MEETINGS
It would seem reasonable to believe that ‘Freedom Day’ from the Covid Lockdown will be
Monday 19th July 2021. On this basis I will seek to call an Annual General Meeting and Committee Meeting within days of that date. When a suitable venue has been found, notice of these meetings will be posted on site and on social media in the coming days.
The pandemic has caused a delay in calling these meeting but, I am confident that you will agree that the delay has not had a detrimental effect on the Racecourse itself.
MAINTENANCE
Thanks to the efforts of our groundsman, Mr David James, the Racecourse is in superb condition. We remain indebted to Haverfordwest Town Council for the regular emptying of the waste bins and the grass cutting at the entrances to our facilities.
County Councillor Tim Evans deserves our gratitude for his assistance in getting much needed repairs to our car park and committee member Mike Wort has been instrumental in ensuring that dangerous trees have been safely removed from site.
Regular users of the Racecourse will have noticed that certain areas of grass have been left uncut. Money is expected from the 106 Agreement between Pembrokeshire County Council and Persimmons Homes. The careful development of meadow land areas is one of the allowed uses of this money and we have decided to leave these areas uncut for the time being so that the areas we wish to develop as meadow land are easily identified. It is thought that this extra contribution to biodiversity will be appreciated. Further such contributions may be considered in the near future as we are in the early stages of developing a request for a financial allocation from the Enhancing Pembrokeshire Fund.
FINANCES
Members will be pleased to know that we have sufficient funds to cover the expenses to be incurred this season. Full details of the present financial details and of the recent income and expenditure will be presented to the next AGM.
The Vice Chairman and I attended a meeting with Mr Paul Lucas of the Portfield Recreation Committee and Ms Sinead Henehan of Pembrokeshire County Council on 21st June at which we were informed that the sum of £53,000 would be allocated to our Trust from the 106 Agreement mentioned above. The use of this will exercise our minds for many months to come! None of this can be used for annual running cost so we eagerly await to hear from the Town Council about its possible policy changes that may allow us to have a similar financial allocation to that given to Pembrokeshire County Council for the Saturday afternoon support of the Library. Fingers crossed!!
The Friends of the Upper Racecourse Account (originally set up to offer support at times of great need such as machinery replacement) has now been brought under the Trust’s control. One of our late Chairman’s last actions was to write a cheque for £5,000 help meet our immediate financial transactions. The new account now stands at just over £5,000 and is earmarked for its original purpose.
In addition, our new fundraising platform, set up with ‘Peoples Fundraising’, has already realised £546.25.
I hope this information will prove useful to Committee members and supporters of the Trust. Should anyone wish to contact me please accept my apologies for not being on Facebook but please feel free to contact me on email thomaslewis123.667@icloud.com