On 13th June the Policy and Resources Committee will make a decision about our request to have a a long-term lease for Catherine Street Play Park.
Why do we want a lease and what’s the importance of this?
– Much of our funding is dependant on having ‘ownership’ of the park. The reason for this is that funders will not give money to local authorities but are keen to fund developments by community groups such as ours
– The Council would never be able to install the kind of play equipment we hope children will enjoy in our park. Wheelchair play equipment, water play and sensory planting is all too expensive for the Council to purchase and maintain. But we have raised sufficient funds to put all of this into the park to benefit children. We just need the lease in place to ‘unlock’ this funding
– We believe the best kind of resources within the community are those which have been driven by the community, developed by the community and are managed by the community. There are some amazing examples of community enterprise all over Dumfries and Galloway. Our wee region seems to punch above its weight in terms of community involvement and that is something to feel really proud of. We want to be part of that to benefit families from near, far and wide who will find something different and unique when they visit Catherine Street
– We want to take on responsibility for making sure that the park is a welcoming, beautiful, well maintained and safe space for everyone to enjoy. At the moment there are issues with smashed bottles, litter, dog poo and broken play equipment. Our presence in the park will aim to minimise some of these concerns with the support of paid staff and volunteers. But this too is dependant on us having ‘ownership’ of the park
So if you believe what we are doing is a good thing for families, a good thing for Dumfries contributes to town centre regeneration and helps to ensure that all children are able to play regardless of ability then PLEASE send us your note of support by the end of May
info@includeus.org.uk
We will share your views with the Policy and Resources Committee who will make the decision about Catherine Street.
Thank You
Include Us