Progress Report
2008 has been a bittersweet year for the Recreation Ground. Whilst we made good progress on the field we also had the sad passing of Alan Pedgrift which left a huge gap. I would like to record our thanks once more for the dedication and passion Alan showed in helping to get us to position we are now.
Having met with levels of bureaucracy that would test the patience of most people regarding drainage requirements for the field we finally broke through in May and reached agreement with SCDC. Our appointed contractor, Collyer and Son, commenced drainage works at the end of May and these works were completed during June. The result was that we were left with a big field with tennis courts that could only be reached as long as you were dressed in off road trainers with your plimmies hanging around your neck. Clearly this wasn’t desirable and we needed to find a way to provide better access and encourage use of the courts.
Also on the horizon was the end of the time allowed in which to spend the monies we had received as part of the Breathing Spaces award. We had only partially completed works in this area and needed to move things along. After a disappointing process of trying to get quotations for the path and ancillary works we were left despondent having lost our original contractor in January and not sure we had funds enough to engage any other contractor. Luckily, Mark Battle, a local contractor came to the rescue, providing a very competitive quotation for all of the outstanding works. We took a decision, as a committee that we were prepared to allow our available funds to drop to £2000 if it meant that we could get some progress on the field and safeguard the Breathing Spaces monies by completing that part of the project. Mark commenced work in August and in a matter of weeks we had a wheel chair friendly path the length of the field, with an access spur to the courts, a pergola, 2 brick built barbeques, 2 areas for the splendid benches that Alan made, a Sports wall and a 5-a-side thistle pitch. The benches look really good and are a testimony to Alan’s craftsmanship.
