The Community Fights Back

Another incident at the Queens Park as the community fights back. Cllr Maureen Grant was on site as she often is and her and her friend stepped in as wardens with me when 6-8 children started throwing bikes into the lake. After these children were causing problems and being yobish they started throwing bike in the lake. I was there as backup with my dog but to be fair Maureen and her friend handled the children and got a torrent of foul and obscene language from them. Never the less they persisted and stopped them running off and made them get the bike out of the lake.

More abuse followed but they then dispersed. It good to see a councillor who not only comes to our meeting and fights our corner at council but comes to the park on a regular basis and gets her hand dirty helping the communities fight  back against vandalism and yobish behaviour this is the second time in a week she has taken action to stop problems in the park so well done to MO.

The people who were fishing yesterday and hooked the baby swan were back doing it again today but what could I say as the Police took no action yesterday they would take no notice so the Police have set us back with this problem. How they can walk past Burma Island with kids fishing haven broke over the fence committing criminal damage I don’t understand. Cllr Jones has responded to my email and is trying to sort something out so as a partnership we can solve this problem. The simple solution is to some how grant the PCSO powers to remove anyone fishing or have to remove them if a volunteer warden asks for assistance, they say they must respond and remove people if a council officer requests it. While ANTS are doing a great job cleaning the place up none so far have volunteered to help with warden duties and I fear any work they do will be then spoilt by vandals. I am an OAP so limited what I can do but with more help we can take back our park and make it safe for wildlife and children.

Baby Swan Injured in Queens Park Again

 

Today 4 witnesses watched as a father and two sons were fishing near Tipkinder. They were not taking any care were they cast and the swans and their babies swam close to them. They then started throwing at the swans at which point we called the Police.

The RSPCA were called as by then they had hooked a baby swan and wrapped line and float all around its neck. The RSPCA arrived and did a good job of catching the baby and fighting off the father swan as he kept attacking. The hook was removed from the swans neck safely.
The RSPCA advised the fisher men of what they had done. The Police PCSO arrived and walked around seeing 10 other fishing under No Fishing signs and took no action. They spoke to the ones who had hooked the swan and took no action and left them fishing to do it again.

The PCSO said they don’t have the powers to shift anyone illegal fishing or take any action for dogs off the lead. Even when they break into fenced off areas to fish causing criminal damage they wont take any action. They will only take action if fish are removed from the park as then they will charge them with theft. In the past other PSCO have attended and taken action on the fishing.

Below the RSPCA remove line and hook from the swan if you view this full screen you can see the line wrapped around its neck

They claim that any volunteer wardens can not stop anyone fishing or do anything about dogs off the lead. They say its down to the council or environment agency this puts the ball directly back in Cllr Jones court as people are volunteering but they are wasting their time as the council refuse to back the project. People volunteer and act as wardens to keep the park safe for families  risking abuse and the council wont help in anyway. Cllr Jones spoke on tv of a partnership but it’s a one sided one if the council wont do their bit

This is the second time in a couple of months a swan has been hooked up and one women has been hooked as well. A risk assessment would say the odds are that a person be it a baby an OAP or other is going to suffer horrendous injure   while the council refuse to take action on this fishing which is conducted next to busy public pathways by people who don’t care were they cast the line. The council have a duty of care to keep the park safe for people to enjoy by failing on Health and Safety grounds they leave themselves open to being sued if any one is injured given the fact they have been told the risk and taken no action on dogs or fishing. Evidence on Facebook and the website could be used by anyone suing the council if they get injured.

Most people who visit the park do so to feed the ducks or show them to the children and they are horrified that they can be killed by people illegally fishing. One of the baby swans is missing and its possible its died a horrible death by fishing line, by a dog off the lead  or by a fox.

Playday in the park

Reporter J White

Crewe Playday took place on Wednesday 21st August 2013 from 11am to 4pm at Queens Park in Crewe. The event was organised by local community group the Beech Drive Project - http://www.beechdrive.cc/ . It was sponsored by Crewe Town Council, Wulvern Housing, ASDA, Aldi and Cheshire East Council. This year marks twenty-six years of the Playday campaign, which raises awareness about children's right to play and the importance of play for children's health, well being and happiness. The event was free entry and activities included face painting, rock climbing, go-karting, zorb balls, a bungee run and karaoke. There was also a children's entertainer, birds of prey, fairground rides, and numerous charities were represented. Refreshments were also available. Crewe-based online community radio station RedShift Radio - http://www.redshiftradio.co.uk/ - broadcast live from the event. Crewe Playday took place in glorious sunshine and was enjoyed by several thousand families

ANTS Volunteers Day

40-50 people turned up to find out exactly what ANTS are all about. Very simple. If you care about your beautiful park, lend a minute amount of your time to help beautify and maintain it. On 31st August and 1st September there will be a chance for Crewe residents to show potential sponsors that there is a collective will to do something positive. There will be identified tasks to be carried out - the repairing of benches, the tidying of paths and the weeding of borders - and, almost imperceptibly at first, there will be a blossoming of community spirit. There will be families enjoying themselves and there will be stuff getting done in an atmosphere of happiness and quiet determination. It is just the start and we all have a chance to say 'I was there'.

If you want to get involved you can contact the blog here   or via email to jan@janwright.co.uk

As a step forward the tree stumps around the park have been sawn into little bits so ANTS can then tidy the areas up and make it nice again.

One area for volunteers is a park wardens one of the big problems is illegal fishing at the moment they tend to break the fence on Burma Island and fish under the bridge. As people come onto the bridge to feed wildlife the kids still cast in the middle of them and its only a matter of time until they are hurt not only that they dont watch were they cast and it is only a matter of time before someone is hooked up.The other alleged problem is we have heard from some kids that being under the bridge its great fun to try and look up skirts. Even if people could only give an odd hour to be wardens and stop fishing and dogs off the lead. Often women will be better at this as most of the problems is with young children and mothers know how to deal with kids.

One of the baby swans has now been missing for over a week so we fear we have lost it. It could be a fox or a dog off the lead or it could have been caught by fishing line.

ANTS in the Queens Park

Sunday was a glorious day in the  park with the main drive flower beds now at there best. Lots of visitors enjoyed the South Cheshire Pipe Band last Sunday! Always popular.

ANTS is a new volunteer group setup on Facebook to get things done in the park. The first volunteering weekend will be on 31st August/1st September .

Q.What is the first project.
A. We are are going to tackle bench painting and weeding around the boat house area of the lake.
There will also be some jet washing involved
Q. Who is supplying the equipment?
A. The park will provide us with
Paint and equipment
Q. Can I bring my own tools?.
A. There will be tools there for you but you may also bring your own. Obviously some tools may be subject to necessary restrictions.
Q. Are children welcome
A. Yes very much so. But there may be places  they cannot go on the grounds of health and safety. (And common sense. )

We are looking for lots of people to come forward to help with this and other projects One thing we do need is volunteer Wardens to patrol the park ideally in two or threes and get dogs put on leads stop fishing and other bad behaviour but not to put them selves in any danger. I am currently the only one doing this. Looking ahead to doing bigger projects like Burma Island Coronation Walk Lodges gardens so there is big scope for anyone interested in gardening. Bench's need repairing so any carpenters out there with a few hours to spare

If you want to get involved you can contact the blog here   or via email to jan@janwright.co.uk

BBC Tv in the Queens Park

 

Over the weekend the Queens Park was a battle ground between the CEC and protesters complaining about the state of the park. The protest came from a facebook group and was a bit rushed as the BBC came down but, the CEC turned up and some of his reported comments were

There are no muggings in Crewe and he can prove it.
He wants a group of volunteers to police and maintain the park.
He regards us all as having "A Crewe mentality"
He says we are all "Apathetic"
He wants to create jobs in Cheshire rather than throw money away, but would not create a "Park Warden" or "Park Keeper" job.
He wants a permanent police presence in the park, so shifting the responsibility of funding back onto the Police.
CEC did not put money in to Macclesfield Football Club.
CEC is one of the richest councils in the country. But why should they put any more money into the park given the fact that no one in Crewe actually cares about the park.

The cost of the wardens is not as great as the cost of the damage done in the park the quoted cost of damage in the park is £1000 per week. The main complaints are that even after over 7 million being spent the park is far from finished  and many of the paths are dangerous. The actions on Sunday were not part of the Friends of Queens Park who are the elected committee of the park. The friends meeting was held tonight and more volunteers turned up to get things done in the park. They will be picking up litter, repairing benchs, weeding, patrolling the the park and raising money.

On the plus side the Cafe now has CCTV installed monitored 24/7 as the cafe has suffered a lot of damage and break ins. More CCTV is to be install in the near future and the Police have provided Mosquitos for the project there is all so radio on site to instantly call the Police if there is any trouble. If you want to get involved you can contact the blog here