This letter has been written to bring our neighbours up to date with the club’s activities so far and to explain our plans for the future.
As you know, the realisation of the club’s plans began with the clearance of the land which, though quick and effective thanks to the council was perhaps over zealous and resulted in more trees than necessary being removed – one of which was a Rowan – a great pity. We then cleared 100 black sacks of rubbish, roots, stones ect. It is our intention to landscape the area you can see images on our web-site www.sailporty.org.uk which show our plans for planting in the autumn when seasonal conditions are best. This may be extended to an area adjacent to the gable end of Beach View affording privacy to residents but maintaining access for window cleaning.
The installation of the fence seems also to have been mostly successful and we have received many compliments from people who seem pleased with its overall look, its relative modesty and its transparency. We managed to successfully resist the demands of the council who wanted it to be a traditional wrought iron construction which, in our opinion, being black and eight feet tall would have been a real eye-sore and inappropriate for the location.
It was as a consequence of having installed the fence that we were able to host the RYA’s Sailing in the City travelling sailing school for which we recruited nearly 150 children to participate during the past weekends. The consensus is that this was a great success and nearly all have put their names down for further courses later in the year.
However we have a way to go before we can run sailing courses ourselves. We need to finish the fencing and then start acquiring the necessary equipment that a sailing club needs.
We will, for example need a rescue boat in the shape of a ‘RIB’ with an outboard motor. Without this we cannot operate safely as a club and are hoping that grant funding will allow us to buy one before too long. We will also need to erect a shed to keep this secure and we shall shortly be applying for planning consent to build a green metal garage type/shed which we have carefully located in a position which should avoid restricting anybody’s views. The shed will also double up as a changing facility to allow sailors changing out of wet-suits some privacy. We may also install a shower and WC. We are obliged to achieve planning permission for this so you will receive the neighbourhood notifications before long. Please do not regard this as the ‘thin end of the wedge’. We have no intention of eventually building some grand edifice– we just need a secure place to keep a rescue boat and a place for people to change.
Click on images to enlarge.
Following that, not much more will happen apart from the gradual arrival of boats and kayaks as people who own boats bring them for storage and the club acquires its own (modest) fleet. In the summer we will run more of these events for children and when we can, we will run courses for adults as well.
It is our intention to be good neighbours. We will have a noise policy which will restrict access to the site between certain hours, and which will also warn against the frapping halyards which some people like but drives others to distraction. This is totally avoidable – it just requires good house-keeping on the part of boat owners.
If you wish to communicate with us about any of the above please email info@sailporty.org.uk.
Kind regards . The Committee
