## Friends of Devonport Park ## Report to membership. Year ending 31 March 2022 ## **Horticultural program:** It should be noted that the volunteer gardeners have expressed their real concern over the loss of the greenhouse, formerly used by them for plant propagation. The greenhouse, which forms part of the site leased by “Routeways” has now been reclaimed for their use. This leaves us with the unenviable situation of trying to work with a 6’ x 4’ plastic greenhouse, replacing a 12’ x 48’ one. Considering the value added to the Park by the volunteers, we have approached Plymouth City Council; for some assistance such as creating a suitable hard standing for a new greenhouse for which we could fund raise. This has been under discussion with PCC since we learned that we were to loose this facility, last October but, so far there has been no indication of any forthcoming assistance. We have enlisted the support of the local ward councillors who are trying to resolve the situation. ## **Events** : Plans are in place to finally commemorate “Mayflower 400”, delayed by the pandemic from last year. This will however be a scaled down version of the original format as, not surprisingly, there is a reluctance on behalf of many volunteers to be involved in crowded situations. We therefore plan to have only a few stalls but a “Mayflower Lunch”, funded by the FDP will be laid on, for up to 100, a the Park Pavilion Café. As part of the continuing celebrations, and extra to the new, permanent, “Mayflower Memorial Rose Bed” within the Napier Garden, we have created a large, wheelchair accessible raised bed which has been planted with the vegetable plants and edible flower plants that would have been available to the “pilgrims” in 1620. Most of the seeds for these have been sourced through the Heritage Seed Bank at Kew. As we have been unable to hold any of our usual community fun days for over two years now and, our supporters are regularly asking “when”? it is planned to stage a large Event on August 16[th] . The organisation for this has been outsourced to Jacqui at Skyminds CIC. There are also plans to hold the popular Halloween event and our usual Christmas one, including the Carol Concert and hopefully a grotto – providing we can get a suitable Santa! ## **Projects:** As noted in last years’ report, it was intended to look into replacing the wooded fence around the Parks’ historic WW1 war memorial, with suitable metal railings. After receiving some hugely expensive quotes, we finally found a local company who have completed a superb job for £2850. The unavailability of space for new “memorials of remembrance” within the existing Memorial Garden, has been addressed. An area in one corner, largely overgrown with Griselinia shrubs has been cleared by the gardening team and funds have ben secured through the Big Lottery to proceed with creating a new Memorial Rose garden. ## **Funding** : Apart from grant applications we rely on two main sources of income – events and donations through our plant barrow and book stall. Obviously, without a suitable greenhouse to propagate new plants, we anticipate a very substantial loss of income in the coming year, unless of course a new facility can be brought online reasonably quickly. It should be noted that, due to the latest “Plant Passport” regulations, we could only offer to our donors plants grown directly from seed or from bulbs, by us and not purchased plants for resale cuttings propagated from purchased plants. Therefore, a new greenhouse facility is a priority. During the past year we have been very fortunate to have been supported by our ward councillors through their “Community Fund” donations and from grants from the Cooperative Community Fund and the “Well Connected” fund. Our thanks go to all those who have supported our efforts financially. ## **Summary** The issue of park maintenance, or lack of it, by PCC is still a matter of great concern. Whilst we must all acknowledge that financial constraints are getting tighter every year, there seems to be a lack of foresight or foreward planning on the part of the local authority. It must, surely, be more financially prudent undertake regular maintenance than to wait until issues get so bad that they become a major expense. There is a very real danger of our park being allowed to decline to the state it was in prior to the restoration (2008-2012). This is exactly what happened from the 1970’s – 1990’s, a complete lack of investment! This is why the volunteer sector has become so important to local authorities but they need to acknowledge ours, and other such groups, and show us some support. It is a sad thing to have to admit but, communication and cooperation with PCC has not shown much, if any, improvement, despite early promising signs several years ago. On behalf of the Committee of the Friends of Devonport Park Secretaryl Treasurer *JTr7JV c c c o o o o o uvLJv r•) VI cn m D) 0 O In Ootyi •t * m fft p4 rl O O O ￿ rl ￿ vl Lt) ro (• r4 f4 r4 vi ri ri ri vi Di Di r4 pi ￿ pi ri pi O fi A (o cno00 thwjoo • 471 ri •f 7JEEZIEE.ETIVEE TS 7) UOUUtr• 888000 r* ¢D ty) rrj o o o 00 VOOOC+ 4 r4 p! e4 N r4 r4 •• r¥ r4 ¢y r4 DJ 000 ooooooo 0000000 o ¢J O O O Cl ￿ rl ￿ rl rl nl ￿ O O O O vt C&kUthCL &>u_ oor etl ¢0 Ln Ln p4 Ln o t o O O O O O O ri yi vi vi pi O tri yi ￿ ri ri ri vi ri A ri ri ri ri A ri e4 r 88 %% Lri r4 ri ffjo ¢D r4 VS r¢ M TY 73 vvuv r• e4 ¢N O 00 cn ¢¥ 000 00000 f4 r4 r4 r4 r4 r4 Thl r4 4Y r4 r4 ¢W fo o? ryj tyJ ¢1) oooooooooooooooooootioooooo O ri * ti) M rri ffi •) O O rry ¢•l * LA w w w C l) C 7J J m e4J 888 000 rtj fn r4 (o r* f* ry vi L*) * (Vi ti? lyi ro ￿try￿rn￿￿￿r￿me•1WTr1 rywo CigOQOtr•ththmooooooooooooooooooooootithth pl r4 ￿ rl vl rl pl rl r* r4 t4 f4 4NTr ui L 10 r*J ID 88%-8%m C o th IQ CL & u w O Z ¢L L 4YI O Z N Lkl l) 73 Z5 t> 7J l) T> Z5 f lj XF O ffj •J •J C•oo OOOOOOOO￿O0 r4 r4rtr4 ry ly r4 r4 ¢N r¥ rq r4 e4 ry N r4 r4 ocooo8 i¢7>thUi¢rithrnt7irngbthQOOOOOO O C•oooo o OtsOOOC•oooooorl*rl*vI￿￿￿￿￿￿￿￿ 10 000 ln ts O IN N rri Q•0 ri ￿ rTri m Lri wi ryrymrnm¢n c c r4 r4 r4 rn m th *31 Ln o oi pi Ni r4 Ln Ln ry m O Sts ID 40 p4 t> U* CO ty) V) f* T4 8 8.8 883 r4 0 ) rn r+l f* V o o r*1 e4 4 r £LE E 7J t5 73 EE ¢ll YJ uvuu (o v v t v u th a 47 IJ ts ¢a CJ o In 8ts000 000 00 rl ￿ rl rl rq r4 p4 r4 r4 e4 r4 e4 r4 r4 OOOOOOc*OOOOOri￿￿￿￿vi rTr ￿ rl rl N r4 r4 N r4 ¢N oooooooco 00 e c 'c o o xuu rf> o Ln r tsi r4 r4 ooooo M Ln o 4 r4 l-ji èèl %888--88 XJZ Il r4 ¢D g2 I gsligsiEE2311111513S. C cc C C c 558888% l-R&llllll VJ r* IO (Q ( P4 rn rTr vi rl VJ o nj ¢B *¢y o r¢ to Ly r*J v4 22: * Tl rs rl rl r¥ r4 ￿ ry 88 8 * *t g888 888 888888 Iliiiiiii illliill&il!Ii%lll 202uboa voaooao rl e4 r4 ry r¥ ooc>c C* O rt i ri r¥ r• r¥ r rl r4 rL a2a IY•m (o 88 88%&8 LJ88Eg Iti t4 l}Il' l! £ i ¢ Il I,lJJl S ,É1 47 25¥ii lg ii¥a Ilj Friends of Devonport Park Financial Statement. Year Endin 31 March 2022 Account Income Ex enditure Balance 05257589 Maln Account 17740.85* 13081.98 17094.48 05389418 Event Account 1527.37 ** 1691.78 1104.26 48979460 Bandstand Account *•* 19810.92 17770.66 19158.47 * Includes £2(th.00 transferred from A/C 48979460 {bandstandl ** Includes £390 transferred from A/c 48979460 (bandstand) *** Includes £2(XlO.(X) transferred to Alc 05257589 (Malnl Includes £390.￿ transferred to Alc 05389418 {Event) Reconclles wlth relevant bank statements & re-checked 24/V23.