Newsletter – June 2019

Welcome to our June Newsletter and despite the recent rain it certainly seems that summer is now here and it’s been great to see so much activity on Palmers and Southward Fields.

It’s been a hive of activity with the Exercise: Digging Band of Brothers as well as all the usual sporting activities. This picture was taken while the Scouts were having a Tug of War evening after being told all about the excavations taking place. 

The Palmer’s Field Lease

For many months now, we’ve been hoping that the lease for Palmers Field is very close to being signed. We were hoping this would have taken place last week at the June meeting of Aldbourne Parish Council. Although everything in the lease has been agreed, unfortunately the solicitors had not completed their work in time to enable the final agreed lease to be circulated to all the councillors before the meeting.  We are hoping we may be able to do this before the next meeting on the 3rd of July and as always, you’ll be the first to know, when there’s any more news. 

Out and About
Aldbourne is always busy with so many great events taking place including the recent Scarecrow Trail. Now in its 5th year it was another huge success so congratulations to all those involved. At ARC we decided we’d make a scarecrow this year on the theme of Books.  Did you get the connection between Theresa May, Emile Macron and the newspapers they were holding? If you didn’t the answer is at the bottom of this email!We’ll be at more events again this summer starting with the Combined Churches Fete on the 29th of June where we’ll have another prize draw with some great prizes. It would be great to see you there for a chat and it’ll give us a chance to answer any questions you have. 

What’s Next
Once the lease is signed, we’ll be moving quickly with design and funding programmes that we’ve been discussing with groups and individuals in the community. We’ll be talking to our architect about designs for the development of Palmer’s Field and will spend the coming months developing indicative designs which will take in to account everything we’ve heard from different village groups. The intention is to design a facility that fulfils the day to day needs of each sports and recreation group, while allowing flexibility when the need arises. Funding sources tell is that they favour the economy, multipurpose and utility of this approach. 

We’re hoping that we’ll be able present our ideas to the rest of the village in a consultation in the autumn. In the meantime, we’re always keen to hear from anyone who has any ideas or would like to get involved with ARC, so please do get in touch. At this stage I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all those in the community and ARC for their contribution and commitment to the lease and everything else that has been worked on in preparation for the next phase, which put simply is design, fund and build.  While we’ve been waiting for the lease to be signed we have been working hard in preparation for the moment we can move ahead. We have been fortunate to have so many people contributing their skills and talent to date and these will be invaluable in the coming months. 

Stay in Touch

This is certainly looking to be a busy summer for ARC, so we look forward to keeping you up to date at every stage of our progress. As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at: info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Please do let us know if there is anyone else who would like to receive this newsletter every month, and don’t forget we are active on social media, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links below. 

Many thanks 

Malcolm Pryce, Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

P.S. The answer to our Scarecrow……. The Tale of Two Cities!