HOW WE WILL SPEND THE MONEY
Plant summer wildflower meadow and native woodland area and add water circulation system to pond.
Encouraging wildlife to make our parkland their home, this initiative also lends itself to improving the environment, and also adds an educational dimension for our local national school pupils who regularly carry out nature walks in our park.
Ballingarry Community park is a landscaped woodland park area with a children’s playground forming part of it. As a result it is widely used by the local and wider community.
The local national school has used the park as a nature trail for many years, limited as it is. The addition of the natural woodland and meadow environments will allow broader wildlife education to take place.
In addition, it will address a major maintenance headache, as this ground is located on a steep bank which proves difficult to cut (this has to be done using strimmers every ten days during the summertime). This project will allow the area to grow wild and still be appealing to park users.
The pond needs to be cleaned weekly during the summer months due to algae growth, this involves two men having to don waders and using rakes move algae toward our sluice gates where it can be flushed away.
Installing a circulation system will discourage algae growth, but needs to be installed by a contractor (thus the increased cost). Without this system, the pond water is still, and thus algae growth increases, discouraging wildlife’s use of the pond.