Friday 7th August started early with a 7.30 visit from Wally Webb (BBC Radio Norfolk), an 8.30 interview on Radio North Norfolk, and some final preparations.

Tony Knight kicked off the formal opening at 10.15, with Tom Fitzpatrick (Leader on North Norfolk District Council and John Rest (also from NNDC) saying a few words. Emma Dale finished off the speaches before Jack formally announced the cafe open and cut the Ribbon.

Please send us any pictures you have of the opening day and we’ll add the best ones to the gallery.

North Lodge Park Cafe

Crepes and Cakes to open 10am 7th August 2015

There is only one word for how you have responded to our call for help in getting the cafe open: amazing.

You have responded with enthusiasm and energy – both the local community and visitors, many of whom come regularly to Cromer and North Lodge Park.

The number of you who have donated the contents of your cupboards (and dining rooms) shows your passion for the Park.

After an unbelievable week your cafe in North Lodge Park will open this FRIDAY 7th AUGUST at 10am and then daily from 10am (we’ll probably shut Monday’s for a breather!)

To manage the opening on Friday (we’ll ‘cut the ribbon’ at 10.15), for the first hour we will not be serving the usual fare, but will serve opening drinks and samplers outside, with the cafe opening at 11am.

Whilst the cafe has been overhauled ready for the opening, we still need to establish some of the working processes so please be gentle!

Many of you have offered to bake for the opening – many many thanks; please can you let us know tomorrow what you are baking, and deliver your cakes, labelled, as early as possible.It would be very helpful if some of you could bake your cake(s) not for Friday but for either Saturday or Sunday to help us cover this first weekend.

We need to establish longer term plans for baking. Those of you who would like to become part of the baking team (we will pay for all ingredients), please let us know so we can establish a proper system that conforms to the regulations within which we need to operate, and maintain appropriate supplies to the cafe. Whilst this has to be a fun project for us all, it needs to be fit and proper.

If all goes well over the coming weeks, we will establish proper commercial systems to reward our baking team. Let’s get the cafe open and the summer rush behind us to give us some space to think.

Many of you have offered to help by working in the cafe, again we need to establish a proper process (and rota), for this and ensure you are all upto speed with the regulations and processes. We have some of your names already, we need to formalise this quickly to ensure you all know what you are doing when. Please come and talk to us as soon as you can.

In some ways the excitement of the last week will, in hindsight, be the easy part – we now need your help to keep your cafe open for the next 4 months (the length of our current licence) and hopefully beyond. As well as your custom (I’m sure the Crepes and Cakes will keep you coming) we will need your ongoing help running the cafe – you wanted the cafe, we now need your help to keep it.

We are discussing with NNDC parts of the Park for us to manage – we are already giving the once over to the gardens around the cafe, we will need your help (and donations of good useable gardening tools) on this as well. This week we are focussing on the cafe and this has shown what a positive change you can make.

Hope to see you soon.

Barry Meadows

Thanks to your amazing generosity the cupboards are now full of cutlery and crockery so please before bringing any more please check with us to make sure – just email us on friends@northlodgepark.org.uk and we’ll let you know.

 

Many thanks

 

Barry Meadows

To improve the environment around the Cafe in the Park, every evening this week from 6.30 there will be a volunteer gardening team beavering away,  Weeding, deadheading, pruning and general tidying – the more people who come to help the better so put on your gardening gloves, bring your tools and dig in.

It is only 4 days since we were given the licence for the Cafe in North Lodge Park by NNDC and the transformation is amazing, as is the support from you all.  It is definitely your cafe.

The cafe will be serving  ‘crepes and cakes’, keeping it simple.

The number of people that have been to help, brought in their spare cutlery and crockery, tables and chairs just proves the passion you have for getting the cafe back up and running.

And then Shane Scarff, family and friends turned up to give the hedges at ‘our end’ of the Park a haircut – just another amazing transformation (they certainly put Kier to shame with their efforts here and elsewhere across Cromer).

We’re on target for opening on Friday – still lots to do getting ready, and lots of things needed to equip the cafe – such as a small chest freezer – ice creams are bound to be a hit over the summer so we need to be able to keep them cold!

 

I think it’s time to think about the publicity…

 

See you soon.

 

Thank-you for the help, offers of support and donations of equipment for the cafe.

Today the team worked like billy-o: the inside was given a bright new look; the kitchen area thoroughly cleaned and painted; the outside rubbed down, filled, repaired, primed and undercoated.

There are too many names to thank individually – you know who you are so THANKS.  And they say you can never find a plumber when you need one – it’s not true Dwaine (wrightpandhltd.co.uk) heard via the facebook grapevine what we were doing and gave us half a day of his valuable time.

Tom Fitzpatrick from NNDC came to offer his support and pose for the photograph when the EDP team came (they didn’t do any painting).

We made lots of new friends and are well on target to open on Friday.

We still need help to get ready so if you have time do come down to the cafe on Sunday or Monday; and we still need lots of equipment for the cafe so please keep thinking about what you have spare.

Hope to see you soon

Another twist in the saga

To be honest the twists in the saga of North Lodge Park this week caught us all by surprise, but we hope this marks the start of a positive phase for the Park after the frustrations of the past months.

For those of you who didn’t hear this week’s news: North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) kept strictly to their published deadline for the transfer, and as the Town Council hadn’t completed the transfer by 21st July the project was stopped.  We understand this means that Cromer Town Council will not be taking ownership of the Park.

At this moment we don’t really know what this means for the Park, but hope to get some clarity on the situation over the coming days.   We can’t even begin to speculate on what will happen next, we hope NNDC take account of the community view and that they will be prepared to work with us positively.  I’d like to say watch this space, but I’m not sure it’s worth watching at the moment.

OK, watch this space.

Barry Meadows
(Confused and bewildered) secretary Friends of North Lodge Park

Blame game under way as Cromer North Lodge Park deal collapses

From the EDP 23/7/2015

In a surreal twist to a tale of two councils and a prime north Norfolk leisure asset, one voted last night in favour of a deal the other had called off earlier in the day.

Cromer Town Council went ahead with its pre-arranged special meeting yesterday evening and decided it did want to sign paperwork and become the new owner of the clifftop North Lodge Park.

But park owners North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) had announced in the morning that, because the town council had not met an agreed absolute deadline of July 21, the transfer of ownership was off.

However Cromer mayor Tim Adams said no-one from NNDC had contacted the town council directly with that message, and they were therefore going ahead as if nothing had happened.

Each council blames the other for the collapse, which follows two years of negotiations

But news of NNDC’s move has been whole-heartedly welcomed by Tony Knight, chairman of the Friends of North Lodge Park.

“I’m delighted that something is actually finished – at least a decision has been made after all this time,” said Mr Knight.

He is looking forward to talking to NNDC about possibly forming a trust, including Friends members, to run the park.

“We’ve got a lot of people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work with whoever owns the park,” he added.

“A trust would be the ideal situation. It would mean that the council gave a budget for the park and it was managed by the trust.”

Mr FitzPatrick said the council had originally considered transferring the park to a trust and would now look again at the idea, along with other possibilities.

The district council had hoped to conclude the town council deal, which would have included a £150,000 “dowry” to help the initiative get off the ground, in April 2014.

When that deadline was missed, the district council had continued negotiations. At the end of June the town council had agreed to an absolute deadline of July 21.

But Mr FitzPatrick said the town council’s solicitors had asked for changes to the agreement late on July 15.

“These had been agreed, but they had then wanted to make other alterations.

“I think we have been more than reasonable but we have to regard the greater interests of the district,” he said.

Mr Adams said it was the district council which had wanted to make last minute changes, to gain access rights over the park for any erosion repairs.

Final paperwork had not been received by the town council from the district’s solicitors until July 16 and the town council had been legally obliged to give its members four clear working days’ notice of a meeting, which meant it had to be July 22.

It had therefore asked the district for a two-day deadline delay but had received no response.

“This process has been scuppered and it’s inexcusable,” said Mr Adams.

He said the town council would publish a chronological list of its dealings with NNDC over the matter, to prove its case.

From the EDP 23/7/2015

CTC have called an extra full council meeting for this Wednesday 22 July 2015 (cromertown.org) “to agree to sign paperwork for the transfer of North Lodge Park”; so without any last minute hitches by Thursday the park will be under the management of Cromer Town Council (two days after the immovable deadline given by NNDC!)

At the CTC full council meeting on the 6th July (cromertown.org): “Members considered the questions raised by the Friends of North Lodge Park at the last meeting and it was AGREED that the Clerk and Cllr. Harris will draft a reply. ”

We can only assume that the issues we raised have been taken into account by the council in the decisions they have made in taking on the Park, but to date we have not received the agreed response, nor have we had any indication about the recommendations we made at the end of April, and whether any of these have been considered in the decisions being made.

After careful consideration, it has been decided to continue taking a back seat and not going to the meeting Wednesday; there is little point of us reminding CTC of our concerns.

The Friends have not been part of any discussions, nor any planning for the start of ownership, and we do not know what part of the future CTC want the Friends to play in the Park.