Dukes Meadows salvo for CiP

Fractious Friends Denounce CiP’s Handling Of Salvo Event

The atmosphere down at Dukes Meadows is decidedly fraught at present after last Monday’s bank holiday Salvo event.

The Friends of Dukes Meadows had already expressed their concerns and frustrations over the CiP’s handling of the booking for the event and their apparent lack of understanding of the site. Of particular concern was CiP’s lettings section being unaware that tree trunks, put in place along the road by another section of CiP, were there to protect the riverfront.

After trying, unsuccessfully, for two and half months to set up a meeting with Salvo through CiP Kathleen Healy from FoDM contacted them directly a week before the event. She told us “I phoned Ruby Kay at Salvo and we talked through the issues. Because of the logs, access to the riverfront was limited and Ruby was concerned that people visiting the event would have difficulty parking. I phoned Chiswick School and they very kindly agreed to allow the school parking to be used. This saved the grass from being damaged and stopped the road along the river from becoming congested. It is a pity that CiP did not arrange the meeting months ago it would have saved both Salvo and us a lot of time and hassle”

Dukes Meadow’s will not benefit from any profit made from the letting, a point which is particularly galling for the Friends. Kathleen commented “One of our members, Paul Allen spent the day helping Salvo marshall people to the parking in the School. This was necessary because it was only decided to use the school so late, but none of the money raised from the letting will be spent on Dukes Meadows. We are currently lobbying to get dog poo bins for the Meadows, it would be nice to see the money spent on this. It was a lovely event and we would like to see Salvo come back next year, but we would like the letting to be properly organised by people who know the area and for some of the money to be spent on the Meadows”

May 28, 2003

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter

Comment on this story on the

Friends of Dukes Meadows meet with the lottery

Architectural Salvage event at Dukes Meadows

A Big Welcome to Dukes Meadows

Friends of Duke Meadows