As Saffron Walden residents may be aware, the grassed area off Caton’s Lane between Saffron Walden Town Football Club, the Anglo-American Playing Fields and the Caton’s Lane children’s play area was levelled some years ago. For the first year it was unusable because drainage hadn’t been installed; since drainage has been installed it has continued to be unusable because of a corrugated surface left after the drain-laying and numerous stones on the surface. The original intention was that it would be usable for children’s cricket in the summer (and you’ll see that an artificial strip was laid), children’s football in the winter, and for other sports generally. This summer SWCC again decided it was unsafe to play on.
So one of the priorities for the new R4U councillors on Saffron Walden Town Council has been to make the area safe and usable. Remedial work should start soon. The first stage is to spray off the weeds and oversow new grass seed to give a much better surface. Over the winter, the ground will be levelled and treated in various ways to give a level surface, remove stones and to establish the grass. The aim is that the area will then be fit for use in time for next summer’s cricket season and next autumn’s football season.
Although SWCC have been stone-picking over the summer, there are a lot of stones on the surface at the moment, and we want to get rid of as many as we can before the new grass-sowing.
Accordingly this Sunday 11 October between 11am-midday (but come for as long as you can) a volunteer team, organised by SWTC, SWTFC and SWCC, is going to try clear up this area. Currently full of stones, the aim is to work as a team to clear as much of the area as possible. We’ve drummed up wheelbarrows from SWTFC, buckets from SWTC and some hi-viz jackets. What we really need are some willing volunteers from the local community who’d like some fresh air on Sunday morning! If you can help out (and have a trowel – some of the stones need digging out – and/or bucket you can bring along) then please email paul.gadd@residents4u.org – or just turn up and help!