## **Stoke Goldington Playground** ## **Annual General Meeting** ## **Held via Zoom on Wednesday 30[th] October, 2020** ## **Present** Elly Sapwell, Danielle Kipling, Maxine Marsh, Julie Ann Newton ## **Apologies for Absence** No apologies for absence ## **Chairman’s Report** I had anticipated that it would be a quieter year than last year, but I did not envisage the year we have had! The trustees at present are: Eleanor Sapwell, Danielle Young and Maxime Marsh. The WhatsApp ‘committee’ at present are: Eleanor Sapwell, Danielle Young, Maxime Marsh, Georgie Donaghy, Jenny Letts, Julie-anne Newton, Lindsey McCaffrey, Tori Lock and Jo Bull. The new fully inclusive roundabout was expected to be delivered in early November, due to a manufacturer problem it arrived on 12[th] December ready for installation by Serco. Installation began on 17[th] December. Unfortunately, installation was not very straight forward - I had few sleepless nights over it! But eventually in late February a new team of contractors reinstalled it and thankfully we had eventually got a roundabout that whizzed round! It has been a wonderful to see it being used by many and I know of one particular family with a daughter in a wheelchair who are delighted that they can now bring her to play alongside her siblings and peers. Using money obtained from MK Council Community Infrastructure Fund (grant applied for via SG playground) the Parish Council bought 3 picnic benches, these have been installed on the playing field outside the playground. They also arranged to have the drain that used to regularly flood the car park and entrance to the playground rediverted. At the end of February, the new swing seats were also installed on the toddler swings and the flat swings. George Letts painted the playground fence as part of his volunteering section of his Silver Duke of Edinburgh, thank you George it looks much smarter! Then it all went a bit quiet! Due to Covid lockdown the playground was shut at the end of March, it was a very sad to walk by and see it not being played with, the playground remained shut until 4th July. The handle of the rocker was replaced by MK Council in early September. Many thanks to Ken Denoven who very kindly spruced up a very overgrown playground. I hadn’t realised how much everything had grown down there! We will need to organise a spruce up party in early Spring to keep on top of all the jobs. We have made the playground ours, something to be proud of, it is important that we all take responsibility for its upkeep, if anyone spots any jobs that need doing please let us know on the whats app group so we can get on top of them as soon as possible. We have been approached over the last few months to help other villages in their quest to improve their playgrounds, I have shared information with both North Crawley and Ravenstone of how we have gone about improving ours. Fundraising has not been able to happen this year. We were hoping that we would be able to run some stalls at the classic car rally due to be held on the May bank holiday weekend and also host The Wesley Cup, but unfortunately both events had to be cancelled due to Covid. We therefore have had very little income this year. Obviously fundraising for the forthcoming year will also be very dependent on Covid restrictions but we do need to put some thought into alternative ways of raising some funds to support the playground. It is important that we keep some contingency funds in the bank for maintenance and repair, it is also hoped that we can replace the wetpour safety surface around the slide. I have asked Serco to supply us with a quote for this. The last question I have is what’s next, do we have any further ideas for the playground? ## **Matters Arising from Chairman’s Report** It was discussed that all that could have been done this year was done due to Covid. It was sad to see the playground empty, but how lovely it was to see it alive again when we were allowed to open it again. The next job to be done which would complete phase 1 of the playground development it to put wetpour around the slide area. We anticipate this to be around £4000. ES to chase quotes for this. Everything is under warranty, so we don’t expect much outgoing this year. We would like to start fundraising again when we are able to and develop the park further with maybe a trim trail or zip line the future. ES has offered to look into getting grants to improve the tennis courts but this was rejected by the Village Hall Commitee. We need to look at the paintwork in the summer with the view to refreshing it. ## **Treasurer’s Report** Our year end is the 1[st] November, 2020 however I do not anticipate any further payments in the next 3 days. The total income for the period 1[st] November, 2019 to the 31[st] October, 2020 is £358.25. In mid November we received the awaited £250 grant from Waitrose, Oakgrove for their green token scheme. Easy Fund Raising turns our everyday shopping into donations for us and in November we also received £108.25 from them, thank you very much Danielle for setting this up, It may be an idea to promote this again in the near future? In early November, a sign was purchased acknowledging the benefactors of the playground at a cost of £52.33. This is now sited at the car park entrance to the playground. Using the grant awarded by The Postcode Lottery Local Grant we were able to purchase our new accessible roundabout, this was installed just before Christmas. The cost of the roundabout was £6132.00, installation and the wetpour surface cost £4512.00. We have also purchased new swing seats for both the toddler swings and the flat swings, the cost of these was £300. Our total expenditure for the year therefore is £10996.33. This leaves us with a current account balance as of 1[st] November, 2020 of £4969.19 Eleanor Sapwell ## **Matters Arising from the Treasurers Report** DK to re promote Easy Fundraising leading up to Christmas. As talked about previously, other fundraising will be as and when appropriate. We are thrilled at how much the playground is now being used. ## **Income and Expenditure Account** ## **For the year ended 1[st] November, 2020** |**Income**||**£**|| |---|---|---|---| |Waitrose Community Fund Oakgrove|250.00||| |Easy Fund Raising|108.25||| |**Total Income**
|**£358.25**||| |**Expenditure**|||| |Playground Sign|||52.33| |Roundabout|||6132.00| |Roundabout Installation and Wetpour|||4512.00| |Swing Seats (2 toddler, 2 flat)|||300.00| |**Total Expenditure**|||**£10996.33**| |**Net Surplus For Year**|||**£4969.19**| |Current Account Balance as of 1stNovember 2020|||**£4969.19**| ## **Election of Trustees** Danielle, Maxime and Elly confirmed that they are happy to continue as trustees. There was no other nominations. ## **Any Other Business** We are saying thank you and goodbye to Tori Lock but otherwise members of the committee are happy to continue. There being no further business the meeting was drawn to a close