Dear Friend,

The Friends of Hillside Gardens and the London Borough of Lambeth have been working in partnership with Turkington Martin Landscape Architects to develop a masterplan to direct investment of £500k into the redevelopment of Hillside Gardens. The funds have come from local s106 developer contribution agreements.

The proposed investment will:
 Enhance accessibility throughout the park with improved footways;
 Refurbish the childrens’ play area;
 Improve surfacing and boundary fencing of tennis and multi-use games areas;
 New furniture and signage throughout;
 New static fitness equipment for adults and older children;
 Planting and soft landscaping.

The proposed masterplan has been informed by a working group of Friends and an
an extensive survey of park users undertaken by the Friends during the summer of 2019.
Feedback from the survey has been incorporated into the final design. You can view the
proposed masterplan design on the park notice boards or on the Friends of Hillside Gardens and council websites.
Play area
It was agreed during the master planning process that the childrens’ play area needed
investment to enhance this already well designed and popular facility. The project team
appointed Kompan to develop a proposal.
The proposed design retains key pieces of equipment including the large climbing unit and
bank slide. The proposal includes improving the safety surfacing throughout and replacing
old features with new enhanced equipment with higher play value.
The draft plans can be viewed on notice boards in the park or online at
http://www.hillsidegardenspark.co.uk/blog
Your comments are invited on the children’s play area and the wider masterplan proposals.
Works are expected to commence on the refurbishment of the footways in the park at
the end January 2020 and are expected to take 1 month.
Playground works are programmed to start in early March with completion in the Spring.
Improvements to the court boundary fencing and surfaces will be undertaken on a phased
basis after April 2020.
Please forward any comments or questions you have to Rob Kelly, Lambeth Project
Manager on rkelly2@lambeth.gov.uk by the 3

rd of February 2020.

We look forward to hearing your feedback.
Tom Stanbury
Chair
Friends of Hillside Gardens and Palace Road Nature Gardens

Kyle Moreland (07341 382 819) has volunteered to act as the local beekeeper and will be organising a new hive; hopefully in the spring when the swarms start to show. Contact Kyle if you wish to learn more, want to get involved, or if you have something to report.

Kyle writes “We plan to install a hive or two in the allotment area of our wonderful park. The London Beekeepers Association (lbka.org.uk) is a very helpful and active organisation and has members all over London. They are a very useful source of information and support regarding urban beekeeping. For example, did you know that bees will venture as far as 3 miles from the hive in search of pollen or nectar? Last year was a particularly bad year for a disease called European (or American) Brood Disease, and the LBKA maintain a ‘hotspot map’ of London for where this has occurred. Fortunately, Streatham is not considered a ‘hotspot’ so any bees from our area a considered valuable for increasing the overall London bee population.

The LBKA also operate a Swarm WhatsApp group, and will collect ‘wild’ swarms which can then be properly quarantined (if necessary) and reintroduced to a hive. So if you do see a swarm, call the LBKA or Kyle Moreland (07341 382 819) and we can safely remove it.

It would also help if the use of pesticides was kept to a minimum in the allotment; and the park in general. If any large scale spraying is planned, please contact Kyle and he can close up the hive beforehand.

Many of you will be aware of the press reports of the declining bee population. Bees are a great benefit to the whole urban ecosystem and we hope to get a thriving colony on the allotment this spring.

Hope this helps, thanks Kyle”

Dear friend,