Play Park -

HEMINGFORD PAVILION PLAYPARK PROJECT

We have raised £89k of our £105k target so far. A huge thank you goes to the Thalia WB Community Fund, part of the Landfill Communities Fund, who have just awarded us with a grant of £40,000 which brings us very close to our target. We would welcome any donations from individuals and local businesses to help get us across the line. Donations can be made via the GoFundMe link below or by contacting Gill at [email protected]

In the meantime, we have applied for another grant but of course not all grant applications are successful and are at best scaled down so we really need your ongoing support to help us reach our target and get the Playpark rebuilt as soon as possible.

How can I help?

1. Personal donations (including gift aid if you are a tax paper) would be very much appreciated via our online donations page either follow the link below or scan or click the QR code.

https://gofund.me/091d43e9

2. A Legacy – if you would like to donate the sum of £250 or more, either in your name or in memory of someone special to you, we can organise a plaque for you near the Playpark. If this might be of interest to you, please contact Nigel, Sarah-Jane, Richard and Gill by email at [email protected]

3. Maybe you could organise a fund raising event on our behalf for example a coffee morning selling cakes, a quiz night, a games evening, a dinner, sponsorship for an activity you might like to do etc etc.

Feedback

If you have any comments or feedback about this project, please contact Nigel, Sarah-Jane, Richard and Gill by email at [email protected]

Updates

We will update this page as the project progresses.

Why do we need a new Playpark?

The existing Playpark is over 20 years old and it has come to the end of its useful life with limited pieces of play equipment left for children to play on.

For many years it has been very well used by the children, parents and carers of the Hemingfords and surrounding villages, and hence the project is focussed on rebuilding this vital community asset.

What will the new Playpark look like?

We have shared our ideas with the parents and carers of First Steps in Hemingford Grey and obtained their feedback as to what play equipment the younger children would like to have.

We also ran a poster competition with the Cubs and Beavers in Hemingford Grey to see what sort of equipment the slightly older children would like.

The competition winners were Lucy Hilton and Grayson Savage. You may have seen their drawings on our posters around the village.
We have also consulted parents of less able children to ensure some of the equipment is also accessible for them.
We are currently in discussion with our final two suppliers and are currently considering their designs and quotes.

Here is one of the ideas of how the new Playpark might look but it is not the final design

As you can see, we are trying to include as much play equipment for children of all abilities aged 0 to 10 which might include:-

- - 3 swings: flat seat, cradle seat and a basket
  - Climbing frame with a net, slide, tower
  - Monkey bars.
  - Seesaw.
  - Wheelchair friendly in-ground roundabout.
  - Hopscotch and caterpillar in the ground.
  - Educational / play / sensory panels for younger children.
  - Picnic bench which can accommodate wheelchairs.

How much will it cost?

In the region of £100,000.

Why is it costing so much?

As you may be aware since Covid in 2020 building supplies, equipment and labour costs have increased quite significantly. Although the final costs and equipment haven’t been finalised yet, we are expecting them to look a bit like this

- - Wheelchair and buggy friendly path from the Pavilion to the Playpark circa £8,000.
  - New 3 metre high fence circa £13,000.
  - 293 square metres of wet pour surfacing around all the play equipment circa £23,000.
  - Site preliminaries, inspection, groundwork excavation and hardcore, the removal of the existing equipment, the ground matting and disposal thereof circa £22,000.
  - Supply and installation of the play equipment as outlined above circa £41,000.

Whilst the above currently exceeds £100,000 we are trying to get it within our £100,000 budget.

How is the project being funded?

We have recently been awarded a grant of £40,000 from the Thalia WB Community Fund, part of the Landfill Communities Fund which is fantastic news as it has helped to bring us very close to our target.

We have also received grants of £20,000 from the National Lottery and £10,000 from the Garfield Western Foundation. In addition to this, and equally as important, the community has supported us very generously by helping us to raise monies at a variety of fundraising events, such as;

– two of the volunteers on the fundraising committee, Nigel and Richard, along with 2 friends did a 83 km sponsored bike ride in Southwold in the most horrendous weather and raised nearly £1,200

– the cubs and beavers and their families baked some delicious cakes for a cake stall at the Hemingford Olympics which raised £184
– a Summer Breakfast was held in Tish & Roger Peek’s lovely garden. We served bacon & sausage baps, tea & coffee. The sausages were kindly donated by Johnson’s of Old Hurst.
Tish & Roger kindly donated some Premiership football tickets for an auction and some very generous raffle prizes were donated by Budgeons in the village, Grace Hairdressing Grey House, the Cock, the Axe & Compass, the Guinot salon in St Ives and Brampton Golf Club. In total, we raised just over £2,500

– the Hemingford Choir performed a concert at the Hemingford Abbots church with donations raising £260 for the Playpark.
– a quiz night was held at the Hemingford Pavilion with all proceeds going to the Playpark which raised £700.

– local villagers have also made donations via our GoFundMe page (see the QR code above)

Along with donations from the following, we have raised a Total of £89k to date.

– Pavilion Sports and Social Club

– The Bowls Club

– Hemingfords Football Club

– Hemingford Grey Parish Council

– St James Church

– Hemingford Abbots Parish Council

We have recently applied to the FCC Community Action Fund for a grant too. We need to show that our community not only supports this project but is also contributing by way of donations and different fundraising activities which can be evidenced above. However, please contact us if you are able to help in any way.

Who is responsible for this project?

We are a small group of 4 volunteers who have been asked by The Trustees of the Hemingford Peace Memorial Field to manage this project on their behalf.
We are Nigel Piper, Sarah-Jane Hilton, Richard Waters and Gillian Waters. We all live in the village and really value the wonderful community asset we have in the Hemingford Pavilion.

We would really like to return this area to the valued and well used asset it used to be for the children, parents and carers of our community and the surrounding areas.