Recreation and Amenities

Councillors appointed to this committee are:

Ms J Drummond, Mr J Forbes, Mr I O'Brien Baker, Mr R Staines, Mr E Thompson with Mr M Irwin as ex officio member.

The committee are responsible for dealing with ›footpaths, ›planting, ›The Common, ›The Picnic Site, Kronji's Piece, ›football pitches, › The Local Nature Reserve › land maintenance, ›bins, ›bus shelters, ›play spaces and bike trails › the Recreation Ground, and day to day operational matters for all these sites. 

We have a number of working groups who help us with these actvities and we are grateful to the volunteers who give their time freely to help on these groups. In order to get all the things done to the required standards we do employ contractors and as a result incur expenditure on behalf of the Council. The committee has a budget to manage and act on behalf of the Council to address issues affecting all recreational and amenity facilities in the Parish.

We have completed a tree audit of the trees on our land and have developed a programme to ensure they are inspected as appropriate in future.

We also have a team of volunteers regularly inspecting playspaces. Inspectors are trained and any parent or adult is welcome to join our inspection team. If you cannot volunteer but are concerned by something you believe is a fault or undue hazard then please do contact the Clerk so that we can address the issue.

All our play equipment and bike trails sites are also inspected annually, to provided us with an independent assessment of the areas.

Our Portal Woodlands Conservation group do excellent work to manage Portal Woodlands and they also work with young people to help them understand the wildlife we have in the area. They have two groups, one dealing with children aged 5-11 years and another dealing with those over 11. Further information is available on their website here.

We also work with Martlesham Heath Householders Ltd (MHHL) and assist by cutting The Green and the Football Pitch on the Western Corridore near Gorselands School. The nearby Centenary Playspace is provided and maintained by the Parish Council on MHHL land by agreement. Further details about MHHL can be found on http://martleshamheathhouseholdersltd.onesuffolk.net/

Last but not least, we work with the Pavilion Management committee to inspect and maintain the play equipment at the Harry Higgins play area. The Pavilion management committee manage the overall Pavilion site and further information is available at http://martlesham.org.uk/pavilion/