As we approach another New Year I want to start by pausing for a moment and reflecting on what a wonderful resource Liquorice Park is for our community. Whether we love its natural habitat, its wildness, its meandering paths or its community events, all of us here are joined together by a common love of the Park and a commitment to maintaining it for all our community and for future generations. Sometimes in the cut and thrust of discussion we can lose sight of this common purpose and we should not do so. In past years the debate about the management of the Park has always been one of balancing the wishes of people who seek to maintain the Park as a wild space with minimal intervention and those who would prefer a more managed area for the community to enjoy. We are never going to achieve that perfect balance, but, I feel over the last year the huge efforts of our great band of volunteers has left the park a better place at the end of the year than at the beginning.
Covid had a big impact on the Park but I am proud that the Park provided the community with a much needed resource to relax in during troubled times. As we move out of the pandemic I am confident that we can continue to improve those special qualities that the Park enjoys.
This year we have been able to acquire the old allotment adjacent to the Park on its southern boundary. The trustees are currently making the area safe and considering how we can best use this new addition. More news on that later in the New Year.
I want to say thank you to all my trustees who do so much work over the year, both in the park and at home doing the necessary paperwork. I also want to thank the volunteers who work tirelessly and enthusiastically for the benefit of the park. I am proud that we have volunteers from right across the community, young and not so young, working together and having fun. I also wish to thank our commercial sponsors for their support.
As for the year ahead, we are starting to research and prepare for our new Management plan. To help us, it’s important to hear from the community with your ideas and suggestions, so keep them coming. With your help, we will do all we can to maintain Liquorice Park as the precious place that we all love and enjoy.
Phil Cragg
Chair
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