At February’s Parish Council meeting members from the council's leisure committee reported back on several key issues and several decisions were taken by Councillors.
Fair in the Square 2025
The difficult decision was taken to not hold “Fair in the Square” this year due to the significantly increased costs and the financial performance of the event in recent years. “Fair in the Square” as it’s now known, first started in 2002 and has been an annual event since then. However the increasing cost of hiring the fairground equipment, coupled with decreasing attendance and ticket sales have meant the event has failed to break even for several years. We are aware that Fairford Leys as a community is changing and from the most recent census (2021) we can see that the proportion of younger children (0-14) has reduced, while the proportion of older teenagers and adults has increased, so this may explain the decline in popularlity of this event. For 2025 the proposed cost of hiring equipment has risen even further which has forced us to take this decision. The Parish Council has resolved to look into the possibility of holding an alternative event this year and will be meeting to discuss that soon.
Saunders Place Play Park refurbishment
The parish council approved plans to refurbish the play park found adjacent to Saunders Place/Jeffery Walk. The parish council has been allocated some funds from Section 106 funding which must be exclusively spent on leisure facilities. The funding is quite small so the leisure committee investigated what could be done to improve one of our smaller parks. The refurbished Saunders Place Play Park will be a place for small children to play on a new soft surface with painted activities (such as road markings, hopscotch etc) and for parents to exercise with exercise bikes and cross trainers whilst keeping an eye on the little ones. The plans will now be developed further to such a point when a build plan can be made. We expect progress at the play park to begin in the summer.