On a mild Saturday morning back in February 40 people came along to St Andrews Church on Beechwood Road to talk about current issues in their area. From the conversation a number of issues were raised about Beechwood Park and the surrounding streets, including:

• Speeding traffic on Shay Lane, Beechwood Road, Watkinson Road
• Parking around Moorside school
• Litter and rubbish being dumped in the in the area, and people using the compost site at the park for general rubbish
• Damaged footbridges in the park
• A lack of dog poo bins
• Poor street lighting on Beechwood Drive/Park car park
• Suspected drug dealing in the Beechwood Drive car park

Fortunately it’s not all bad news because on Tuesday 29 March, 20 local residents attended a meeting to discuss forming a Friends of Beechwood Park group and taking matters into their own hands to keep Beechwood Park one of the nicest parks in Calderdale.

And Calderdale Council’s Safer Cleaner Greener Team have been out and removed the reported rubbish, PC Dave Illingworth has conducted a speed check on Beechwood Road and Tony King from the Ovenden Initiative spoke to Trinity Academy about their pupils dropping litter on the way to school.

As a result there are a number of events coming up over the next 6 months that you too can get involved in:

• Wednesday 13 April, 10am – Park Clean-Up with Moorside School Junior Wardens
• Saturday 23 April at 10am – Park Walkabout with the Friends of Beechwood Park
• Tuesday 31 May at 6.30pm – Friends of Beechwood Park Meeting at St Andrews Church, Beechwood Road
• Wednesday 13 July at 10am  – Park Clean-Up with Trinity Academy students
• Wednesday 12 October at 10am – Park Clean-Up with Trinity Academy students

Anyone is welcome to join in these events. For clean-ups – litter pickers and bags will be provided but please remember to wear strong shoes and bring protective gloves.

In the meantime, please continue to report dumped rubbish, litter and dog fouling to Calderdale Council. You can do this online here, or ring the Customer First Contact Centre on 01422 288002

For suspected drug dealing please try to record any times/descriptions of vehicles/persons and ring the information through to West Yorkshire Police on 101.