A Green future in Old Buckenham

Making the best of our village Green

To everybody who came to the meeting about the Green a couple of weeks ago - a thank you  from Sarah Dye for coming and for sharing your views and suggestions.  She has had a lot of positive feedback about the meeting and what it is trying to achieve, which is sincerely appreciated and very encouraging.

Sarah quickly ran through a potted history of the Green in numbers from 1791 to 2015.

Those attending listed what’s good about our Green: free access to open space; protected focal point for the village; history; the huge variety of wildlife; ponds & trees – all featured in the discussion.

The list of users and possible uses of the Green was long: two wheels, two legs, four legs and the aforementioned wildlife all featured; perhaps music; definitely sport and leisure; sheep and hay; school activities and events.

The list of jobs to be done was equally long: mowing; trimming and strimming; weeding and seeding; drainage; tree work; pond work; paths and parking areas; seating; litter picking; gathering opinions and communication and fundraising.

So how should the work be supported and funded? Suggestions were: the current Green Right holders; grants; the Parish Council via precept; donations and fees from commercial users or events.

There was a very open discussion about what sort of organisation might be created for effective day-to-day management and in the end, there was general consensus that it could be:

• A new organisation – working separately but alongside the current group of Green Right Proprietors,
• It would have clear aims and objectives and a strong constitution which all interested parties could agree to,
• Charitable status would enable applications for grant funding – a charitable trust might be a good structure.

There would be a place for trustees and committee members but also experts (grant funding, trees, wildlife, etc) and a database of people who are just willing to help with practical jobs or have equipment and skills to guide those projects.

And the name for this new group?  There is now a list of suggestions – feel free to send Sarah yours.

Even before the new organisation is formed, plans are afoot for a ‘Green Day’ (after mowing and before the Tour of Britain cycle race descends on the village on Saturday 12 September) to work on some specific jobs on the Green. All will be very welcome – date to be decided.

So thanks again for showing an interest. And if you would like to take part or just receive information about what’s happening next, drop Sarah an email (sarah.dye@hotmail.com) to let her know of your interest.

Otherwise, watch this blog and/or the Old Buckenham village newsletter for news about next steps - if we can get a lot of people doing a little bit each, then together this will achieve a huge amount.