Written evidence submitted by the Friends of Page Park [PKS 026]
I am a member of The Friends of Page Park, Staple Hill, South Gloucestershire.
The group was founded in 1999 after concerns of the deterioration of the park, its structures and facilities.
The !9 acre park was given to the people of Staple Hill in 1910 by a Alderman Arthur William Page who lived in the manor house. It was part of his front garden.
The Alderman was a very forward thinking man and recognised the need for people to have somewhere for recreation, for children to have somewhere to play safely and enjoy the fresh air and somewhere where the community could meet up with friends, family and neighbours.
In 1910 many women stayed close to their houses, the park gave them a new freedom to meet new people, enjoy time with their families.
The park improved the lives and wellbeing of the community. In our area the main employers were the coal mines, shoe and clothing factories.
So what has changed?
Our community has a wide variety of races and cultures who all come together to enjoy the park with their friends and families.
One of the major factors regarding immigration in this country is the of lack of integration and understanding between our neighbours and communities. The park breaks down the barriers of ignorance and fear, its somewhere we can all enjoy and our children can play together.
Our parks and open spaces are vital in bringing our communities together and acceptance of our different ways we live, accepting the different religions and ways of others.
Our Friends group are very pro active, our aim is to ‘Protect and improve the park and its facilities for the community today and for future generations’.
We regularly consult with our park users and our community to what they would like to see in our park and have been raising funds to make the additions and improvements.
We have a fantastic relationship with South Gloucestershire Community Spaces dept and have achieved so much.
I suppose as a group we have raised well over £250,000, we created a Sensory Garden(100,000) restored the bandstand(£90,000) improved a entrance/exit of the Bristol-Bath Cycle track (50,000)
We also raised funds to buy play equipment, plants, tools and to organise free events to bring our community together.
At this moment in time we are in the process of a major Heritage Lottery project to restore our Edwardian park total funding so far £2.2 million, more is needed to complete the project.
We have had a major input in the application over the past 8 years which has been recognised by the HLF.
South Gloucestershire realise the benefit of having Friends groups setting up a Friends Network webpage and organising regular get togethers.
We were awarded Group of the year-Outstanding Achievement at the Love Parks award ceremony in Nottingham in March.
There are so many people like us putting time and effort into their communities and especially their parks and open spaces. Why we do it I suppose for all the reason I have already said, it improves our lives, our communities and the environment we live in.
Now over the years government cuts to council budgets have reduced spending and investment on these vital assets, councils have had to put their money into there everyday services, the rising pension age has reduced the available work force and this will only get worse when people retire at 70.
To do what we do we need funding and support. We have been very lucky to access funding from Environment grants but there has been talk of changing this.
I think it is a no brainer, look after your citizens and the country will reap the benefits.
So please recognise the importance of our open spaces and give our councils the money to protect and improve.