Burgh Beautiful Progress Report - July 2010
Since the last report, members of Burgh Beautiful have been exceptionally busy organising various events and planting up displays for the summer. Now in place are the 50 floral hanging baskets, the planting, installation and watering of which is being financed by Burgh Beautiful. Appreciation is due in particular to Hazel Duguid for making the necessary arrangements for the provision of the baskets with South Logie Nursery, as well as for making available her garden as a distribution point for Burgh Beautiful’s 4,000 bedding plants, delivered by Pentland Plants in early June. John Carswell is also thanked for organising the watering. In conjunction with the Linlithgow & Linlithgow Town Management Group, we are also taking on the co-ordination of business/community sponsorship of the baskets over future winter and summer seasons, and local groups, businesses and individuals will shortly be asked to consider sponsoring (or clubbing together to sponsor) baskets at around £200 per pair for the whole year.
Planting of flowerbeds, barrels and planters has proceeded apace over the past month, and all the displays are a credit to the volunteers involved. Unfortunately, the town entrance barrels at the top of Preston Road suffered from the theft of most of their newly-planted contents, but it is hoped that the subsequent publicity in the Linlithgow Gazette will deter a re-occurrence. On the other hand, the opportunity was taken to insert a number of surplus plants into the underused raised beds at the entrance to the Regent Centre car park, in a form of ‘guerrilla gardening’, and it will be interesting to see if these survive!
Recent successful events have included:
- Linlithgow Spring Clean and Litter Pick
Co-ordinated by Chris Long, this event on Saturday 24 April was undertaken in conjunction with Cittaslow Linlithgow. Litter-picking materials and prompt uplift of refuse were provided by West Lothian Council. 40 volunteers (including at least five children and a baby!) worked from seven advertised locations, followed by a photo-shoot at Regent Centre where Greggs the Bakers provided juice and millionaires’ shortbread as a reward for all the volunteers’ hard work. 87 bags of rubbish were collected, and detritus included a shopping trolley, a rusty old wheelbarrow, 14 footballs, a rubber car tyre, many discarded bottles and some drug-related litter. Helpers included volunteers from Linlithgow Community Council, the Rotary Club of Linlithgow Grange, Linlithgow Climate Challenge, as well as Councillor Tom Conn and Fiona Hyslop MSP, and the event was well publicised in the Linlithgow Gazette.
- Dog Show
In May 2010, Burgh Beautiful held its fifth Family Fun Dog Show in the magnificent setting of the Peel. Partly due to the ideal weather conditions, the event again proved to be a huge success, with a crowd of about 400 people in attendance. There were a record 185 entries from 106 dogs, spread across 12 different judging classes, the most popular being ‘Waggiest Tail’ and ‘Puppy Love’. The Clear Round Jumping is very popular and the Terrier Racing had some hilarious competition. Burgh Beautiful was extremely grateful to the 20 local businesses who helped with very generous sponsorship of the classes and also to Historic Scotland and the Peel Ranger Service which hosted and part-sponsored the event. Historic Scotland used the opportunity to promote the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and sponsored a school poster competition on the theme ‘Dogs in the Countryside’. Also giving valued assistance were a good number of local Air Cadets (439 Linlithgow ATC) who helped in many ways including the erection of tents and marquees. Other features included a children’s story-telling tent, a tot’s play tent, dog behaviour sessions and face painting. Most of the funds for Burgh Beautiful were raised from an impressive tombola (with 274 prizes donated by individual Burgh Beautiful supporters) and a raffle (with prizes given by local businesses and other well-wishers). As well as dog class entry fees, the campaign benefited from ‘splat the rat’, ‘guess the dog’s birthday’ and a treasure hunt and quiz. After expenses, a total of £903.92 was collected, a considerable advance on previous years. Thanks go to Kirsty Leonard, Eileen Murray and Sheila Ashby for general organisation of the event and particularly to Liz Burrows for all her hard work on the tombola and raffle.
- Plant Sale
Efficiently organised by Chantal Hamill, Burgh Beautiful’s annual plant sale was held this year on 29 May and, located at its usual prime position at The Cross, was again successful in raising funds and raising the profile of Burgh Beautiful. A worthwhile net sum of £445.57 was realised.
- Community Planting Event
Burgh Beautiful has this year promoted the first in a programme of community planting events with the aim of local residents adopting an area to plant and maintain. The bed to be planted was kindly de-turfed by the Council in early April, and some basic permanent planting was undertaken by Burgh Beautiful. The community planting event, which took place on 5 June 2010, was publicised in advance by a leaflet drop to all 135 houses in the target area of Deanburn Road and Deanburn Park. The event on the day was most successful, with 11 people attending to plant their contribution of annual plants and most signing up to maintain and extend the bed in future years. Donaldson’s School was also involved and Tony Oxbow is thanked for all the time and effort he has devoted to this project. We hope to promote similar events elsewhere in the town over the coming years.
Over the next month or so, Burgh Beautiful will be focussing on the judging of the town by Beautiful Scotland in early August. A detailed Judges’ Portfolio has been prepared and submitted to Beautiful Scotland – this also functions not only as a review of the activities of Burgh Beautiful, but also as a record of what is being done by everyone concerned with the environment and heritage of our town.
Please do all you can to ensure that Linlithgow looks good, particularly during the first fortnight in August!
Looking beyond that, Burgh Beautiful’s programme of activities will continue as follows, further details being made available in due course:
- Saturday, 2 October 2010 – Local litter pick.
- Thursday, 7 October 2010 – Special 2011 Planting Meeting.
- Mid-November – Making and hanging of holly balls.
- Saturday, 27 November 2010 – Advent Fair – Fund raising stalls and raffle.
- Early December 2010 – Annual review and social event.
As always, Burgh Beautiful seeks new volunteers and new ideas for improving the town. If you are tempted to lend a hand, why not contact me, Chris Long or anyone else involved?
Ron Smith
Chairman, Burgh Beautiful
12 March 2010
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