were made boggy in the rain we have had since the end of last year. Also service users and the Neat team are still present in the park helping us out on a few minor jobs around the place.
And of course we have people working behind the scenes on Volunteer training programmes and looking for funding. So while it appears nothing is being done in the park itself rest assured we never stop.



Cats Update.

Around Christmas time the community was shocked to hear the news that a box of shaved cats had been dumped by the tennis courts and left to die.
The great news is that the pregnant cat gave birth to a healthy litter of kittens and all the cats have now been re-homed.
We thank Haven vets in Llanelli for keeping us up to date with their progress.

Scouts.

The Pontarddulais scouts (4th Lliw Valley) also came over the park for a twilight survey to see how much wildlife there was in the park and by the sounds of it there was plenty of bugs and other creatures to spot during the survey. (Photos Rebecca Routelidge)

Easter Egg Hunt.

One of the service user providers based at the Canolfan Y Bont 'Our Place' held an Easter Egg hunt in the woodlands they have been working in.
I don't know who had more fun, us hiding the eggs or the team racing to find them.
The team visit the park a few times a week so if you see them please say "Hello" as you walk past.

Look for the Super Hero.

One of our members found a Black and Gold Spiderman in the park and has been relocating him in various places around the park.
If you have any young kids you can play a game of 'Spot Spidey' as we will move him around the park and give you clues as where to find him on our Facebook Page.
(Also note he is only a little fella otherwise it would be way too easy to spot him :-)

Competition.

Our photo competition is still running so please feel free to submit any images you have taken of Coed Bach Park.

Wildlife.

Wildlife continues to flourish throughout the park.

(Images by Joanne Puddefoot and Brian Lloyd)

Other News.

Sadly someone has vandalised the Mushroom display by the Boardwalk and stolen one.

This display was built by the Neat team that helped build the walkway. If you know where it is please let us know. (You can contact us through our FB page or the email at the top of this blog.)

Also we have noticed an increase in people not picking up dog poo around the second woods area.

Volunteers are running out of their own bags as they have so much mess to pick up caused by irresponsible dog walkers who either do not care or think that the woodland areas are exempt from dog fouling laws.

The whole park is not only a public park which anyone can use but also it falls under dog fouling laws that can lead up to a £1000 fine if you are caught not picking up.

Our Twitter page (https://twitter.com/FOCBP) is running a 'Thank you' campaign against dog fouling.

We also ask that if you see anything or you have an unpleasant situation in the park to contact the Police on 101 for non emergency situations and 999 if you are being threatened or if something is being damaged.

Unfortunately things do happen from time to time and the FOCBP are only volunteers who's job it is to see to the park and keep an eye on the place.

We do not create the park rules nor do we run it so we cannot be held responsible if an incident occurs and it goes unreported by the victim. If you wish to contact us use the email at the top of this blog and we will assist you as best we can.
Also moaning about things on Social media helps no one. And if we all work together we can make the park a better place for everybody so please do your part.

As usual our Monthly meetings are held on the last Wednesday of everymonth over the Pontarddulais Cricket Club at 7.30pm please feel free to visit for a chat.

March Review

March has been a busy month for us at FOCBP. We started the month with the launch of our Facebook and Twitter sites. (The links can be found above this post just click on the tabs.)
Plenty of people have joined these pages and we have also had a few contributions from others as well which has been great.

The biggest job we have had done in the park this month was a bit of reshaping of the seasonal pond.
When we cleared the area in November 2013 we were unaware that there was an old pipe which was not marked on any maps running into the pond. And over the months water was slowly draining out of the pond and some flooding was occuring up to the pathway.
A Dam has now been added and the water is now holding in the pond quite nicely.
Also a smaller dam was added on the furthest side of the pond due to water flowing into the area being slightly polluted. This Dam is a simple set of haybales which helps act as a natural filter for any impurities trying to enter the main body of water.

Reshaping

Filter Dam

Finished Dam

Volunteers have also been busy over the park in the last month.

A course on pruning fruit trees took place at the start of the month and Jeff Richards supervisor of Swansea Botanical Gardens ran an afternoon session on how to prune the trees. This was a well attended activity and great fun was had by one and all.

Gaynor and Christine attended a Friends members forum in Swansea this was a chance for all park groups to meet up and share ideas and report back to Swansea City Council on how things were progressing in their own parks.

Our volunteers have been hard at it in the park with clearance work and meeting Council representatives with sorting out problems and finding ways forward to fix them.

Drainage is constantly looked at

And also our resident artist Gaynor Fuge has been busy making keyring fobs which are on sale at Craftiau y Bont on St Teilo Street.
Monies raised from these go towards FOCBP tools and equiptment.

The Wildlife is now beginning to come alive once again in the park.
The trees are full of birds and flowers (Especially the Bluebells) are beginning to flower.

1st sign of the bluebells

Members of the public continue to use the park and quite a few people have remarked how nice the place is looking.
Thank You for all your kind comments as it makes it all worth while :-)

Your dog will always find something to roll in :-)

We were handed an old image of Christie O' Neill who was a park keeper many moons ago.

Thank you to everyone that has contributed to our Social Media pages over the last few weeks and we hope to see you enjoying yourselves in the park soon.


We will be holding our AGM on April 29th at Pontarddulais Cricket Club.