Of park benches and toilets

Seven Kings and Newbury Park Resident's Association features in the Ilford Recorder this week because we have donated a bench to Seven Kings Park. The bench, which has been donated from monies raised by SKNPRA through fundraising events, has been located alongside the path leading from the park to King George Hospital and the A12 alongside Happy Valley. This location was chosen as a useful resting point, alongside Seven Kings Water, on the walk to and from the hospital.

This is the second additional bench which SKNPRA has been able to obtain for the local community. The first is located in Aldborough Road South and was provided by the Council as part of our Living Streets project.

We will be returning to Seven Kings Park tomorrow at 2.30pm for the re-opening of the toilets in the Park. These were closed in 2011 as part of austerity cuts by the Council in the borough. SKNPRA led a campaign against their closure and has since worked with councillors and officials to enable their re-opening. Their reopening has been has been the result of a significant local campaign and much behind the scenes negotiation led by our membership Secretary, Mark Kennedy. We are therefore thrilled that the toilets are to be re-opened.

SKNPRA is organising a Community Information Day to be held on Saturday 18th May between 11.00am and 1.00pm in the community garden at St John's Seven Kings. This event provides an opportunity for community groups and those organisations providing services in the local community to promote their organisation and meet local people.

We will be promoting the event locally and St John's Church will also be holding a Plant & Table-top Sale in the St Johns Centre at the same time. The combination of these two events on a previous occasion - see http://joninbetween.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/creating-community-event-2.html - proved very successful.

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Deacon Blue - Here I Am In London Town.

Creating community event

St John's Seven Kings is holding a Creating Community event on Saturday 21st May, which includes the opening, by the Archdeacon of West Ham, of the community garden at St John's and the presentation of a Living Streets award to the Seven Kings and Newbury Park Resident's Association (SKNPRA).

The community garden, which has been supported financially by Area 5 and 7 committees, London over the Border and the Fitter for Walking project, includes: new seating and plantlocks; a community noticeboard; sensory planting; original artworks; and a remembrance area. In addition, an area has been set aside for use by children at Downshall Primary School.

SKNPRA is receiving the Living Streets award for its work, with the Fitter for Walking project, in improving the local environment along Aldborough Road South in order to get more people out walking. This has included: a community audit of Aldborough Road South; presentations of the audit findings to the Area 5 and 7 committees; a community clean-up day; plantlocks for the community garden; a new bench at the corner of Brook Road and Aldborough Road South; walks organised for children at Downshall Primary School; a community mural project at Downshall Primary School; publicity for the local Church Art Trail; Church Art Trail walks; Newbury Park SNT action on speeding; successful funding application to Area 5 and 7 comittees for repair of the Seven Kings Park bandstand; and a successful community campaign to retain the Aldborough Road South public toilets.

The opening ceremony and the award presentation will take place at 10.30am and will then be followed (between 11.00am and 1.00pm) by a community information event in the community garden and a plant and table-top sale in the St John's Centre. For the community information event, community groups are being invited to set up a stall in the community garden displaying information about their work between 11.00am and 1.00pm.

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The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society.

Prayer - Dedication

On Thursday I dedicated a bench at the Chigwell Row Guide Camp in memory of a former parishioner, Jean Cook.

We reflected that Jean was someone who was full of life and who filled her life with many interests and commitments including guiding, folk dancing, teaching, Townswomen's and Trefoil Guilds, and swimming. Her favourite hymn was ‘O Jesus I have promised to serve thee to the end’ and she found encouragement to do so in Jesus' words from Matthew 11. 28: “Come unto me all who are heavily laden and I will refresh you.” One of the main ways in which she was refreshed was through her friends. Found among her things after her death was a poem that we heard read at her funeral which says that we are all made up of the friends we have and that our lives are richer for the different ways in which others have touched and shaped our lives. That was Jean’s experience because of each of her many friends and it was also our experience because of the effect that Jean had on us. And so we prayed ...

God our Father, in loving care your hand has created us, and as the potter fashions the clay you have formed us in your image. Through the Holy Spirit you have breathed into us the gift of life. In the sharing of love you have enriched our knowledge of you and of one another. We claim your love today, as we remember Jean in this place where we dedicate this bench to her memory in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

God our Father, we thank you that you have made each of us in your own image, and given us gifts and talents with which to serve you. We thank you for all those whom we love but see no longer, and thank you especially for Jean, the years we shared with her, the good we saw in her, the love we received from her.
Now surround us, Jean’s friends, with your love, that we may have confidence in your goodness, strength to meet the days to come, and a firm hope in your eternal love and purposes for us, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Megurine Luka - O Jesus I Have Promised.

Community Audit outcomes (2)

As part our project to improve the environment along Aldborough Road South, the Seven Kings and Newbury Park Resident's Association (SKNPRA) asked Redbridge Council for a bench near the shops, which has now been provided. The bench was requested to assist those needing to rest when going to and from the local shops and demonstrates that the Council, despite current financial constraints, are willing to consider and support requests from the community where possible.

In March 2010 SKNPRA, in partnership with the Fitter for Walking project, undertook a community audit of Aldborough Road South, a key road in Seven Kings linking the High Road and Eastern Avenue via Seven Kings Park. The findings of the Community Audit formed a report which was presented to the Area 5 and Area 7 committees and highlighted issues of traffic speeds, pavement parking, damaged paving, renewal of signage, litter, and seating in public areas along Aldborough Road South.

Since that point SKNPRA and the Fitter for Walking project have been negotiating with the local authority and other groups to implement a number of the recommendations from the report. Outcomes from the report have to date included:

• the Fitter for Walking project purchasing two plantlocks (planters to which bikes can be locked) for the community garden at St John's Seven Kings and funding leaflets publicising the Church Art Trail for which Aldborough Road South is one of three main link roads;
• through Redbridge Council's Street Cleansing service, a major clean-up of Aldborough Road South was organised which saw large amounts of rubbish removed from front gardens;
• a successful funding application to the Area 5 and 7 committees to repair and renovate the bandstand in Seven Kings Park;
• Tom Platt from the Fitter for Walking project has been working with pupils from Downshall Primary School to discuss the benefits of walking and the important role they can play in the local community in making their streets safer, more attractive and more enjoyable places to walk and spend time in. He has led three walks to Seven Kings Park with the Year 1s.
• Tom Platt has also started to run an art project with Years 5 and 6 at Downshall School in collaboration with artist Effie Coe from Invisible Dust. Pupils will work with Effie to explore creatively the role they can play in the local community in making their streets safer, more attractive and more enjoyable places to walk and spend time in. At the end of this process Effie will use the children's artwork to inspire a mural for the outside wall of the school. The purpose of the mural will be to make the street a more attractive and vibrant place.

SKNPRA and St John's Seven Kings will be organising a community event, in the community garden at St John's, on Saturday 21st May to celebrate these achievements, open the community garden, provide community information, promote gardening, and hold a Plant and Table-top sale.

 

Mark Kennedy, Membership Officer for SKNPRA says, "Our aim has always been to work closely with residents in both the areas we represent, together with community groups, council departments and other independent agencies from time to time to achieve one aim which is to actively to improve the communities we live in. The improvements in Aldborough Road South resulting from our Community Audit are our latest initiative to get our hands dirty to improve the road and area for all resident's benefit. We are always on the look out for new members to join our association as the more members we represent the more we can achieve with people giving us their views and support to make the community a better place to live in for all to enjoy."

 

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Maire Brennan - No Scenes of Stately Majesty.