2nd March 2019: Join us at Chesham’s Fairtrade Breakfast

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We’re launching our new logo and website!

Fairtrade Chesham’s volunteers will be cooking up a storm on Saturday morning for Fairtrade Fortnight. And we’ll be there to launch this new website and show off our fab new logo.

There will be hot and cold breakfasts, including options for vegetarians, vegans and dairy-free. Pop into the town hall at any point between 9am and noon for a warm welcome and delicious Fairtrade food and drink.

There will also be a Traidcraft stall, showing just some of the huge range of Fairtrade foods now on the market.

 
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The Lowndes Park Masterplan!

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We are fundraising to shape the redesign of Lowndes Park.

We are fundraising to influence the redesign of Lowndes Park. We strongly believe that the park needs a new Masterplan to refresh and rejuvenate it to continue to thrive in the twenty-first century.

Successful parks have successful ‘Friends’ groups like ours. We see our role as being the conduit between you, the park user, and the Council. We want to reflect your ideas for the park and represent your needs. We want to challenge the Council and hold them to account. To make sure we prevent an unsatisfactory piecemeal approach which doesn’t meet the needs of today’s park user.

Parks are living things growing and adapting to the changing needs of the communities they serve. We love our park but it’s starting to look old and tired.

Play equipment in dire need of replacement, lack of accessibility, poor design, the filthy pond…the list of problems with Lowndes Park goes on. And the Council knows there is a problem. In fact, in February 2017 the Council set up a working party to look at all issues relating to the park and its management in order to inform the development of a new park Management Plan. The Friends were involved in the early meetings and we led a review of the Park looking at Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats, since when we have heard nothing.

At our AGM in May 2018 we took advantage of the presence of the Mayor to ask for an update (The Mayor sat on the working Party) and she told us that we would see progress in early 2019.

Since then it’s all gone quiet.

It’s now 2019 and the Friends Of Lowndes Park believe it’s time for us to help drive this project forward.

Responsibility for Lowndes Park ultimately lies with Chesham Town Council, but we strongly believe that the park needs a new Masterplan to refresh and rejuvenate it to continue to thrive in the twenty-first century.

Successful parks have successful ‘Friends’ groups like ours. We see our role as being the conduit between you, the park user, and the Council. We want to reflect your ideas for the park and represent your needs. We want to challenge the Council and hold them to account. To make sure we prevent an unsatisfactory piecemeal approach which doesn’t meet the needs of today’s park user. It is also the case that many funding bodies that may help pay for the Masterplan will only do so if there is a thriving community/membership organisation like ours working with the Council to create the new park.

So, what is the Masterplan?

  • Could we have a new café facility near the playground?
  • What about a function room?
  • What play equipment should we have?
  • How will the Chesham Renaissance plans to integrate the park into the town affect the park?
  • How could we improve access, navigation and information in the park?

 

There is so much more Lowndes Park could offer Chesham’s residents. But we need your voice.

So, please join us. Become a member or make a donation. Sign up to our newsletter and get involved. Help us create the Lowndes Park Masterplan now and for future generations.
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We’re so lucky! Our Chair is a leading UK Parks professional

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Not many local park groups can say that their Chair was in charge of a £26 million park renovation budget! We can.

The Friends of Lowndes Park is led by an amazing man; Michael Rowan. Michael co-founded the group in 2007 and he’s not just a Chesham resident, he’s also a leading UK Parks professional.

We’re very lucky to have him and his expertise at the helm. Not only do we benefit from his experience, wisdom and connections, it also really helps us with our fundraising. You can be sure that when you donate to us, the money is being used in a professional and useful way.

Here’s Michael’s biography in his own words:

Serendipity by its very nature frequently takes one by surprise and so it was in my case.

Mid- morning 2007, walking across an office in East London when I happened to glance at a technical drawing draped across a desk. It was a drawing of a park that looked very familiar.

‘That’s Lowndes Park’ I said stating the obvious to the author of the drawing. ‘Yes’ he said, ‘do you know it?’
‘Know it? I live less than a 5-minute walk from it.’
And so I discovered that a consultant was drawing up plans for a lottery application for our very own Lowndes Park.

Coincidences didn’t stop there as I learnt that there were two people working on the plans and that the other person was a friend of mine. From there it was a short step for this friend to tell me (in no uncertain terms) that the park needed a Friends Group in order to submit the bid and that I should get off my bottom (he phrased it more bluntly) and start the Friends of Lowndes Park.

I had known this friend since the start up of the Heritage Lottery Fund Parks Programme, of which he was the Director whilst I was involved in submitting a bid for Gunnersbury Park in West London. We remained friends when I submitted another bid for Chiswick House Grounds also in West London. Two parks with amazing historic landscapes which I was proud to be associated with from the out-set.

Garden Landscape restoration was in its infancy and I learned such a lot of valuable lessons at the feet of a ;

Welcome to our new website

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The Friends of Lowndes park is a 100% voluntary group. All the money we raise goes to improving the park. But some is held back to help us let you know who we are and what we do. After all, if we don’t let you know our success stories and tell you about our future plans, we’d cease to exist and never raise the funds we so desperately need. So, in 2017/18 we embarked on a brand refresh. We commissioned this new website from a Chesham company and created a new brand and logo.

We are all about community, and supporting Chesham’s beautiful park. Have a look around our website to see what we’ve been up to, what our plans are, or just to see some beautiful images kindly supplied by some of the park’s many fans.

We now have a strategic plan to reach out to you more, involve you in our work and continue to listen to your views on how we can make the park better now, and for future generations.

We’d love to hear from you and for you to get involved. Do you have ideas about how the park could be improved? Then check out our Lowndes Park Masterplan project.

Would you like to join a working party? Please use our contact form.

There is so much more Lowndes Park could offer Chesham’s residents. But we need your voice.

So, please join us. Become a member or make a donation. Sign up to our newsletter and get involved.

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