Kitson Park: how we became friends

Greetings all!

As this is my first post @TalkTorbay and first ever blog I thought I would start with how I got involved in the Friends of Kitson Park and use each of my posts to show you before and after shots of all of our hard work.

Well, Kitson Park (just off Cadewell Lane in Shiphay, Torquay) has always been known by the locals (even when I was young) as a secluded, scary park that you were only ever allowed to visit with your parents.  This is partly because it has only ever had one access point in and out, which is a great bonus for bullies who may want to corner you, but bad for youngsters who just want to play and feel safe.  It is also not overlooked due to its mature trees and planting, a stream seperates some woods from the park itself and it feels more country park than urban park.

So, when I moved back to Torquay after a few years working away I moved back right next to the park.  I noticed it wasn’t used much save for groups such as the Scouts or the local school, so families and older children on their own didn’t seem to feature much.

As I used to work in community regeneration I found out what sort of improvements were going on in my local area,  and started to attend the public meetings of the Shiphay with the Willows Community Partnership.  Then I got invited onto the Steering Group and found out that there was some government money available for play equipment.

Thanks to Ian Williams at Torbay Council who said that in order to make it a success we needed to establish a Friends Group for the park.  So, between the local Councillor Roger Kerslake, his wife Lee and partnership officer Adrian Porter we set about establishing a Friends group for Kitson Park to obtain some of this money to encourage families and children back into the park for play.

We asked a few local residents, even family to help initially and we managed to form a group really quickly.  Meetings were held in a local resident’s front room and we even had the Director of Estates and Estates Manager from Torbay Hospital come along in the evening at one point to discuss access to the woods.  Not sure they knew what to expect, but we tried to be welcoming with coffee and biscuits!

The speed at which we managed to get a group of local residents together and our keenness to work with the Council and the Hospital, helped to secure £40,000 of Playbuilder funding a year ahead of time…and this is only just the beginning!

Enjoy the park and its new play equipment, and I look forward to letting you know next time what happened at our launch event.

Best wishes

Alison