The following was received from the chair of the Friends of the Grove Park and is reproduced by his kind permission….

The Grove House Heritage Lottery Fund 2nd stage bid by the Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS) who hope to take it on when vacated by the Council. In the Autumn work got underway with local consultations and the appointment of a Bid Project Manager. The final HLF submission is expected in the late Spring. The Friends of the Grove (Park) have been supporting the bid throughout.

Grove Café has reopened. The new tenant Wayne Spiller currently runs his own Coffee & Sandwich Bar Sassis in North Street. The Café has been completely redecorated and has been opened since November.

The Demolition of the Wall in the Drive was opposed at the 2015 AGM, and planning application to carry this out was withdrawn. The tree behind the cracked wall section has been removed, and is hoped the wall can be stabilised and repaired in the cracked area rather than being demolished completely.

Bandstand in the Park. Although a number people had heard about the idea but it was not made public till October, at the Local Ward meeting where the Carshalton Village traders group gave some details and showed a picture of the type of bandstand being considered. Funding would be from a number sources. To date I am not aware of any formal proposal has been submitted to the Council.

Mill Lane Sports field, now forms part of the park after no longer being required by the Harris Academy. The south eastern side of the field forms an ancient boundary with the main park area, formed by the tree line, hedgerow and a ditch once forming a water channel. It is considered an ecologically important boundary forming the habitat for a variety of wildlife. After representation from a number of parks users about the heavy cutting back around this new park area I met with the leader of the council team carrying out the work and confirmed the old boundary line and the undergrowth would be preserved.