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The central urn of the Rotunda pond has been filled with lavender and scented daffodil bulbs by the gardening volunteers. We are hoping to reinstate two urns that previously adorned the pond.

The second phase of the planting in the Coronation Garden took place last week. Daffodils bulbs were planted to add fragrance and colour to the new lavender walk. The two varieties chosen will ensure there will be beautiful blooms from early to late spring, as one is early flowering and one late flowering.

On a sunny morning 17 volunteers planted 9,000 daffodil bulbs along the tennis courts in the Park. Our Head Gardener, Mr Andy Jeavons, chose two highly scented varieties, Martinette and White Lion. Martinette is lemon yellow with an orange base and White Lion has cream petals and a pale yellow centre.

Saturday 29th October 2022

Halloween in the Park was back after two years of absence. Little zombies, witches and wizards bopped along to the sound of Danica’s disco and followed the lantern walk into the heart of darkness…

Lots of prizes were given to children who went to extraordinary lengths to look the part, wearing face glitter paint and halloween theme costumes. Parents were not excluded from the fun as our raffle ticket sale proved very popular. Cakes and sweets were enjoyed by all and we are looking forward to seeing you all again next year.

We would like to thank Sussex Police for monitoring the area, The Chalet Cafe for providing refreshments and Brighton and Hove City Council for keeping the toilets open for the duration of the event.

Our Annual General Meeting was held on Saturday 14th November at 11.00 am. This year the AGM was held on Zoom, and all three Preston Park Ward councillors – Siriol Hugh-Jones, Leo Littman and Amy Healey – were in attendance to answer your questions.

You can view a recording of the meeting here and view the minutes here

Just before the new lockdown, we managed to deliver the prizes to the 2020 Photo Competiton winners. Each received a fabulous book from Magazine in Trafalgar Street.

We can now announce the winners of this year’s photo competition. We had a great many fabulous entries this year on the theme of ‘colours’. Hundreds of you participated in the online voting, so thanks for making the competition such a success.

1st prize: Leah Parkes (picture above)
2nd prize: Tadas Kaminskas
3rd prize: Tadas Kaminskas
4th prize: Shane Smith
5th prize: Alison Field

The Preston Park 2011 calendar, featuring 12 of the best photos, is off for printing.

You can see all the shortlisted pictures here.

The committee of the Friends of Preston Park is very disappointed by the high level of anti-social behaviour and vandalism in the Park and the surrounding area in the past few months. There has been an unusually high rate of incidents, ranging from repeated offensive and ugly graffiti on the Chalet Cafe, digging up of part of the cricket pitch and nearby bowling greens, damage to the newly-restored flint walls by the velodrome just days after it was completed, and damage to trees and flower beds, often by vehicles illegally entering the Park.

Litter has been at unacceptably high levels, which as well as being unsightly, also attracts vermin, and much of the rubbish does harm to local wildlife. More and more people are parking illegally and the van dwellers, which have now been served with notices of eviction, are just ignoring them and carrying on inhabiting the Park with many reports of very anti-social behaviour. There have also been complaints too about high levels of noise and music, particularly in the evenings, which neighbours find very annoying and disruptive.

We feel that one of the reasons for all this is that, with continuing cutbacks to budgets, the Council just does not have enough staff to supervise the Park, Sussex Police are no longer able to fund dedicated community police officers, and little enforcement of parking regulations is being carried out. As a result, the minority are openly flouting laws and regulations designed to look after the Park.

We plan to meet with our local councillors and council officers over the coming weeks to discuss how we tackle these issues and what we can do to keep Preston Park safer and more well kept. Meanwhile, we would urge that anyone witnessing anti-social behaviour of any kind to report it by calling Sussex Police on 101, or reporting on the Sussex Police website. The more calls they receive, the more likely they will patrol the Park. Please do your part in stopping this costly and distressing behaviour.

Some of you may have seen the six-page spread about our beautiful Rockery Garden and an interview with our wonderful garden manager Andy in the August edition of the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society magazine. This is a real accolade for Preston Park, and testimony to all the hard work put in by Andy and his team of volunteer gardeners who created and maintain the Rockery Garden. The article has created a lot of interest far and wide, and many people have contacted us for details about visiting Preston Park.