Sun comes out to celebrate Meir anniversary
01 September 2010
After a week of rain, wind and practically arctic conditions, residents were thrilled that the sun shone for them when they marked the first anniversary of Meir's community centre during a fun day at The Square on Friday August 27th.
A feast of festivities included games, karate sessions, football, a bouncy castle, face painting and a DJ, filling The Square with music to really make the party go.
But it wasn’t just the sun that brought residents pouring into The Square. The event benefited from some excellent planning by recently-appointed Community Development Officer Emily Tomkinson, formerly a residents’ friend in Meir.
“Emily’s really made a difference. The volunteers do a great job but it’s a lot of responsibility and many of them have other commitments such as being a school governor. Emily’s helped to co-ordinate everyone,” commented Richard Kettrick of Great Places - one of the sponsors of the event.
Emily said she couldn’t take all the credit and was helped out by Helen Proffitt, an interim solutions officer with the Meir Area Implementation Team (AIT). Both were very pleased with the success of the day and its high level of attendance by people of all ages having fun and enjoying themselves in the sun. “I had feared the event might never happen with the horrible weather we’d been having leading up to it. I was thrilled we had sun all day long,” said Emily.
As well as RENEW other sponsors of the fun day were: Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Seddon, Bullock, Barratt and Plumlife. Said Simon Finlay, Project Manager with Barratt: "We are committed to regeneration and excited at the prospect of working closely with our partners and the local community to bring forward new development in Meir over the coming years."
It wasn’t just fun and games though. Displayed in the Ken Graham meeting room were plans for the future of the area for residents to look at, as well as traffic managements and parking proposals.
Said Phil Brundrett, RENEW programme manager: “We want to remind people of our aims and what we set out to do. We’ve responded to what residents have asked for, such as alley gates and environmental improvements in Kingsley Street and Woodville Road. And we want to show them that we’re on target. It takes time to get this right but the fun day was a celebration of how far we’ve all come.”
To see pictures of the event click here
