The Annual Friends meeting was held at 6pm on Monday 17th March 2025 at the Visitor centre in Denham. This was a fun meeting to attend as the main purpose was a celebration to say thank you!
Glenys Price stepped down from her role as the Friends representative on the Colne Valley Park Trust. She has provided the conduit between the “Friends” (all the individuals that support the Colne Valley Regional Park by becoming members) for many years and it was a pleasure to see their appreciation as she was presented with flowers and a framed montage of her favourite places in the Park. Glenys will also be retiring from her role as Vice Chair of the Trust.
John Whitby is stepping down from his role as Chairman of the Colne Valley Park Trust and the Friends showed their appreciation for his hard work in steering the Trust and working to preserve the Colne Valley Regional Park by presenting him with an impressive Fruit cake (suitably decorated with a heron) and a framed montage of the Park through the seasons.
John will be staying on as a Trustee and the new Chair and Vice Chair will be announced at the next Trustees meeting. The Friends voted Debbie Valman as their representative to replace Glenys.
The meeting went on to hear about the campaign to protect the Colne Valley Regional Park and heard about how valuable their membership of the Friends is for a host of reasons: the Value of Being a Friend.
Everyone enjoyed a cup of tea and a piece of the excellent cake. Many thanks to Paul Graham and his wife Jane for organising these gifts and to everyone who contributed.
Scroll down for more details of the meeting.
Membership and Local Groups under the Friends Umbrella
Paul Graham, reported that membership of the Friends of the CVP continues at a healthy level, as do the subscriptions and donations – they are much appreciated.
There are two Local Groups that come under the Friends, one is the Friends Of Denham Woods (Northmoor, Wyatts, Caps and Halings) and many of them join volunteer working parties to help maintain the woods. The other is the Iver and District Countryside Association. It was founded in 1973 and carries out practical work to maintain the footpaths and countryside around Iver and area. Part of the subscriptions and donations of Friends who live in the area goes towards the costs of carrying out this work. Find out more about these local groups.
A new representative for the Friends
Debbie Valman volunteered to be the new nominee to act as friends’ representative on the Colne Valley Park Trust, Deborah Valman has put herself forward for consideration to act as Friends Representative. You may know Debbie in that she has worked for Groundwork for the last 14+ years and is now about to take (well-earned) retirement. Most of her time at Groundwork has been spent in the Colne Valley Park team leaving a legacy of projects that have enhanced the Park and she would like to continue to add to that legacy. She has lived in Ickenham all her life and comes from local ‘stock’ –approx. 100 years ago her grandfather worked in the gravel quarries that have since become the attractive lakes that make up the core of the Colne Valley Regional Park. Debbie’s nomination was unanimously endorsed by those present at the meeting. This will be put to the next Trust board meeting for approval.
An Update on some of the work going on in the Colne Valley Regional Park Team
The meeting included updates in the form of presentations from
Michelle Jones, Landscape Recovery Manager at Groundwork South on landscape recovery projects.
Stewart Pomeroy, Colne Valley Managing Agent who talked about the many recent development proposals which are mainly infrastructure schemes (rather than housing).
You will find further reading here
Your Countryside in Crisis – a call for action!
Let’s create the best green corridor around any city in Europe
And Debbie Valman, program manager on the Colne Valley Park Team at Groundwork South, who talked about the Friends and their importance.
Become a Friend of the Colne Valley Park
Have you enjoyed your time in the Colne Valley Regional Park recently? Would you like to help protect and enhance this special region, and get to know your local countryside more?
Find out how you can, by becoming a Colne Valley Park Friend.
