Friends of MoneyholeFriends of Moneyhole Lane Park in Welwyn Garden City

This is the  home on the web on the Friends of Moneyhole Lane Park in Panshanger, Welwyn Garden City. We are a small but growing group of people who want to see good things happen at the park. We are working hard to make the park a tidy, safe, and most of all a fun and relaxing place to be.s

This is a local community powered, volunteer driven initiative.

Have a look around the site!

Saturday 03 July 10

The annual Picnic in the Park is held on Saturday 03 July. It is from 4 pm onwards (weather permitting)

Come with some friends and neighbours.

Bring your own picnic, something to sit on and a kite (if you have one).

If it is sunny, a hat and suncream are recommended.

Dogs on leads please.

Just a brief note, we recently received a message through the contact form on the website from a lady called Natalia.  She did not include her email address so we could not reply directly.

However, the answer to the questions is that there is no Cafe at the park unfortunately. Similarly there are no public toilets either. There are toilets in the pavilion but they would usually only be available to members of the football club. Friends of Moneyhole are all for providing such  facilities, but so far we have been unsuccessful in our attempts to lobby the council and it’s councillors with regard  to improving the facilities in  the park, by any significant measure.  We have been successful in getting more litter bins and a few more benches installed, but that’s small fry compared to toilets and a Cafe.  We will continue to ask for more facilities at the park however.

Application for projects and events to celebrate WGC 90th anniversary are invited from local groups.

FoM / Resident Association was asked to consider this.

If anyone has an idea for a community project or event in Panshanger, please submit your application to the council by 14 May.

The information, application form and email address link is here.

Please contact us if you wish to apply through the FoM/RA group.
FoM and residents will welcome and support the right Panshanger wide community event or project.

The following unclaimed raffle tickets are prize winners.

Please contact Nicky Higgs, dog warden, to claim your prize with your winning ticket.

19   22   096   606   609   625   630   675   680     700    701    716    746   790    804   810    815     845     901     906     955    961   977    985

Please call Nicky on 0845 241 7253 by the end of April 2010.

The 25 March SOSC meeting on the residents petition for a security barrier was first the council, and the strangest, meeting some of us ever attended.

Not only were the  car ASB issues unsolved, they cast aspersions  on the victims claims and denigrated the FoM group, who supported their petition.

Background – Many residents complained of ASB at Moneyhole car park going back years. The police,  Cllr  Bennett and Cllr Trigg, our local ward councillors, attended most of these FoM meetings. Yet little was done. The  victims were blamed for not calling the police. When police are called no one is caught or prosecuted.  This does not encourage victims to call again. As a result FoM started a campaign last year to petition for a night time barrier (£12,000) which was suggested by the residents.

The SOSC committee met on 25 March but failed to deal with the underlying issue. They voted in the Council’s recommendation of temporary CCTVs to verify the victims claims. If proven the Council may put in humps next year! The humps do not solve all the car ASB and creates other issues.

Why do the years of ASB reported, and still being reported, not count? (See FoM ASB 06Mar10 minutes and ASB Incident Log.)

Meanwhile, whilst the authorities obfuscates, the victims continue to suffer.

The authorities  let the residents  down by :

• Supporting  a 24/7 park users rights over the residents rights to sleep
• Failing to acknowledge the ASB goes back 14 + years
• Failing to represent the residents case properly
• Failing residents in denying them their right to sleep or peaceful enjoyment of their homes
• Failing to meet or consult residents affected
• Dismissing their ASB problems as perceived
• Dismissing the residents’ barrier proposal without proper investigation or consultation. (See SOSC report or FoM rebuttal )

Then again why should anyone be  surprised when Cllr Trigg  issued these recommendations a week before the meeting!

The SOSC can only vote one way as no real debate was allowed.

The victims seem to be totally ignored and their opinion means little to those who purportedly meant to represent and protect them as servants of the people, which is their job

Not local democracy’s finest hour.

Message received loud and clear.

Every resident should consider what action they can and wish take.

FETE Sat 10 April in conjunction with National Pet Awareness Month

The fete at Moneyhole was a resounding success. It was a great turnout by residents and park visitors coming as far away as North London and Stevenage. The weather was perfect. Families and pet owners had a great time taking part in competitions and events. All the pets were very well behaved and good natured. They were a credit to the owners. The birds of prey display, mobile zoo and Alaskan Malamutes were a hit with the visitors young and old.

£215 was raised for animal charities!

A few pictures from the day:

Competition winners were:

Cutest pet – Peppa
Waggiest tail – Lilly
X-factor (pets got talent) – Marley
Mayor’s choice – A brown Malamute
Name the toy dog – Rufus won by Charlotte
Guess the number of sweets in the jug - Adam

Found – a set of keys.  Please contact WGC Police Station, The Campus.

Open 8 – 5 pm Tues/Thurs & 10 – 7pm Sats

Acknowledgment and thanks to Nicky Higgs, dog /animal warden, for organising the event; the residents & FoM organisers/helpers; Street Wardens; RSPCA, Mayor, PFC for the use of the toilets and café; various stallholders and charities that came.

Finally a big thank you to everyone who came to support the fete.  It was great to see a different kind of event in the park, and proves it could be a great venue for other community events like this.

Finally, finally, thanks also go to TK who as always put in 100% to make the day a success, a great community ambassador for us living in Panshanger.

PS Send us your photos and comments

FoM were very disappointed when neither Cllr Roger Trigg or Cllr Darren Bennett attended the meeting to address the outstanding action points they promised at the February meeting. FoM were equally disappointed with the WHBC recommendations as they failed to address fully the issues or provide  immediate relief to the ASB victims.

Nevertheless we proposes 3 recommendations on the temporary CCTVs:

1. The  CCTV is operational over the summer school holidays when the ASB is at its peak.
2. The Council add a decibel meter with data recording to show the true level of disturbance. This would neither infringe the perpetrator’s rights nor the WHBC policy.
3. Choose the correct CCTV locations

Good news – 3 street lamps in Moneyhole car park were finally repaired on Friday 26 Mar after being dark for 13 years! One resident reported being quite overwhelmed on seeing the car park lit up after so many years. The number of car park ASB incidents reported fell the following two weeks. It took 4 months of persistence by FoM to finally get someone to accept ownership to take action. The problem was passed between HCC, WHBC and Finesse. The faults had to be re-logged several times. If any light fails, please report it to Finesse.

Please read the 23 March minutes with the Council’s chief executive and FoM 26 March minutes.
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Just a note to say many people have seen a headline piece about the park in an election leaflet currently being delivered in Panshanger. The article makes no mention of the Friends of Moneyhole, who as locals will know,  have been seeking action from ward councillors for a long time now.  No doubt readers are forming their own conclusions as to the effectiveness of local councillors with regard to the park however.

More about the article, and comment on it can be read HERE.

A few of us gathered today in order to make further improvements to the all weather nature trail. Quite a lot was done in just a few hours and we also managed to pick up some litter as a secondary exercise. We only scratched the surface of the litter,  it’s interesting to see the kind of things people carelessly throw away in our countryside.

So what did we find:

Golf balls

Bags containing dog mess (which begs the question why bag it up and then NOT put it in the bin or take it with you).

Beer cans, and some unopened bottles of beer.

Spirits bottles, including one still full of Vodka.

A 1.5 litre bottle of cheap wine with three straws!

In just half hour we picked up several bags of litter, much of it confectionery and crisp wrappers, the kind of thing most often eaten by children. Lets hope that the new litter bins now in place around the park help reduce this kind of rubbish.

Finally a few pictures of the nature trail work in progress:

TK and Frank have earned their cup of tea!

Whilst we were there an off-road motorcycle came by with 2 teenagers on it. About half an hour later the Police helicopter spent 10  minutes circling over the park looking for something, presumably the rogue bikers. We snapped a nice pic below of the helicopter:

Thanks to all who came along this morning and committed a few hours to making Moneyhole an even better place for local residents.

FoM called a fact finding meeting with the residents,  SOSC and Ward councillors.

The aim is to acquaint the councillors on the long standing car related ASB problems before the crucial SOSC meeting on 25 March.

5 SOSC and Ward councillors kindly attended – Cllr I Dean, Cllr L Lotz, Cllr D Bennett, Cllr R Trigg and Cllr S Johnson.

We thank the residents of Roseacre Gardens for the loan of their Residents Lounge.

The minutes can be viewed here.