Trustees’ report for year ended 31 October 2020
The refurbishment of Vauxhall park with a £1.5m budget was scheduled to start in May 2019. But i dverde, the contractors chosen by Lambeth to carry out the work, did not appear until the autumn. The discovery of asbestos in some areas then caused further delays and work did not start in earnest until January 2020.
As a result of these delays no FOVP events took place in the park during 2019 except the Easter Egg hunt and an unexpected lavender harvest in September. The accounts for the year ended 31 October 2019 record the receipts from sales of lavender oil for both 2018 and 2019. Polly Freeman led a virtual ‘tour’ of the Park, hosted by the Tate South Lambeth Library, talking about its surprising history: Vauxhall’s Park for the People on Wednesday 11 November. With no other events in the park Friends’ subscriptions were reduced.
Once i dverde were on site, fortnightly meetings took place with Rob Kelly of Lambeth Council and Charles Vyvyan, Chairman of FOVP, supported by Polly Freeman, John Roome and Tessa King-Farlow. They were regularly joined by Lee Turner of i dverde and Joe Todd of Turkington Martin, the landscape architects, who were both helpful and responsive to issues raised by the FOVP.
The major works were the new playground, the new diagonal path, the new dog run and the replacement of the twenty year-old lavender beds and re-working of the adjoining garden as a sensory garden and place for relaxation. i dverde are to be congratulated for continuing to work on the refurbishment of the park despite the Covid lockdown in March 2020. Polly Freeman played a major role in planning the new lavender garden, including the retention of the two sundials. The “human” sundial is incorporated into the lavender garden. Polly also organised the design and installation of the mosaic in the fountain. Tessa KingFarlow was invited to produce a planting plan for the new flower beds, adjoining the lavender garden and around the brick maze and the other free standing and more conventional sundial: Tessa’s plan was accepted and she supervised the planting in accordance with her design of the beds. Thanks are due to Polly and Tessa for all their hard work.
The new play ground was opened on 21 October 2020. Florence Eshalomi, MP for Lambeth, visited the park on 28 October for a planting of bulbs in the children’s area and again on 30 October to mark the formal end of the i dverde contract. As a result of the park refurbishment, there has been a more diverse involvement in the park with 4 bulb planting sessions during the autumn attended by 52 parents and 66 children from local schools and an after-school playgroup. Over 3,000 bulbs were planted. In addition, the FOVP gardening group has expanded from less than 10 to over 30 volunteers.
The new railings along the South Lambeth road were delayed because of a paint problem. But completion of their installation was achieved in November 2020 and most of the outstanding work had by then been completed: snags remain to be sorted. Once i dverde were off site work on the tennis courts could start and was completed on 30 March 2021.
Because of the lockdown FOVP’s 2019 AGM was delayed but finally held on 7 November 2020 on Zoom. The accounts for the year ended 31 October 2019 were presented. Charles Vyvyan, our chairman, Helena Lewis, our Treasurer, and Clare Church retired as trustees and were thanked for their work for FOVP. John Roome has now been appointed chairman and Lyn Woodcraft as treasurer.
John Roome Chairman
Friends of Vauxhall Park
Income and Expenditure Account
| Income Membership Subscriptions Membership Donations Donations Easter Egg Hunt Gift Aid Bank Interest Hall Hire returned deposit Lavender Oil Sales Total Income Expenditure Hall Hire (Unused in 2020– Refund /use 2021) Insurance Human Sundial restoration Gardening Tools Keys Lavender Oil Extraction Website Lambeth Licence Total Expenditure ExcessExpenditure over Income/Income over Expenditure Balance Brought Forward from last year Balance at year end Lloyds Current Account at year end Lloyds Business Account at year end Lavender oil sales received 30/3/20 Total |
Year to 31.10.20 £212.00 £812.50 £0.00 £176.15 £12.46 £100.00 £0.00 £1,313.11 £80.00 £279.75 £2,340.00 £41.61 £16.99 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £2,758.35 £1,445.24 £39,296.98 £37,851.74 £8,695.64 £29,156.10 £37,851.74 |
Year |
|---|---|---|
John Roome, Chairman
r to 31.10.19
£227.00 £737.00 £181.38 £213.79 £14.60 £0.00 £1,807.00 £3,180.77 £420.00 £279.75 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £100.00 £431.28 £21.00 £1,252.03 £1,928.74 £37,368.24 £39,296.98 £8,346.34 £29,143.64 £1,807.00 £39,296.98