There are a few clear indications that winter is finally waving farewell, (although the faint glimmer of snow, and what felt like 3 inches of ice on my windscreen, the other morning was a right shocker!) However the best indication that Spring is on its way is when all the newsletters land in my email in box or through my snail mail letter box. And land they have, full of information about events throughout Spring, Easter, Summer etc, as well as new work shops and  trips for all. Some of the information may be a bit wooly as to the precise time and cost, but hey the dates are firm, so if you wanted to take your children out to a local Easter Egg Hunt, or fancy sitting in the Park listening to a Band and eating a cream tea, then read on,  and get your diary /calendar out to "save the dates"

So first  to fall into my lap was from "The Friends of Radipole Park and Gardens", thats a long title, so for the rest of this piece lets refer to them as "FORP&G". Now its pretty obvious that we share a lot of residents and boundaries in common, I believe the Park District was originally named  because the area was supposed to have a number of Parks and Gardens built, but it seems the lack of funding is not just a modern day issue, as there was not enough money and not enough Parks to go round, and so it seems we were left with the closeness of Radipole Park & Gardens to fulfill our sporting prowess and let our children run free whilst we all enjoy the beauty of the area.

So they are offering the following events and dates throughout the year:-

Saturday April 15 - Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday May 13 - Coach Trip to Kew Gardens

Sunday June 18 - Teddy Bear Picnic

Sunday July 9 - Weymouth Concert Brass Band with a cream tea

Saturday August 19 - FORP&G Fun Day

Wednesday September 13 - walk with a pub involved

I have spoken to the Chairman of FORP&G and he (Martin Cridland) is happy for people to contact him if they want more information re the Easter Egg Hunt, want to donate, want to become a Friend/Volunteer, or have other days for the space that they would like to suggest as a future event. Martin can be contacted on his email address of forpag@icloud.com  or his telephone number 01305 773702

You do not need to be a FORP&G to take part in any of these events, but for the small sum of £1.00 per annum or £5.00 per life, per household, it would be good to offer your support, if you feel  flush with the reddies they will happily accept a greater donation.

At the moment the FORP&G are progressing a bid for Lottery funding to restore the park and its facilities and along with major improvements and the everyday activities they find themselves severley short handed and are crying out for help.

In 2016 the FORP&G together with W&PBC contacted about 1000 residents around the area to find out their views as to what was needed in Radipole Park & Gardens, 47% responded and the overall concensus was for  a cafe/toilet block which can also be  used as an educational centre telling the story of the Backwater and the gardens history. What they would like from us, the residents/users of the area, is for as many pictures/photos of the Backwater, the cosntruction of Radipole Park Drive, the infill of the park and garden area and any history/memories from the war, memories of your childhood etc to give an overall image of the park.

One of the newer additions to the area - The orchard,  is growing well and they are hoping to have a small workshop/information session about how to trim/prune each of the 23 varieties growing there next year. If anyone else would be interested in this, please contact Martin on the above email/phone number.

News from  Community Development Officer Julie Hursthouse

Lets Make It - Newsletter

Last year there was a big push to make  poppies, with the eventual  harvest of poppies being used to create a display at Bovington Tank Museum. This year, they are continuing on with the wonderful poppies, their lovely volunteer artist Lesley Pitney, will be joining them to create an even bigger display which will be hosted at Weymouth Library from the October 20 2017 until December 4 2017. This year the theme is a garden, so  they will be adding in more garden items, with a cenotaph being incorporated amongst it.

To support this they are holding 3 workshops the first of which has been and gone but the remaining 2 are still current, dates for these are as follows:-

Saturday February 25 10.30 - 12.30pm

Saturday March 11 10.30 - 12.30pm 

Both will be held at the Park Community Centre , Chelmsford Street, Weymouth, DT4 7HR

Last year they raised £2550.00 for the Royal British Legion by selling  knitted poppies, which were made by our wonderful group of  Knitters and without you buying them,  the RBL would not be able to spend £1.6 million  supporting our beneficaries every week. So a big well done goes out to everyone, and if you want to make the knitted poppies, they will be selling them once again this year, just drop them off at the new council offices on Commercial Road, Weymouth marked for the attention for Cllr Gill Taylor.

They are also continuing to make Easter Chicks, for those of you who do not know, an Easter chick is a small knitted object of desire that holds a small easter egg, (some might use the words Cadbury Creme), the eggs do not take long to make, and once you have made a few its like second nature, (or so I am told). The major point is they do not give you a box of the eggs  to knit around or I swear many of us would be the size of a small chicken coop.

This year they will be selling the chicks on behalf of a local charity - The Lantern, who work within the community with people who have a varied range of personal concerns including mental health problems , offending behaviour, addiction, homelessness and all personal crises. There may come a time when we all might need such a service ourselves, and it would be very sad indeed if they were no longer around.

The patterns for the chicks are available via email or by post (contacct Julie Hursthouse 07980 730029 or email jhursthouse@dorset.gov.uk. Patterns are also present on the Lets Make It Facebook page and also via the  community web site www.theparkarea.co.uk - under the "Lets Make It" section.

There is still a strong demand and use for Tiddlemuffs and Teddies. and the call is out to please keep them coming. So far they have received over 470 Teddies the hospital say "they are gorgeous and the children really love them. Please thank all the lovely knitters for their skilled work."

The Twiddlemuffs are being sent to Westhaven hospital who are distributing them around the area. The patients love them and take them home, The local police have also been given a few muffs to support people who may be confused and in need of some emotional comfort.

So there you go, if you like to knit or want to practice your knitting skills  that may be getting a bit rusty there is a range of projects you could get involved in, knitted poppies, teddies, chicks and twiddlemuffs.

As always the Lets Make It Community Group would love to have additional members, please contact Julie if you would like more information or if you have ideas of other projects the group could become involved with.

Art In the Park is making a return. but this time they need YOUR help

 They are looking for volunteers to help  design and paint more large boards which will be displayed along the railway wall – adding to the wonderful display that are already there. One idea is to have a time porthole – looking through the wall – so they would love your ideas of what you would like – do you want to look back at how the area was in years go by – or do you want a picture of a sailing boat or beach scene? They want to hear from you. Another board will be based on welcoming everyone to the area – from all different backgrounds – a real multi cultural display board. They also want some help from you to help paint the boards once they have been designed. Local volunteer artist Lesley Pitney will be helping with the details and the design will be done with simple colour by numbers.

Interested? then E-mail: theparkarea@btconnect.com or Julie Hursthouse Tel 01305 838497 email: jhursthouse@dorset.gov.uk

Multi-cultural dishes/Recipes of Memories

Do you have a dish that reminds you of a special place? Residents of Weymouth and Portland can enter the Dorset Race Equality Council recipe competition for a chance to share their dish at our summer celebration and have it published in a multicultural cookbook!

For more details contact Jane Jones on jane.jones@dorsetrec.org.uk or call 01202 392954. Closing date: Monday 6th March 2017

Finally  the Waterside Weymouth Community Forum Newsletter  has appeared for The Park Community Centre.  There was a call to the local residents about the threat to our hospitals with a special public meeting held at the Park Centre on February 15. Dave Burchill reports that it was "good to see a full house at the Park Centre last night, to hear Dr Jon Orrell’s fighting response to the proposed cuts to our local NHS services proposed by the Clinical Services Review. A user guide was distributed to explain the pitfalls in filling out the 44 page questionnaire and how many of the cuts were made to look beneficial.

Wake up, get out of bed and act, because if the CCG has its way there won’t be any beds left in our local hospitals and care homes.

Copies of all the documents are available at the Park Centre, from your local surgeries and on line.

Don’t leave it for someone else to act, tell your friends and use social media to publicise these cuts.

You have till the end of February to act….!!!"

Community Quiz Night with Cash Prize

the next dates for these are Saturday March 4 and Saturday April 8 2017 both start at 7pm cost £4.00 per person to enter but this does include a buffet. If you can book your seat /table /team beforehand it does make the catering so much easier. I cannot tell you the number of times I have seen people running up and down my road with additional food items, quiches and gateaux, they will fall over one day, there will be cake everywhere except for where its meant to be, so please if you can, book your place as early as possible, and save our lovely volunteer caterers from doing a nasty injury with a Raspberry Pavlova or doing the Banana Splits!

The Forum is holding an Open Day on Saturday March 18 from 10am to 4pm, refreshments will be available. Come to the Community Centre to meet the organisers and see the activities that are available every day.

There will be a Public Meeting/AGM on Wednesday April 12 at 7pm at the Community Centre Chelmsford Street. All are invited to come along meet your councillors and police, they all look forward to seeing you at this important meeting.

There will be a Table Top Sale at the Park Community Centre in Saturday April 1 from 10 until 13:00, Sellers can access the centre from 9am to set up their wares, Tables cost £5.00 each, to book a table ring the Community Centre on 01305 839579.

The Park 50+ Friendship Club  announce they have a Mystery Pub visit on  Wednesday March 22, this will be the 11th visit and they say they soon will be running out of venues!! They have a variety of speakers planned for this year as well as a visit to Holme Garden Centre in June.

They meet up every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month  from 2.30pm at the Community Centre Chelmsford Street Weymouth, Cynthia Riggs , Organiser would love to meet more 50+, as they would dearly love to keep the group going. As with everything in life, its a matter of numbers and bums on seats, the more that come along the greater  its benefit to the area and the costs to the Community Centre are reduced.

The area has a new community worker - Helen Southcott, she is hoping to inspire us with new activities and ideas to improve our community spirit in the area. If you would like to inspire her with your own ideas and inspirations please do contact the Park Centre and leave a message with your thoughts.

The Waterside Singers are still meeting up on Mondays with Anna and are still searching for more singers to keep the choir afloat financially. It doesnt cost a lot to come and sing your troubles away for an hour , plus you get to make lots of new friends, they meet up every Monday at the Park Community Centre from 14.15 until 15.30.

Old Youth Worker Returns

Years ago there was a youth worker called Tom, he used to be the local youth worker and was based at the Park Church Centre (Now Park Community Centre).

Guess whose back?

But this time he brings with him his lovely wife Susie and their children as he is now the new Vicar of St Johns Church. I believe I may have seen one of his first weddings last year. Main service is 10.30am every Sunday and everyone is welcome, there are special groups for children and young people .

Exercise with Elaine on Tuesday afternoons from 13.00 to 14.00, is still running, its a gentle exercise programme aimed at the older 50+ person. No need to book just turn up (on time is best).

Everything you need to know about all the activities that  are running in the area are either on the Community Centre Web Site www.theparkarea.co.uk or on our Facebook page, which is where our diary of events has now migrated to. There is far too much to put in this post, I would be taking up the entire newspaper, so for the moment please click here ( https://www.facebook.com/parkareaccweymouth/events/ )  to access all the calendar of events in the area, this includes The Park Community Centre, Lets Make It, and FORP&G (Friends of Radipole Park & Gardens incase you have forgotten).

If I have missed anything or you have a newsletter, event etc that you would like to see included then just drop me a line,  deborah.peach@yahoo.co.uk

and finally

The Chairman of the Waterside Weymouth Community Forum, John Morse, has created a welcome  booklet for new people to the area, Conscious that new people can often look at issues with fresh eyes, they are keen to encourage all new people to join in and take part.  The booklet can be picked up by asking at the centre or emailing them at  theparkarea@btconnect.com or ringing them 01305 839579