The PEOPLES MILLIONS

Playground Refit at Calder Holmes Park - your views sought

Update: Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Hebden Bridge and its surroundings are celebrating winning the Peoples Millions Big Lottery Bid which means the Town Council in collaboration with Friends of Calder Holmes Park now have almost £100,000 to spend on the play area.

With a budget of just under £100,000 to spend the group would like your views.

The project is under a really tight deadline as they want to have the work completed for the summer of 2008 and so are trying to gather a lot of information in a short space of time. This Saturday the 15th of Dec a number of brave women will be standing in the play area asking people for their views – weather permitting. They will have sheets to fill in, plans to draw on and some warming Christmas refreshment to hand out so please do join them between 1.00 and 3.00pm in the play area at Calder Holmes Park.

Jocasta Fletcher, Chair of Friends of Calder Holmes Park says
'It would be really great if you could answer some questions so that we can gain a better idea of how local children use the play area in the park. Or just come and have a chat and a mince pie!'

Naomi Goddard, Project Officer Hebden Royd Town Council says
'The other thing to bare in mind is that although £100,000 is a lot of money it doesn’t go that far when it comes to play equipment especially because we have to take into account the cost of safety surfacing and other health and safety requirements so it is especially important that we can achieve the best result with the money that we have.'

Please feel free to contact Naomi Goddard at the Town Council if you would like any more information and/or a questionnaire on 01422 842181 or email naomi@hebdenroyd.org.uk.  

VOTE FOR OUR PARK

CALDER HOLMES PARK AND PEOPLE'S MILLIONS

Update: Wednesday, 28 November 2007

Calder Play has won The Peoples Millions Tuesday night public vote. This means that the Friends of Calder Holmes Park in partnership with Hebden Royd Town Council will receive £68,000 towards improving the play facilities in Calder Holmes Park, Hebden Bridge.

"It is terrfic that we have won, for the past 2 weeks the town has really come together to support the project and everyone must of voted and also got all their friends to vote too. Now we can start to improve the playgroud and equipment and give the children of Hebden Bridge a park they deserve and can be proud of." said Jocasta Fletcher, Chair of the Friends of Calder Holmes Park.

Calder Play's submission

Update: Saturday, 17 November 2007

FILMING FOR THE PEOPLE'S MILLIONS

Kids from Riverside Junior school and Central Street Infants and Nursery had great fun filming for the Peoples Millions in Hebden Bridge last Wednesday (14th Nov). ITV1's Calendar film crew arrived in town at mid day and spent four hours filming the town and park.

Naomi Goddard, Hebden Royd Town Council’s project Officer, says

‘We wanted to get across to the wider public that, although Hebden is a lovely place to live, the steep sided nature of the town and lack of gardens does at times make it difficult to play. We have tried to bring this across in a light hearted and humorous manner with children attempting to play football on one of the steepest streets and a freebee game taking place in a tiny back yard!

The Calendar team also spent a lot of time in the park interviewing local children, parents, skateboarders and long term residents of the town. It was great fun and wonderful that so many parents, toddlers, skateboarders and school children came down to the park to join in. Luckily for everyone the weather was kind to us with clear skys and some sun shine

Everyone is really looking forward to seeing the end result on the telly at just after 6pm on Tuesday the 27th of November. The film crew have also shot a surprise scene which should make the programme worse watching for the extra entertainment value!

It has been wonderful how the whole community is backing the project. A banner and posters plus leaflets will be distributed around the town and further a field over the next week. And don’t forget the programme goes out to the whole of Yorkshire so let lots of people know.

CALDER HOLMES PARK AND PEOPLE'S MILLIONS

Wednesday, 14 November 2007

Friends of Calder Holmes Park in Hebden Bridge in partnership with Hebden Royd Town Council has successfully applied to take part in People's Millions and CalderPLAY. The project to help transform the play area at the park is to go head to head with another Yorkshire project on ITV1’s Calendar on the 27th November at 6pm. The project with the most votes from the public gets the funding!

The maximum value of the project is not allowed to be more than £80,000 and we are asking for £68,000 which is to be matched with £30,000 of Calderdale MBC money. The money will be used to buy new play equipment for the playground.

Hebden Royd Town Councils Project Officer, Naomi Goddard, has told th Hebden Bridge Web, "This is a great opportunity to make a real difference to our park, we are very excited about this opportunity and hope that everyone will join in and vote on the 27th of November."

"The telephone number is not released until the day but we shall literally be shouting the number from the streets, square and school gates. The project is Yorkshire wide so tell your friends and colleagues. We will be publishing more details as the day nears but in the meantime if you would like to become part of the email tree please email Naomi@hebdenroyd.org for more information and a digital flyer." The Hebden Bridge Web will of course put the number on its home page as soon as it available.

The newly formed Friends of Calder Holmes Park group is made up of representatives of the local community, park and memorial garden users (including skate park users, footballers, tennis players, dog walkers and bowling club members as well as the many users of the playground), Calderdale’s Parks Services, Community Police and Youth Services. The group works together in partnership with the local Town Partnership and Town Council to help resolve potential conflicts between different park users as well as carrying out some immediate small scale improvements and with the help of Hebden Royd Town Council’s Project Officer apply for larger scale funding for improvements to the play area and ball games areas.

The group has held a number of open meetings and walkabouts to gauge initial interest and public opinion. The meetings and the group’s activities have been publicised in the local paper and on the local web. People have contributed in person, by phone and email.

The general opinion is that the children’s playground is high on the list in terms of need. The playground is currently run down, in parts non-operational and largely inaccessible in terms of disabled access.

The local group is looking at innovative approaches to best use this key public area in a creative and inclusive way that caters for everybody’s needs within the space available.

If the group win the funding they will be setting up a play council made up of all play area user groups including toddlers and parents to help come up with a best fit scheme. We are really looking forward to the whole community helping to make this project happen by voting it on the 27th of November.

The next meeting of the Friends of Calder Holmes Park will be on Monday 19th November 8pm in the park pavilion. The main issue for dicussion will be play and youth provision. All welcome

Links

The People's Millions