Family Fun Day Celebrates Community Triumph

People from across Ashton got stuck into fun and games at a Family Fun Day held at Cedar Park recently to celebrate the Friends of Cedar Park’s triumph over vandalism. The free annual community event was a great success, with visitors tackling the climbing wall, having their face painted, planting their own seeds and learning circus skills amongst other things.

The event was organised by the Friends of Cedar Park in conjunction with the Ashton District Assembly supported by Groundwork. Partners including the Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council Youth Service, Sports Development, Patrollers, Scouts and the Police were also integral to the event organisation and funding. Funding for the event came from the Tameside Prevention Fund. Councillor Margaret Sidebottom Chair of the Friends of Cedar Park received a cheque for £1000 for future community activity.

The charity Groundwork, work with partners to improve the quality of the local environment, the lives of local people and the success of local businesses. Groundwork Senior Youth Projects Officer Chris Odell said: “The event will continue to encourage people to use the park and have fun. It gives residents the opportunity to come together and use local facilities.”

Caroline Wilkinson, Neighbourhood Co-ordinator added: “Groundwork have been brilliant at supporting this whole event and making sure it happened. In this park we used to have a problem with vandalism. We’ve worked closely with Groundwork, Youth Service Patrollers and Police to improve Cedar Park and get young people involved with the Bowling and Youth Clubs and we’ve seen incidences of vandalism decrease massively. “

Tameside North Neighbourhood Police Officers also attended the event to encourage young people to try new activities by visiting the Safe4summer.com website. Safe4summer.com links to the activities pages on the Tameside Council website for young people provided by Youth Services and other voluntary organisations. The scheme provides young people with a wide range of things to do to ward off boredom and the anti-social behaviour that can often follow.