Meetings cancelled/postponed
Posted: April 20, 2020 Filed under: management, meetings Leave a commentWe hope you are all enjoying the park, during this period of uncertainty; it’s a blessing that we can get back into it. As the Friends cannot organise any gatherings for the foreseeable future, we will not be meeting this Thursday. The next meeting after that is scheduled for June 25th, so we await the government’s announcements to see whether that happens. Meanwhile, the Friends are keeping an eye on the park (during our socially-distanced walks); it’s great to see spring is springing, and that the temporary barriers in the playpark, locked-up skatepark etc are being respected. Wishing you all good health.
Our AGM
Posted: November 2, 2019 Filed under: Blog, meetings Leave a comment
Our first AGM as a charity took place last month. We were pleased to be able to celebrate lots of successes, and to discuss plans for the year ahead, in a wide-ranging meeting. You can read about some of our work in the Year in the Park document YitP 2019
Paid work available!
Posted: September 16, 2019 Filed under: Blog, management Leave a commentWanted: freelance consultant to set up volunteer management systems for us
We’re a busy charity, looking after the welfare of the park and its users. Traditionally the Friends offered a range of family-friendly events, and also acted as a representative body, for the council and other bodies. However, increasingly we’re taking on additional activities and projects which use volunteers to maintain and enhance the physical environment (further information about the Friends’ work is available on this website and on social media). It’s clear that we now need help to set up systems to manage our existing volunteer group, and to establish recruitment systems for new volunteers.
Could you be the person who could do this for us? You’ll work with the trustees and committee, and meet with various key volunteers, to understand our aims and plans. Amongst other tasks, we’ll need a suitable database for volunteer details, and systems to monitor and evaluate our work. Experience in the voluntary sector is essential. It is likely that the work will require up to 16 hours a week for three months during the initial set-up, and then up to 8 hours a week for a further three months, whilst systems are bedding in. Hours of work will be largely flexible, with a few required evening meetings. This is a self-employed/freelance contract. The hourly rate is £11ph. Further details from info@rowntreepark.org.uk.
Application is by CV and a covering letter (totalling 4 pages or less, please) by email to: info@rowntreepark.org.uk by noon, on 7th October, 2019. Interviews will be in late October. Starting date to be confirmed.
Information about Environment Agency plans
Posted: July 9, 2019 Filed under: Blog, Events, meetings Leave a commentMany of you will be intending to go to the Environment Agency’s meeting about the Clementhorpe flood defences, on Monday 15th July 7pm at Southlands Methodist church, to find out more about the impact on the park, and on Terry Avenue and Butcher Terrace. The Environment Agency has just realised this document: 2019 FAQ Edition 1 which answers some of the questions that have been already raised.
We’re a charity!
Posted: June 23, 2019 Filed under: Events, management Leave a commentWe’re pleased to announce that the Friends are now a charity, having successfully completed an application to the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Our charity will be number 1183948.
This probably won’t make much outward difference – we’ve always strived to keep our standards high! – but we will need to fill in more documentation, and make sure all the boxes that have to be ticked are indeed ticked … We may also be able to apply to different grant-giving organisations, as a charity. But we will keep in mind that we are here to ensure the well-being of the park and its users .. onwards and upwards!
The old park-keeper’s flat; holiday let or is there an alternative option?
Posted: May 20, 2019 Filed under: management, park users Leave a commentReprinted from Friends newsletter, in case there are subscribers who are not members of the Friends:
As you will be aware, the council approved plans to turn the old park keepers flat above the cafe to a holiday let. The original planning application was withdrawn at the start of this year from a number of reasons, but it is likely it will be submitted soon with amendments. The Friends of Rowntree Park committee would prefer the flat to be utilised in some way for the community and we are working on an alternative proposal. Your view on this issue matters to us.
We’d be grateful if you could complete this very quick survey regarding the lodge. We encourage you to share the link with others too.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RowntreeParkFlatSurvey
Important info – Closure/changes to Terry Avenue and Butcher Terrace
On a separate note, engineering work to help prevent flooding in the Clementhorpe area is likely to cause disruption to the area immediately around the park, particularly Terry Avenue and Butcher Terrace. Many local residents were unaware that the plans would require Terry Avenue (the riverside road) to change from a ‘byway to a highway’, for up to 18 months. Access to Terry Avenue would blocked at the bottom of Clementhorpe (for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians); instead, all traffic that needs access (construction vehicles, Roomzzz hotel deliveries and taxis, caravan site, park) would be routed via Butcher Terrace and the southern part of Terry Avenue.
The Environment Agency has applied for planning permission for these works, details of which you can see on the council planning portal: https://www.york.gov.uk/SearchPlanningApplications (use the code: 19/00570/FUL).
Comments about the plans were to be registered by 17th of May but we have been told that late submissions are still read and considered.
If the portal has any issues, you can use this email address: planning.comments@york.gov.uk
There is further information here: https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/yorkshire/yorkfasclementhorpe/ with maps showing the areas concerned. You can contact the EA directly for further info, and you can submit comments to them, using this address: yorkfloodplan@environment-agency.gov.uk
It is also useful to share any views with your local councillors.
Becoming a charity!
Posted: April 8, 2019 Filed under: Blog, management, meetings | Tags: charity Leave a commentOver the past 12 months, our income has increased quite substantially due to grants, increased membership and income from events we run for the community. We are now in the happy place of having to apply to formalise our position with an application for charitable status as an Incorporated Organisation. We would like to do this as soon as possible after the next Friends meeting.
We have used standard documentation from the Charity Commission to put together a constitution for the Friends and which we would like to discuss and approve (possibly with minor amendments) at the meeting on Thursday. You can see this document here FRP constitution 20 03 2019.
We have defined our objectives as being to:
1 promote the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of Rowntree Park as a place of environmental interest and amenity value
2 advance the education of the public in relation to the history, biodiversity and other aspects of Rowntree Park and related Issues
3 work with others on the provision of facilities for public education, recreation and other leisure interests within Rowntree Park
4 Promote civic responsibility, volunteering, health and well-being among the users of Rowntree Park.
We do need some Friends of Rowntree Park members to help with the organisation of this, as Trustees. 5 – 7 people are needed for this, and we hope they will step forward/ be selected on Thursday. If you cannot attend the meeting but are interested in putting yourself forward as a Trustee, then please let us know. Similarly, get in touch if you’d like to find out more on what being a Trustee involves. General information on becoming a charity trustee is here.
The Friends of Rowntree Park meeting takes place on Thurs 11th April at 7pm in Rowntree Park Reading Cafe. All members are welcome.
Update on the flat above the cafe
Posted: February 16, 2019 Filed under: management | Tags: flat above the cafe Leave a commentTwo of the Friends’ committee attended the meeting of the Council’s Executive yesterday evening (14th Feb), and spoke about the Friends’ concerns about the plans to create a holiday flat in the former park-keepers accommodation. We had previously added our comments on the planning application (see the planning portal with the reference number 18/02255/FUL) and these comments are amongst those integrated in the council’s updated document on the application (pages 71 to 85)
We anticipated that the holiday flat plans would be agreed at this meeting, because no viable alternatives have been brought forward, despite a lot of discussion. And so it proved to be. However, it was significant that the councillors agreed with us that the public hadn’t been given sufficient information about the plan, in particular how the money raised would be spent, and how the property would be managed, when the conversion was completed. And the lack of clear communication even meant that members of the public thought that the flat (or in one case the cafe itself) was to be sold – unsurprisingly the word ‘disposal’ in the legal documents led people to assume this. The council’s updated document (see above) does provide answers to many of the questions raised, but it is still not readily accessible, as it is 15 pages within a daunting 342-page document, held on the council’s website.
Besides these issues, the aspects that have caused most debate locally can be grouped under the heading ‘moral issues.’ Would the Rowntree family have approved of (non-local) people holidaying in the park, and paying a lot of money for the privilege? Is it in the spirit of their gift? Would it be more fitting if a council employee was offered the accommodation? Is re-purposing like this an indication that the council would eventually like to sell the property? It is difficult to know the answers (impossible in some cases) but a question-and-answer session – and equivalent published material – would be very helpful.
However, the plans and money weren’t just ‘nodded through’ at the meeting, because (unusually) the council officers were told that they were required to now engage with the public, seeking to clarify plans and allay worries, and then return to the Executive. We will now work with council officers to ensure that there is an open meeting for this purpose, as soon as practical, and will advertise this as widely as possible. As usual, why not follow us on FB or Twitter (better still, join as a Friend, and get our regular members’ newsletters) and keep up to date with the news in the Park?
Meanwhile, the planning application will be re-worked and re-submitted, probably in July, with work on the Lodge (assuming that all goes to plan) starting in the autumn. Again, we make sure that this is advertised on FB, Twitter and via our newsletters.
All the council’s meetings are webcast, so you can see clips of us and Cllr Johnny Hayes speaking towards the beginning of the meeting, and the discussion amongst the councillors 52 minutes later on, using this link.
A hundred years ago
Posted: January 6, 2019 Filed under: History | Tags: covenant, legal Leave a comment
A hundred years ago, the First World War had just finished and the world could start to think about planning for a better future. After so much loss, many hoped that the League of Nations (founded 1920, mentioned on the plaque in the lych gate) would help promote peace. Meanwhile, across the UK, those who had suffered were commemorated and remembered in various ways, including war memorials, memorial halls and parks.
During 1919, Rowntree and Company Ltd bought several parcels of land which would eventually go together to make the area we now know as Rowntree Park. The park was to be a tribute to the Company’s workers who had suffered in the war. The largest section of land was Nun Ings, bought from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England (now known as the Church Commissioners), and this image from the conveyance of 31st December 1919 shows the fields that made up this area, bounded by Clementhorpe Beck, to the west and south. The drawing must have been based on a map done some time previously, as it doesn’t show Norfolk St, St Clements Grove and Aldreth Grove all of which were already laid-out and partially built by 1919; it does show some fish and a cute (but archaic) sailing ship!
Rowntrees paid £1500 for Nun Ings together with at least another £1100 for other parcels of land, and they then also paid for the creation of the park, before handing it over in 1921 as a free gift to the ‘Corporation’ (i.e. the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of York). The various legal documents of 1919 show that the Rowntree family wanted the park to be “for ever hereafter be kept up and maintained as a public park, public pleasure ground, public playing fields or other like purposes of public recreation, and that proper and adequate attendance and service shall be for ever hereafter provided for the purposes aforesaid.”
More information about the park’s early history can be found in this recent post by Kate Davy
Rowntree Park remembers
Posted: October 29, 2018 Filed under: Events, History | Tags: WW1; York Remembers Leave a comment
Rowntree Park is a wonderful place for quiet personal contemplation, and many local people use spaces within the park throughout the year, to reflect and remember their loved ones. This October and November we are also remembering those affected by the First World War, with several installations and displays in the park.
- Within the Reading Cafe, we have installed images of local people who fought in the war, along with some souvenir material.
- Two information banners produced by Clements Hall Local History Group have also been set up in the cafe.
- A wall of knitted and crocheted poppies flows down from the cafe, to where a willow soldier sits quietly with a copy of the Cocoa Works Magazine, known as the Cocoa Times
- Other crafted items are placed in various locations
- Children have painted ‘Remembrance Rocks’ with words and images to do with remembrance, which are then hidden in various secret places for others to find
- Local arts collective ‘Northern Electric’ have created a sound trail called ‘Green in our Memory’ which is based within the park, and which can be found on the free app Situate
Our poppies are not just the ‘normal’ red poppies – you will see that they are of several different colours. Red poppies are worn to remember military personnel who have died as a result of war; they have been worn since 1921, and were originally inspired by the poem ‘In Flanders Field’ by John McCrae. White poppies are known as peace poppies, and are appropriate in the context of the park with its Quaker connections. There was originally controversy about white poppies, but this 1986 quote from the Bishop of Salisbury represents our view: “…there is plenty of space for red and white [poppies] to bloom side by side.” The idea of green poppies came from Seebohm Rowntree who said to the crowd on the park’s opening day, that he hoped that the park “might keep green in their memories, and those who were to come after them, the high ideals for which England had entered the war.” You might even be able to spot one purple poppy; purple poppies are for the animals who have suffered and died during wartime.
We hope that you will find time to visit the park and cafe whilst this material is on display and that you find your visit both evocative and interesting. We will leave a Memory Book by the display in the cafe, so that you can add any thoughts you might have.
News from the Park 