20140919 Walk In SSP with Council Officers

Flashed after the Green Flag ceremony the Friends of Surrey Square Park were happy to carry on their role in helping shaping and protecting our little oasis.

So we look forward to taking part in the scheduled walkabout with Nina, the park officer in charge of SSP and a representative from the contractors (Quadron) in charge of maintaining the park.

These walkabout are essential for the wellbeing of the park. They bring together the people in charge, the ones that will actually do the work and the Friends that will act as general advisers, because they know what actually happens on the space and can hold all the parties to their commitments.

They are a generally friendly affairs and this was no exception. The Green Flag fluttering above had a subliminal effect on everybody.

We started by inspecting the recently finished works on the off-licence in the Surrey Grove, the last (and privately owned) shop in the park and the last remaining of the terraced houses that once, before the building of the Kinglake and Aylesbury estates that now hem the park, where lining Albridge Street.

They added a floor on the premises and had to fence part of the park for their scaffolding structure. We were worried about how we would find the space (several square meters) but all in all they maintained the promise to live it in a reasonable state, albeit grassless.

There was some discussion of what to do, as the space confine with our wild flower meadow.

Personally I would like some planting and decorative features to enlighten the now white wall (one as still an old mural FoSSP predecessor had found raised for) now in need of some restoration, however for the time being it was decided to reseed the barren space and together with some overdue grass catting in the wild flower meadow, it should be left for future consideration.