‘Friends of Grain Coastal Park’
 
Our lovely Kate has had to stand down as admin on this site – we thank her for her time and expertise keeping it fresh
 
Anyone out there willing to take it on – and remind us to submit pictures/reports!!
 
Contact us – email: graincoastalpark01@gmail.com
 
In the meantime……….
 
Trees
Fred has been out and about during the summer planting trees amongst his many and varied jobs and has just lately been cutting down old, damaged or dead trees.  The dry weather followed by heavy rain and back to hot/sunny/dry is not good for them.  Hopefully the new replacements will have a chance to grow. 

Litter/bins
We continue – with the help of many who walk the area – to maintain a litter free environment as much as possible.  We are most grateful to the guys from wHoo Cares and their picking while walking initiative.
Unfortunately, we had to finally remove a litter bin as it could not sustain any further vandalism so another one less in the area.

 
We empty bins as time/transport/weather allows, usually at least once a week, but often rubbish is left beside them awaiting collection for a while.  When authorised transport is not available, we use our cars and get as many emptied as we can that we can reach from the various car parks.  It would be a lot easier if visitors would actually take their rubbish home as much of it can be recycled. 
We did receive an email to complain about a bin situated at the end of a public footpath by Port Victoria Road.  It was most definitely overflowing when we inspected it.  Strangely though – it is not actually a litter bin but has been created using an old council concrete bin stand and some wire around it.  It is not part of the coastal park or the England Coastal Path although is on a designated MC footpath and so was reported as fly tipping to Medway Council.

Mowing
Our thanks to Phil and John for continuing to keep the grass cut in all areas – weather and equipment permitting.  They also assist Fred with various tasks throughout the year.  They have a major task this year as Environment Agency have been unable to do their usual cut right across the Coastal Park.  Hopefully the new ‘bit of kit’ sponsored by St James, Isle of Grain, Parish Council will be of use.

Other works
We are unable to give any update on the various jobs that had been mentioned to local businesses as no contact has been received since May.  Our benches still remain in storage and our disabled footpath at Church Beach is still overgrown in areas and under planting done by a local residence that now reduces it’s width considerably.  The shingle left all over the path here has still to be cleared as inhibits wheelchair use.
Hopefully – we will have better news next time.

Enjoy the rest of the fine weather – we are now into Autumn so anything could happen.
If you have any photographs of the Coastal Park you would like to share – please forward to graincoastalpark01@gmail.com  We would love to see and share on here.

Highlights from the recent Friends of Grain Coastal Park Report to the Parish Council 2023

"A replacement bench on top of the fort (previously damaged by fire) has been sourced using money raised by our local Co-op and just awaits installation.

We continue to maintain the grassed areas with the services of Phil and John and usually the Environment Agency will do a clean sweep prior to our ‘No Mow’ policy from May to October.  Phil and John will maintain paths only during this time and we give heartfelt thanks to them both.

We thank the “Grain Walkie Talkies” walking group for once again assisting with our recent litter picking events.  Thanks also to Medway Norse for prompt removal of a very large number of sacks. Friends continue to litter pick on a regular basis and Fred continues to empty bins and we thank all who take time out when walking to pick up rubbish and put in the bins.  

Fred also still spends a lot of time maintaining our woodland and open spaces, is very resourceful and the results are ‘very pleasing’ 

We do not maintain the sea wall, just the green spaces, and do not receive any funding in this regard.  We thank all who have given donations towards the upkeep and we recently used some donated funds to buy a very upmarket strimmer for the Friends use and a second bench – awaiting installation."

Ronnie Cordier

May 2023

   

3 SEPTEMBER 2022- THANK YOU FOR YOUR AMAZING GENEROSITY

3 AUGUST 2022 - THANK YOU TO A GENEROUS DONOR

A Big ‘THANK YOU’ to Barney the black labradoodle and his people for their recent amazing donation to the Friends of Grain Coastal Park Funds – part of which will be put to good use towards the cost of an HD Strimmer. 

Barney says he loves coming to Grain as there are such nice people and he meets some very friendly dogs!

Friends of Grain Coastal Park (Report filed to Parish Council June 2022)

Another interesting year for ‘Friends’

VANDALISM ON PARK PROPERTY

As those that follow on our web site will know we have had a year where vandalism continues apace:We have lost 1 of our bins which was thrown into the sea: 3 have had to be repaired, 2 no longer have lids and the other is under constant attack. In one weekend it had to be repaired 3 times. 

Various picnic benches have also been damaged by BBQs being placed on them and we lost the bench on top of the fort to a fire set by local vandals – someone thought the PC had lit the beacon!

NEW TREES PLANTED

We applied for and received 131 trees to plant across the Coastal Park. We gave the school 30 to place around their sports field and many of the remaining 101 have been put in soil to bring on for another year. Others have been secreted around the area following a spate of tree cutting and felling by local youth – yet more distressing vandalism.

MEADOW MAINTENANCE

We continue to maintain the grassed areas with the services of Phil and John and once again Environment Agency did a clean sweep prior to our ‘No Mow’ policy from May to October.  Phil and John will maintain paths only during this time.

COMMUNITY DAY SUCCESS

We held a Community Day with a local company in October 2021 and it was a great day for all.  Bird boxes were supplied, we put them together, decorated them and they are now on display around the area – see if you can spot them! We painted the blocks in pavilion car park with some amazing artwork created on them.  Two of our benches were refurbished in the time we had.

LITTER PICKING CONTINUES

We held a Community litter pick in April this year and thanks go to the Silver Milers (Walking Group) for turning up in number to pick a very large area.  There was only one volunteer at the pavilion but the whole field was litter picked by the end of the 2 hours.  Although, sadly, by the next morning you would wonder if it had been done.

We continue to litter pick, Fred continues to empty bins and we thank all who take time out when walking to pick up rubbish and put it in bins.  It has to be said, that much of the litter could be taken home and recycled. The amount of food waste has been commented on as many bins get visited by cats, foxes and the like and need another litter pick the next day.  We continue to pick up BBQs that the notices state clearly are not permitted. Cut hands when removing these are not appreciated.

HELP US BY REPORTING INCIDENTS

Fred spends a lot of time maintaining our woodland and open spaces, is very resourceful and the results are very pleasing but we all feel disappointed and disillusioned when the areas are vandalised; churned up by the motor bike riders and spoiled by those who can’t comply with a sign. We will continue to keep the Coastal Park and others areas looking their best and would appreciate your support in reporting instances that you feel a police presence warrants.  

Our thanks to Kate Booker who maintains and updates our web site

We do this all as volunteers on your behalf – much is mentioned on Social Media about how good it looks.

Enjoy the area, keep it clean and keep safe.