FRIENDS OF PRIORY PARK, WARWICK
OPEN MEETING 9th SEPTEMBER 2025
Attendees
Dave Skinner (Chair), Andy Stewart (Secretary), Mo Hooper, Johnathan Branson, Nic Ruch, Lesley Hall, Dulcie Mullis, Cheryl Thompson, Rob Eyre, Ewan Davies, Mary-Ann Baynes, Judith Christopherson, Hilary Budd
Apologies
Paul Gerrard, Peter Clemens, John Holland, Gayle Harris, Jo Birkbeck, Jane Sault(?), Robin Christopherson, Diane James, Richard Bainbridge
Welcomes
Dave welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for attending. He commented it was good it was to see some new faces at the meeting.
Chair’s Report
Dave then provided an update on actions from the previous Friends of Priory Park (FOPP) meeting which was held on 17th June 2025.
As agreed, Dave has removed the band from around the oak tree that was planted recently. There is some bramble encroachment around the oak and although this isn’t of concern at the moment, this bramble growth needs monitoring.
Although Dave has been reimbursed for obtaining this year’s insurance for the group, he still needs to request the corresponding sum from our Warwick Town Council (WTC) grant.
For the benefit of our newcomers, Dave then highlighted the wildflower meadow and mentioned the monthly survey of wild flowers in the wildflower meadow that Lesley has been performing. Lesley said that it has been a slightly disappointing year in terms of what has grown in the meadow and that was likely due to the wet start to the year and the excessively dry and hot summer. She also said that the Warwick District Council (WDC) Green Spaces team would need to cut the meadow during autumn and that it was possible that she would be looking for volunteers to help rake the cut material if the Green Spaces team didn’t do this. Dave has now uploaded to FOPP’s Facebook page the photographs of the various insects that can be found in the wildflower meadow. These photographs had previously been taken by a friend of Lesley’s
The bat walk which was held on the 30th August was a success with 23 people attending. It was commented that there didn’t seem to have been much publicity for this event but Dave answered that details of this event had been posted to both FOPP’s Facebook page and web site. It was queried whether a notice board at one of the entrances to the park would be useful and Dave answered that he agreed, but that funding for the type of board that WDC would permit has always been an issue to progressing this. Johnathan mentioned the QR codes located at various entrances to the park which when scanned will redirect to the FOPP website where details of forthcoming events are available. Donations were taken during the bat walk and Dave used some of these to reimburse Tricia Scott from the Warwickshire Bat Group who kindly organised the walk. After Tricia had been reimbursed, there were still £25 of donations remaining and Dave has paid these into the groups bank account using the ‘Donate’ button on the web site. Dave said that he would let the group’s treasurer, Trevor Day know that he has done this. As the bat walk was very successful it was agreed that we should look to try and organise another one in the future. The timing of a future walk would depend on when during the year it was held, as the best time for a bat walk is just as dusk is arriving.
In our the previous meeting, Robin Christopherson had queried whether any of the wood chips which would be produced from the planned maintenance work in the park could be used to improve the state of the path at the lower end of the park. Dave has mentioned this to Deb Merrick from the WDC Green Spaces team. However Deb didn’t think this approach would be of much use in improving the surface of the path. Ewan commented that if improvements were made to this path then this shouldn’t be by the use of tarmac and that there are suitable alternatives. Dave commented that due to the very hot and dry summer that the path was currently usable, but when wet and muddy it would revert to being very tricky to navigate. He also said that the last time an estimate was obtained for improving this path, the costs were approximately £60,000 with this estimate being obtained quite a few years ago. It was queried whether any funding could be obtained from local charities. The water that pools near the Coventry Road entrance was also mentioned and Ewan suggested that a stone soak-away drain would probably improve that area. For the benefit of the newcomers, Dave explained about large areas of the park being a Scheduled Ancient Monument with any improvements in these areas needing agreement from English Heritage before they could proceed. He also mentioned the park usage survey which is accessible from the FOPP web site.
Dave has had discussions with Deb Merrick about the maintenance work that is planned for the park. It was agreed that further wildflower areas would be of benefit to the park. Dave had previously suggested to Deb that a few of the self-sets in the long grass near St. John’s brook could be kept. Subsequent maintenance work in this area has left only a few of these self-sets. Half of all the long grass in the park is cut each year. Deb has suggested that the Green Spaces team will stop maintenance work on some of the area of long grass with the self-sets in it. It is possible that this lack of maintenance may encourage the growth of brambles in the unmaintained area and that this would need to be monitored.
Dave said that Deb will be able to obtain wildflower seeds for FOPP members to sow in the park. It was mentioned that the last seed sowing in the park was over ten years ago. To proceed with the sowing would require a working group to prepare the areas where sowing would take place as well as perform the actual sowing. Members of the group seemed keen on proceeding with this. It was queried when this activity would take place and Lesley commented that it would depend on what species were in the seed mixes as some species would be better sown in autumn time with other species preferring to be sown in spring time. Deb had said that her team would be doing some seeding themselves and this would include yellow rattle. She was also considering reseeding some of the areas at the edges of the cut grass with potential seeds including rosebay willow herb and campion.
The large fallen beech was mentioned. This is one of the two beeches that were known to be having problems. The second beech will need severe maintenance work such as crowning or reducing to a six metre snag, but the issue with this work is that because of the possible existence of badger sets near this area, the forestry team who would perform this work were not keen on bringing heavy equipment into this area. Johnathan said that if the second, still standing beech was reduced to a six metre snag then it could be a potential candidate for future tree carving. Dave said that any future carving work would have a cost associated with it, but also noted that several people on the bat walk were pleasantly surprised to come across previous carving work. It was explained that this previous carving work had been performed by Graham Jones, with the funding being obtained by the ARC CIC group. Johnathan wondered whether the current carvings in the park should be linked on a map and it was suggested that Lucie and Matt Cox may have already organised this.
The Pixie and Elf Doors trails that Johnathan had previously organised were mentioned and it was queried whether another Door trail should be organised this winter. Johnathan said that there were some issues with vandalism to the doors when he had organised the Pixie Door trail, but that had been mitigated for the Elf Door trail by hiding the doors more thoroughly. He also said that it a further Door trail were to be organised then as we’ve already had Pixie and Elf Door trails that a different theme would be needed. One suggestion was bunnies and it this were to be adopted, then the logical time for this Door trail would be Easter and also that if another trail were to be organised, then it would be a good idea to link it to the trail detailing the locations of the existing tree carvings.
Dave said that the Green Spaces team would be performing more maintenance work as previously planned, with the majority of this being at the top of the park near the County Record Office (CRO). Dave had also raised with Deb about the large area of brambles at the back of Truman Close in the Priory Pools area. Deb thought that this area was managed as had been planned, but that she would try and get some flail knock back in this area.
While discussing the Priory Pools area, Dave explained that although this area is outside the official Priory Park area, FOPP include care of this area in our remit, especially because of the areas historical significance. The Kingfisher mural in this area was highlighted and it is hoped that this mural will be kept in some way when the proposed Priory Pools Community Centre is constructed. Dave mentioned the murals by the railway tunnel entrance to the park and how they enhance that area. He also mentioned the finger post sign that has been installed in this area by WTC. These signs which have been installed across the district, are intended to be informative for both local residents and visitors to Warwick.
Johnathan queried whether any progress had been made towards improving the lighting in the tunnel under the railway. Although the previous lights had been replaced with energy efficient LED lights they aren’t very bright. In our previous meeting, John Holland had said that only Network Rail were allowed to perform any work in the tunnel and he was unsure whether there was any funding to improve the lighting in the tunnel. Dave said he would raise this again with John. Dave also mentioned the proposed speed calming measures on Priory Pools Path but that no progress had been made on this. Nic said he had spoken to John about this and John had said that the people within Warwick County Council who were going to progress this had been moved to different areas of the council.
Judith noted an issue that her husband Robin had encountered in the park. Robin is a guide dog user and guide dogs are trained to stay to the left of their owner. Although the dog will keep their owner away from ground level obstructions, this is not the case for hazards such as brambles encroaching at head height and Robin has ended up with quite a few scratches to his face when encountering brambles at head height in the park. It was then discussed whether members of the group are allowed to trim brambles and other sorts of obstructions. Dave answered that although we do have insurance to cover this type of work, under the terms of the insurance, a risk assessment would need to be completed before any such work could proceed.
Johnathan then raised the subject of an access audit for the park which has been discussed previously and kindly agreed to organise this. It was noted that access into the park was an issue for some users of the park with the entrances from Priory Road, the one near the new medical centre and the one coming up from Priory Pools Path being of particular concern, especially when conditions are wet. It had been queried previously whether a hand rail could be installed for the Priory Pools Path entrance as this is particularly steep. It was mentioned that when King’s High School was still located in the town centre, there were suggestions that the school would fund renovations of some of the access routes on the Priory Road side of the park as these were used as shortcuts by pupils of the school. However as the school has since relocated, they are no longer interested in progressing these improvements. Lesley mentioned the dilapidated sign at one of the Priory Road entrances and Dave said he would ask Deb Merrick whether anything could be done to improve this sign.
Judith asked whether camping was allowed in the park as she had seen a tent in it. Lesley said that there is a bylaw against camping in the park. It is thought that some people may camp just for fun, but it is known that homeless people have also camped in the park. The Community Wardens may intervene if they noticed people camping in the park but possibly, unless there are issues, they would be left alone. It was noted that although the majority of homeless people who have camped in the park pose no harm to other users of the park, there have been some people staying in the park who have shown aggressive behaviour and left dangerous litter such as needles.
Finance Report
At the previous meeting, Trevor had reported that there was in excess of £200 in the bank account. Although Dave has been reimbursed from FOPP’s bank account for the payment he made for the group’s annual insurance, a sum equivalent to this payment will be refunded to the group’s bank account because of the grant that we have from WTC. Once this has been obtained and taking into account the donations given during the bat walk, the group’s bank account will be just over £245.
Q. & A.
Lesley mentioned the Scots pine at the top of the park that appears to have died and asked whether anything will be done about this. Dave said he would raise this as an issue as the tree may no longer be safe. Dave also said that WDC Green Spaces are offering to replace the fallen beech tree and that they wanted ideas of what sort of tree to replace it with. Lesley suggested a Cedar of Lebanon. Johnathan said that he had contact with the head landscaper of the HS2 project and he was aware that they had a surplus of trees and that we may be able to obtain a candidate tree from this source.
Dave mentioned the proposed work in the dell area. This work would consist of lopping some of the older trees to provide obstructions to deter cyclists in this area and the planting of some small new whips. However this work has not been progressed due to lack of permission from English Heritage.
Lesley mentioned the cutting from the Cubbington Pear that she had been given to plant in the park. Jon Holmes (ex WDC Green Spaces) had previously given permission for this to be planted in the park and Lesley would like this progressed this year. It was queried whether this should be planted in the park or the Priory Pools area and Lesley said she didn’t mind where it was planted but that she needed it moving from its current location. Assuming that we did go ahead with this, a small working party would need to be created to complete the work.
Rob then provided a summary of the options for the proposed new storage facility for the CRO. This is required as it is expected that current storage facilities will be full by 2029 and WCC are legally required to provide sufficient long term storage for various legal documents. There is some temporary storage in the basement of County Hall. Previously there had been plans for a major extension of the CRO to include this functionality but that has been deemed too expensive. The options currently being considered are to add a second floor to part of the current building, to construct a storage facility in the CRO car park or to obtain further storage at the existing WCC Hawkes Point facility on the Heathcote Industrial Estate. If modifications are made at the current site, then the fact that it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument will need to be taken into account and also that due to the history of the site it is not currently known whether there are any underground features that would be a hindrance to further development of the site. If the cark park option were to be progressed, it has been decided that parking spaces are not essential for the functioning of the CRO. Rob noted that no decision has been made yet , but that the various options will be going to corporate board shortly. Rob will keep FOPP informed as to the progress on this project and that there would also likely be consultation meetings concerning this matter. Rob also said that there was a possibility of the CRO obtaining Heritage Lottery funding to improve the entrance area of the CRO.
In October 2024, a sensory trail known as ‘Sensory Stroll’ was created by The University of Warwick Creative Futures team in conjunction with Pickle Illustrations, Friends of Christchurch Gardens and WDC. This work was installed in Christchurch Gardens in Leamington Spa for a five month period. As that period has now finished, the components of the ‘Sensory Stroll’ are in safe storage and a new home needs to be found for the work. Johnathan is engaging with the trustees of the proposed new community centre to investigate the possibility of installing this work in the Priory Pools area.
Lesley thanked everyone who had assisted with watering the small leaved limes. Ewan asked whether another tree walk could be organised and Lesley said she would try and progress this.
Johnathan said maybe we should be looking at having the next Doors trail before Christmas and if we did decide to proceed with this in that timescale, then he already had the risk assessment which would be required to support this.
Ewan commented that he had again seen youths riding motorbikes in the park.
A.O.B
The time and date of the next Open Meeting was agreed as 7pm on Tuesday 20th January 2026 with the location being as usual the Wild Boar, Lakin Road.
Dave again thanked everyone for their attendance and then closed the meeting.