22nd February 2024
Play Area grant application now under consideration
GOOD things come to those who wait… is a popular saying, often attributed to the 16th president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln (although, in fact, some historians say it really is part of an early 16th Century proverb).
But whatever its roots, it certainly is a pretty accurate summing-up of the position in which the Parish of Morval now finds itself in relation to the long-awaited children’s play area.
More recent history reveals that the play area would probably have been up and running by now if the developers of the Farriers Way housing estate had not ceased trading.
Since then Morval Parish Council has taken up the baton.
An 800-sq.m area of land at Farriers Way, Widegates (virtually opposite the Morview Road estate entrance) has been identified; a lease prepared with the Harding family to ensure it can be used for everyone’s enjoyment and, most importantly, an application has been made for a £200,000 slice of the Government’s £7.6-million Community ‘Levelling Up’ Fund so that the dream can become a reality.
The paperwork has been completed. Now the wait begins…
During the public participation segment of the last Parish Council meeting, Widegates resident Steve Murdoch asked for an update.
He said that Richard Liddle, who had been assisting the council with playground matters but who was unable to attend the meeting, was keen to know the latest position regarding the lease, the grant application and soil availability and testing.
Cllr Toni Paterson said that Mr Liddle had also contacted her on the matter and Parish Council chairman Cllr Andy Jackson said he, too, had been in discussions with Mr Liddle.
“As I have pointed out to Mr Liddle, we can only go at the speed Cornwall Council (the body currently overseeing the grants process) wants to go,” he said.
“It’s as frustrating for us as for the many people with children. Be under no illusions that we are not trying, but we often hit a wall.”
Parish Council clerk Sam Pengelly was a tad more positive. She confirmed that the grant application had been lodged, although she warned that part of the grant conditions insisted no works could be carried out on the site beforehand, or they might forfeit all hopes of any funding.
She understood that the grant application now faced a couple of review stages but was upbeat in that a decision could be known in about six weeks’ time and, without hopefully sounding too optimistic, she said that she would like to think the play park project could be confirmed by the end of the year.
As regards to signing the lease on the land, the clerk also reported that she was still still to hear back from the Harding family’s solicitors.
So, while the waiting goes on, the whole of Morval Parish can only hope that good things are, indeed, on the horizon.
Because, to paraphrase Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan-American novelist and ambassador for the United Nations’ Refugee Agency: “Of all the hardships a person has to face, none is more punishing than the simple act of waiting…”
