We received an email recently from a local resident concerned about the state of the Town Park, including more specifically the condition of some the new pathways, the growth of ragword and brambles and the impact of horses. If you share those concerns the following extract from the response by the chairman of FOTTP might be of interest
On behalf of the Friends of Telford Town Park I must firstly apologise for any problems the ongoing path works may have caused you. Initial problems caused by wet ground resulted in a new contractor being required to carry out recovery works which has led to an over run in the planned schedule. The following is an update of where we are currently and, having established some facts from the council, the reasons for some of the other issues you have raised.
Pathways – reinstatement works are currently being completed on the pathways and despite a positive start the recent wet weather is hampering progression. Once we have a dry spell the work will be completed. This involves loosening the surface, re – profiling and rolling to compact. (This work cannot be carried out on top of surface water, which is why the initial problems arose)
Ragwort – during this next month TWS will be completing the annual removal of Ragwort within the Town Park boundary. This exercise is carried out at this time each year.
Brambles – if these are not impacting on the pathways the park tend to leave them as a valuable food source for the wildlife. However if there is a particular location where they are creating a problem to pedestrians then if you could let me know we can investigate further.
Horses – the park has a number of bridleways and therefore a lot of shared access for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders. The park therefore encourage all users to ‘share with care’ and will be shortly starting (at Dark Lane) to put up signage to this effect. Again if you can confirm the location of any damaged pathways we can be proactive in getting this message out in those locations.
Everyone involved with the running of the park is aware of the fine balance that needs to be achieved between the public amenity (the beautiful park), and the maintenance of it’s bio diversity and the protection of the natural habitats.
The Friends, supported by park management and TWC, are in the process of launching two initiatives within the park in a attempt to encourage young persons from 10 years of age upwards to become involved in it’s upkeep and to love the park.
In summary the issue of the paths concerns all involved with the park and a lot of work has gone into and is still going into resolving these problems, scrub clearing etc., unless invading footpaths, cannot be carried out until September at the earliest because of the needs of our valuable wildlife.
I hope this answers some of your concerns and if you do have specific areas of concern please let us know in order that we can investigate.
J V Trubshaw
Chairman Friends of Telford town Park
Chairmans Report 2023-2024 non pag