To all Haddenham Youth and Community Centre Hirers,
We are writing to express our sincere regret at the breakdown in communication that has resulted in misunderstandings and frustration at the lack of parking at the Youth and Community Centre.
To explain the background, as you will no doubt know the school playground was resurfaced over the summer holidays. The school is delighted that this was done as the playground was becoming a significant health and safety risk and was unsafe for the children to use, it was cracked and slippy due to the age of the existing tarmac.
The work was commissioned and paid for by Bucks County Council. The type of surface laid was specified by them and the work undertaken by contractors appointed by them, and at the same time the playground surface at HCIS was replaced. The school has had very limited involvement.
After the work had been done, the school was belatedly informed (only in the second week of September) that cars should not be parked on the newly laid surface in case they damage it, and that it could take until January for the surface to be properly cured and safe to use as a car park again. The Council told the school that we would be liable for the cost of any repairs if we went against this advice – we are sure you will understand that we cannot risk this as we just could not afford such a cost in these times of funding shortages.
We have updated the HYCC committee at every stage as soon as we have any new information from Bucks CC, but we do not have any direct relationship with hirers of the Youth Centre and therefore did not previously write to you directly. Perhaps we should have done. While we understand why the school is bearing the brunt of all the frustration, please be assured that we are not being deliberately obstructive. While we may have to bear some – but not all – responsibility for communication failings, it should be understood that we are not responsible for the fact that the surface is unsuitable for cars at this time.
Wherever we have been approached directly by a user of the Youth Centre we have done our best to find solutions and be as helpful as we can, but this does not yet extend to allowing cars on to the playground until Bucks CC agrees that we will not be responsible for the cost of any repairs.
Many of us at the school are connected in one way or another with the affected groups and we have sympathy with your frustrations. This is a community school and we aspire to good relationships with community groups – our children can only benefit from this. Therefore we trust that you will likewise sympathise with our position and bear with us for the short remaining time that the playground is out of use as a car park.
As you can now see, the school is not in a position to solve the main problem of parking. We understand that David Palmer is writing to Bucks CC on behalf of the HYCC committee. If you have any further comments we suggest that you do the same.
Yours faithfully,
Andy Leach Headteacher
Jessica Clarke Chair of Governors
Jane Atkin Chair of Governors
