Another item on Aussie community (= family) life. This is about shared community amenities. There is also information on a related venture in Sleights.
The community spaces like parks, playgrounds and public BBQ’s are superbly maintained in Sale and that seems typical of towns. There is a strong emphasis on family and that means having spaces for families, exercisers, older people, those with disabilities etc. to enjoy.
There seems to be no vandalism either. How it is afforded financially I do not know but I believe it is because there is a strong culture which prioritises this.
There is a new public allotment in planning (see recent post mentioning it) but also a new Garden for Life project with winding paths and beds. The photos below shows the plan and the ground-works underway.
It is a new part of the extensive Botanic Gardens
Inset in some of the paths in the play park area are china mosaics. Something for Katy at Whitby Women’s Shed to experiment with! The pieces are pressed into concrete. Simple but very effective.
A rose 
A sailing boat
Those mosaics would make lovely features in a community space the Scouts have been working on at the Sleights Scout Hut.
Volunteers preserved the ship-lap on the outside of the Hut; cleared a mass of brambles and dug over areas; Eskdale School students made benches and planters for it last year; SAMS Shed erected a safety fence where the ground dips away and recently the Cubs made a bug hotel.
In the next series of Kidz Making Good workshops there is to be a dedicated workshop day for 16 South Korean students in the area (now here in fact). They will make two play workbenches, one a kitchen for toddlers to play at.
However, not quite a rival to Sale’s Garden for Life but certainly an exciting move forward is determination to continue work at the Scout Hut to make an area able to be used by small groups, families and older residents. Sometimes inter-generational it is hoped.
Below is an impression of what could be done to make it a welcoming place for local residents and children (plus Cubs and the future Sleights Youth Shed. It is an impression, not a detailed plan but it shows some features that have been suggested, including an orchard and a shelter.
The Whitby Eskdale Scouts continue to lead this through Janine Pemberton who remains Cub leader at Sleights. The Whitby Sheds are supporting the venture as part of Kidz Making Good, in which Janine is also involved.
The intention is that the thinking around this project will involve the local community as the intended beneficiaries and that involvement will continue into the development phase for which funding or gifts in kind is being sought.
Well done Eskmouth Scouts who won three awards at the District AGM this week – one for Beavers, one for Scouts and the group won the prestigious District Commissioner’s Award.
Well done Leaders, helpers and parents too.