Well, this isn’t quite the summer we had planned. All our planned events this summer, including our Summer Series, Family Fun Run, Big Butterfly Count and British Spring Clean Litter Pick have had to be cancelled. It has been a big disappointment for us, especially after our successful quiz evening in February. However, these unfortunate events have given many people the opportunity to spend much more time than usual in the park and shown the importance of local open spaces in our community.

Ashford Borough Council has now appointed the project team for the project in the park, and whilst not much is able to happen in the park at the current time, they are working hard to bring plans up to date and plan future events. One of the biggest events in the park each year is Create, and this year would have been the 25^th anniversary of Create. Due to the restrictions on mass events in the park, Create is unable to happen in its normal format this year. However, the team from ABC are currently working with Animate Arts to put together a Create Festival at Home offering, with  exciting playlist from local bands,  and a youth takeover of the Council’s Victoria Park Social media pages. Watch out for links from our Facebook page.

We are also starting to plan for the future and looking at what we can do either as online or socially distanced events. We will be sharing links to the Big Butterfly Count website, so that you can join in with the national event whilst social distancing, and will provide opportunities to share your photographs of the amazing butterflies in the park on our facebook page.

We are looking to increase our core team, so that we can create more diverse and resilient events in the future. If you would be interested in joining the committee, or helping with planning events, please contact us.

We will be holding our next general meeting via zoom on 22^nd July. Please see the separate announcement for details.