Articles: News

The Caring Hands Sculpture will have a Rainbow of Coloured Stones and a circle of the decorated stones that people are sending in to us around its base.

We’ve been successful in getting a grant but the deadline for expenditure is 31st July.

Planning Permission looks favourable, but it has to go to public consultation which will conclude after the expiry date for the funding. So we’re going to take a chance that there will be no objections and buy all the components before the public consultation ends.

If it looks like there’s going to be a lot of objections then we may have to rethink the plan. This page usually gives us a good indication of how things are being received, so we welcome your thoughts.

I had a meeting today with council leaders with a view to having the toilets opened. They requested the meeting so we could look at options.

There was lots to discuss and it’s still not a foregone conclusion, but I’m hopeful the systems we talked about could work if people adhere to the rules and are sensible about it. Lives do after all, depend on it.

If it turns out it’s not going to work then they will probably be closed again (assuming we can get them open in the first place).
A concession from us is that FoSP will purchase and stock Touchless hand sanitisers for the entrance to each toilet block.
The outer door will become the ‘toilet door’ so it will be a one in one out system, with social distancing for the queues outside. The disabled toilet is self regulating as one in one out.
There will be plenty of signage reminding people to sanitise and wash hands before leaving.

The baby change will remain closed for the foreseeable future as it’s cleanliness cannot be guaranteed – and who would want to risk the health of their baby? This was my suggestion and they agreed.
As before, the council will open and clean the toilets and the cafe staff will lock them up in the afternoon as they close.
I expect there will be a lot of complaints like “one toilet isn’t enough” and the like but the situation doesn’t allow for full useage.
So unless anyone wants to volunteer to staff the toilets on a daily basis and ensure one in one out, this is what we’ve got to work with. It’s better than no toilets at all. Isn’t it?
We are aiming for 4th July when everything else opens but if there’s any change, we’ll keep you updated.
We’re doing our best for you, and the council will work hard on it too.

Sandra (Chairman)

We have been working on a project in the background which will incorporate the painted stones we’ve been asking you to bring to the park. It will be to commemorate the Covid Crisis and how it has affected our communities.

The project is going to be a sculpture in the park but we can’t reveal what that is going to be yet until it’s finalised.
The stones that people have dropped off (and hopefully will continue to drop off) will form part of the display.

We also want to do a Time Capsule for this project so if you have anything you’d like including in that – nothing too big otherwise we’d need an excavator – please let us know. Things need to be relative to the crisis. We need a suitable receptacle too if anyone has anything please. The last time capsule we did (it’s under the children’s Adventure Trail play area near the main car park) we used two large glass sweet jars so they wouldn’t rot.

It’s an exciting project and one which we think the whole community will get behind and will love when it’s up for all to see.
Please be a part of it – it’s your project too.

Painting stones and leaving them around parks and woods has been on the go for a long time now, and creates a lot amusement and entertainment for families.
The latest thing is colourful ‘snakes’ of stones. Tickhill are doing one on the Buttercross and a young boy is doing one in his street. We were asked if we could have one in the park.
We’ve had discussions with the council and yes we can do something in the park.
It won’t necessarily be a ‘snake’ but it will be a permanent commemoration of the crisis we are all going through and the way it has changed everyone’s life.
The Rainbow is significant in the acknowledgement of the sacrifices all the Key Workers and Emergency Services have made, and how they’ve continued working to keep us all safe. We’d like that reflected in the stones.
So here’s how we’d like to do this:
1. Encourage children to paint a stone – small flat stones no bigger than about 3″ – in a lovely vibrant colour. They need to be flat so we can set them onto a surface, and they won’t protrude too much.
2. Paint their name on the stone, or the name of a loved one, friend, family member they want to be remembered. Perhaps someone could do one with the date 2020; another might want to do an actual rainbow?
3. Leave the stone(s) in the blue tub behind the toilet block in the park. (Use gloves to lift and replace the lid, or use hand sanitiser before and after lifting the lid).
4. We will collect all the stones up periodically and varnish them.
5. When we know how many we’ve got we’ll decide where we’re going to put them. They will be set, so it will be a permanent feature.
This could look really amazing if we get sufficient numbers. On your marks ……….. Get set. Go!