The Friends of Foots Cray Meadows is a group made up of enthusiastic local members of the public who are also all regular users of the Meadows.

Our aims are:

a) Working in partnership with Bexley Council to encourage public interest in, and the conservation of, Foots Cray Meadows (FCM);

b) To protect the wildlife and its habitat within FCM;

c) To provide a focus for involvement by the Community and users in the open space to volunteer and work with the Council, in the conservation of FCM and its development as a public open space;

d) To advance the public’s awareness of the open space by promoting FCM, its plants, wildlife, landscape, sustainability and supporting appropriate recreational facilities for the benefit of community groups and the general public;

e) To develop and deliver information, interpretive material and educational opportunities for FCM; and

f) To raise funds for the purposes of achieving the above aims.

FFCM Chairs Report AGM 2009
I intend this to be the main report for this evening. This is the third AGM of the group. The Friends have during the last year continued working to develop and deliver the aims and the objectives of the group. I will divide this into two categories each with a number of themes.

1 - FFCM Activities
Events led by Margaret our events manager we have continued with a programme of events designed to bring members and visitors onto the meadows. These included a River Walk, Bat Walk Winter and bluebell walk. Last month our annual indoor event was a very well received talk by local historians Katharine Harding & Denise Baldwin on the history of Foots Cray and the River Cray
New to last year was the introduction of Work days – actually getting ourselves dirty getting involved with the physical aspects of managing the meadows The first was in June with some clearance work around and on the footbridge across the wet meadow section, In the autumn we worked at the tree nursery at the allotments this was followed by an immensely successful Tree Planting Day when despite the very heavy ground many people turned up in the |January sunshine to plant hundreds of little whips to form a screen against the industrial estate. A similar programme is planned for this summer and autumn. All this was in partnership with the councils Park’s & Open Space Team
The Friends have built on our initial contact with the North Cray Children’s Centre with Gill and John Burgees committed to both the Friends and the Children’s Centre they have introduced wildlife related activities for young children from the centre here at this site. A number of successful days were held last summer repeated this Easter and planned again for this coming summer.
We have continued to use this building as a base or the group. We continue to work to the objective of it being a centre for information about the wildlife of the Meadows the history and management of the area, continues but has not progressed as well as intended. Crucial to this function is the introduction of the display panels these have been composed and are now at the production stage. The W&IC ‘sub group’ through Lesley & Nick Grant has continued to work with Mark Taylor of Bexley council and our commissioned Artist Barry Small to devise appropriate and effective wildlife panels.
Recognition in the potential for the W&IC comes with the receipt of an ‘Awards for All’ grant in the sum of £2,575 for equipment for the centre. This and the continued investment of resources by Bexley Council in this project despite the delay bodes well for the future. The next stage, delivering an operational W&IC will be a formidable challenge for the Friends which will require the support of our members.

2 - FFCM Group Management
The Friends like any such organisation needs some basic group management, this is the second category.
Membership, managing membership, retaining our members updating contact lists is fundamental to the Friends prospering. Likewise there is a financial aspect to running any group, income from membership and donations enables us to exist as an independent group with membership to the Bexley Voluntary Services Council and maintain a website. Also we hire suitable venues and specialist speakers for some of our talks. With the receipt of a grant from Awards for All and our aspiration to seek more independent funding the integrity of our accounts must unquestionable. All of which needs to be supported by the secretariat function.
Contact & Engagement: The group needs to maintain contact with our members and again this year we have produced the two scheduled Newsletters in October and April. I trust you have enjoyed these publications.
We have despite the cost retained our website, and group email address, we are grateful for Paul Trethewey’s continuing contribution managing the website. We are frustrated with the under using these facilities especially against the success of the Friends contact with members via email. We need to look at ways of reducing the cost of whilst retaining a website.
We were at Bexley’s Danson Park Festival last year as part of our engagement programme with communities and other groups. To publicise our events we have secured local press coverage and we find the traditional poster in the notice boards advertising our events works.
Conclusion Although a volunteer group there is of course room for improvement, engagement with the many other groups who use or work on the Meadows. Promoting the Website and general publicity, securing further independent funding for sustainable biodiversity projects on the meadows for instance the area here beside the Centre is available for development into a natural habitat. Early ideas involve inviting local junior schools to assist with the design.
That said following on from the initial burst and euphoria of forming The Friends of Foots Cray Meadows this last year has been one of successful consolidation of the group with a solid membership of around fifty five households’ who have been members since our conception. Such success requires hard work and I would like to bring my report to a close with a few mentions and thanks:
The Parks and Open Space Team of Bexley Council have continued to invest time for the Meadows and the Friends; these are Mark Taylor as our Liaison point but those on the ground such as John Codling Richard Vero and their bosses. I am especially grateful for this department’s willingness to embrace the concept of our ‘work days’. Here it is appropriate to give special Thanks to Sid Wilkinson who as well as one of the parks team; he as a local lad has a special affiliation for these Meadows. He also gives his own time for the Meadows and the Friends. He has for us led a number of seasonal walks this year. May I remind us all that they do have the whole of Bexley’s open spaces to look after.
Thanks also to Ashe Hurst for his river walk, I of Bromley Bats Society for the Bat Walk, Katharine and Denise for the history talk.
All this would not have happened without the committee I have more or less detailed their work which they do on top of their normal working day and family commitments’ My thanks to Karen Wheeler Secretary, Margaret Dodd Events, Gill Burgees Treasurer, John Burgees Membership Secretary, Paul Trethewey Website Manager, Nick Grant Newsletter Editor, Lesley Grant, Vera Heath and Shirley McKeon Committee members. New committee members are most welcome with opportunities to represent the Friends on conservation and publicity.
We as a committee would probably be less enthusiastic without the foundation of our membership base and your attendance and support today. I believe The Friends are now well placed not only to continue; but to ‘raise the bar’ and deliver our aims and objectives with proportional aspirations to encourage projects and activities for of the Meadows by working in partnership for responsible use and enjoyment.
Ultimately having the Natural Beauty and biodiversity of Foots Cray Meadows in the midst of our neighbourhood accessible to everyone has to be the great driver for us all here this evening.
That concludes my report; we have an opportunity to discuss the topics raised later, unless there are any pressing questions before we move on to the next section of the AGM.
Thank You,
Michael Heath