2 September, 2008
Harborough MP Edward Garnier opened the new playground next to the Robert Monk Village Hall in Foxton on Sunday, 31 August. The playground now has new equipment thanks to fundraising by the Foxton Society totalling almost £5,000. £2,750 was contributed by the Florence Turner Trust, the Jack Patston Trust and the Rural Community Council. In addition one of the village pubs, the Shoulder of Mutton, hosted a charity banquet and the Rev. Ian Johnson, the vicar of Foxton, lent his marquee for the Foxton Society’s summer ball. Other amounts were raised by and items donated by the Foxton Gardens Society, Biffa and the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.
Speaking to the assembled residents, adults and children, who had braved the inclement weather Edward Garnier said:
“Thanks to a lot of people’s hard work and effort a huge sum of money has been raised and used to equip the playground. There are four new items to add to the existing equipment, a rocking seat, a seesaw, a wobble board and a noughts and crosses board, all of which seem eminently suitable for an ambitious politician of no principles to try out – he should feel quite at home on any of them.
“More seriously, events like this are important, not important in the same way as what we are doing in, for example, Iraq or Afghanistan or as important as what is happening with the economy here in Britain or events in Georgia and Russia, but important for us because they describe what is good about village life and communities in this constituency.
“This playground and this new equipment are provided by voluntary donations and are for the public – of a certain generation - to enjoy; they represent something selfless and generous and life-enhancing and it is acts of generosity like this that make living in a village like this one so attractive and worthwhile.”
Edward Garnier also attended the Foxton Garden Society’s Flower Show in the Robert Monk Hall and the Foxton Seed Swap event – at which gardeners undertake to collect and swap plants seeds ready for next year’s growing season.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd