Parish Council Projects
Our Community Plan identified that the Lutton playpark needed lots of TLC! Rather than tidy it up, we decided to go the whole hog and go for a complete redesign using ideas from local children. The new design has cost around £26000 including all the groundworks and new equipment. We had to do a lot of fundraising because the Parish Council doesn't have this sort of money in the bank. Funding came from Devon County Council (S106 money); Dartmoor National Park, National Lottery, South Hams District Council and the Parish Council.
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The new play park is now open and we hope the children have a lot of fun using it.
 Lutton Playpark Â
Several pieces of equipment in the playpark were declared unsafe during an inspection which meant the play park was closed for a while until the condemned equipment was removed. It looked a bit sad with the empty areas where the old equipment was so we set about looking for grants to buy new equipment. In the meantime, we asked several companies to put together ideas for the space and then the children at Cornwood School chose their favourite option.
Play equipment is very expensive so it took a while to find an appropriate grant. The village hall team were fantastic and donated all the profits from several Big Breakfasts to this project. We are very grateful to Suez, who run the recycling centre in Ivybridge, who provided the rest of the funding required. The new equipment looks great and we hope that the children enjoying playing on it for many years to come
 Cornwood Playpark Â
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Yealm Estuary to Moor (YEM) is a community-based initiative to create a Wildlife Corridor for land and water along the River Yealm from estuary to moor, by restoring and joining fragmented habitats, by-passing physical obstructions, and reducing pollution and invasive species where possible.
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Initiated by Yealm Community Energy (YCE), in response to the Paris Agreement at COP21, the UN Climate Change Conferences (COP26 is in November 2021, Glasgow) and the State of Nature Reports, showing a serious decline in biodiversity both in the UK and world-wide. Although community based, it will be directed by professional ecologists in a Catchment Partnership structure and led by the South West Rivers Trust.
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Within the project , we are responsible for the stretch of land and water from Blachford Viaduct to top of Dendles Wood
Yealm to MoorÂ
A couple of years back, DAA was seeking official sites for night landing. Once a helicopter has landed at the site, the team has to reach the person needing assistance on foot so DAA wanted a site closer to the moor than the current nearest site which is in Ivybridge. During the day the helicopters can land pretty much anywhere, but at night they need a designated zone with specific lighting that they trigger via GPS on approach.
DAA approved the cricket club as a suitable site and we have raised the funds to pay for the special lighting column required through donations from our community - thank you everyone! The lighting column is now in place and our community night landing site is now operational. We hope we never have to use it - but it's there is we need it.
Devon Air AmbulanceÂ
Night Landing Site Â
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Following a suggestion from a local resident, the PC were asked to considered ‘brightening up’ the two bus shelters in Lutton, particularly as they now have well-maintained hanging baskets. An informal door-to-door survey of houses adjacent to the two shelters showed considerable enthusiasm for the project. Residents were in favour of painting the shelters a sympathetic colour in the first instance with the possibility of further enhancement at a future date.
Intrepid volunteers have managed to clear the ivy from the bus shelters which revealed that roof repairs will be needed to the Yondertown shelter roof before painting.
Paint has been donated and we now await the necessary repairs before getting going with brushes and rollers.
Lutton Bus Shelters
We have signed up to support the Woodland Trust ‘Action for Insects' and this project will make better use of the outdoor space by the public toilets. The sunny garden was very neglected but with the help of volunteers, it is now planted with RHS recommended bee and butterfly friendly plants, climbers and shrubs to provide habitat for our native pollinators.
It was a lot of work to take up some of the paving, dig out all the old roots and prepare the soil but it was worth it. We'd like to thank the Cornwood Show who kindly donated £200 towards the new plants.
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We are very happy to have received a plaque from Devon Wildlife Trust acknowledging that this space is now a wildlife garden.