With this wonderful weather, some of our surrounding grassland has been romping away, despite the efforts of volunteers and limited contractors.
As you previously heard, our estates contract with the local Parish Council unexpectedly came to an end earlier this year and now, combined with the impact of coronavirus, things haven’t been as tidy as we would’ve liked them to be.
However, with the relaxation of lockdown and availability of more services, we are cautiously investing in some further cutting and with effect from this week, Coddenham Athletic Football Club have agreed to take on maintaining parts of the recreation ground, on a trial basis.
We are thankful for volunteers‘ support in tidying up from time to time and we would welcome, further offers of help, particularly from those with strimmers, brushcutters or good mowers!
Like others, our revenue stream has and continues to be limited at the moment and therefore only essential investment remains the current order of the day.
We are hoping to resume business progressively in the coming weeks and more details will be circulated soon.
In the meantime, please bear with us (or volunteer.)
Thank you.
Thanks David – yes, we’ve talked about this (particularly as the poppies have been so attractive), partly out of necessity but partly by design too. The bank is the most expensive part of the traditional cutting contracts.
I’ve been threatening to augment Ray Collins ‘straffing’ of the football pitch, with my traditional scythe and then raking the bank. In these dark times, the potential imagery was considered too controversial.
I think it’s something we will definitely do next year, clearly marking the area. We’d welcome your/ Churchyards Committee help in it’s development as we would more community views on the subject.
For the moment, it’s been a bit of firefighting within a depleted budget and addressing grumbles that the play area for example was looking unloved!
By this weekend, weather permitting, we will have caught up with most areas, (which in reality, haven’t been too bad).
On behalf of the Coddenham Centre, thanks again for your comments.
Perhaps the Centre could save money, help the environment and preserve some of our all-too-scarce wildflowers by cutting back on the cutting (so to speak). How about only cutting the steeper slopes around the Centre (eg above and below the tennis courts and bowls green) once a year, in late summer?
There would still be plenty of short, manicured grass for those who prefer it that way. This is very much the way councils are now being urged to manage their grasslands, to reverse the catastrophic decline in so many of our native species. It’s the way we manage the churchyard, leading to it being recognised as one of the best sites in Suffolk for Wildflowers and the wildlife which depends on them.