HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
November and December was really busy at Saughton Park with lots of great things happening and January promises to be the same with loads of exciting things coming! It is finally here, the year we start the restoration work, read more about that on our Projects Page
Friends of Saughton Park
The FoSP AGM held in November was very well attended and as usual this was a great mix of the fun and the formal. The existing committee was unanimously re-elected and one new committee member was welcomed to the team. The year ahead was planned and everyone was very excited about the restoration works starting in the summer.
The FoSP Christmas Event was a great success with around 100 people coming along to the Winter Garden to join in with the festivities. There was a plant sale, wreath making, pop-up café with scrummy home baking and a raffle with some super prizes. In total the FoSP made £349.30 on the day. A happy FoSP chairperson Shona Nelson said “Great work and thanks to everyone.
It was great to finish off the FoSP year on a high!”
A look back at a great 2016 in numbers
¨ £3,799,100 HLF grant funding awarded in January
¨ £22,585 Sustrans grant awarded in August
¨ 3400 metres of existing and new paths planned
¨ 5000 new roses needed
¨ 30 cherry tree trunks converted to useful planks by Garvald
¨ 17 new and refurbished toilets in the plan
¨ 1 original Saughton bandstand found, surveyed and assessed for reinstatement
¨ 100 events hosted in the park
¨ 6337 people attended events in the park in 2016
¨ 50 people carved 12 letters in sandstone with sculptor Gardner Molloy
¨ 919 is the number of hours that our wonderful volunteers hours given to the park and £137,850 is that financial value to the project
¨ 50 oral history stories recorded
¨ 100 people went on a ghost walk
¨ 500 hunted bears
¨ 26 poems and creative stories written by six Diageo staff on a 7 month Creative Writing Challenge
¨ Umpteen hours spent pouring over plans
¨ 2 project team members working hard with 11 steering group members keeping them in check and 6 board members overseeing the project
¨ 1 project dog called Missy was joined by another called Badger for a meeting
¨ 7 foxes seen, 5 otters recorded and 4 kingfishers fishing
¨ 1800 grammes of wildflower seeds sown
¨ 25 Christmas Wreaths made
¨ 743 Cakes consumed
¨ And finally 37 packets of plain chocolate digestive biscuits munched!
What a year!!