Annual Report 2022 / 2023

The Committee of the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens presented their Annual Report for the financial year 2022/23 at the Annual General Meeting in July 2023.


The Annual Report continues the style introduced with the Spring 2023 newsletter.  


The 8-page document aims to provide an easy-to-read, illustrated snap-shot of the work of the Friends.

Update from the 2022 Annual General Meeting

The Friends of Pinner Village Gardens 2022 Annual General Meeting was held on Monday evening at the Pinner Arms near the park. We had nineteen attendees for the proceedings, which covered diverse points such as the membership pricing, mowing regime, changes to the constitution, the plans for interpretation panels for the ridge and furrow field and of course this year’s committee election.

As part of the review of the constitution of Friends of Pinner Village Gardens, changes were voted in with immediate effect to revise the election period for committee members from one year to three, modify the Junior Ambassador position to become a new general Committee Member 3 and bring in a formal co-opting process so that committee positions can more easily become filled between AGMs should they become vacant.

It was proposed that membership rates should increase for the first time since the formation of the Friends, going from £5 to £10 for a yearly membership, and £50 to £100 for a lifetime membership. While existing Friends on yearly memberships will remain on the current pricing, they will be written to in order to advise them of this change.

It is the objective that memberships should pay for the ongoing maintenance of the park, which is estimated to be around £2000 a year. Special projects, such as park improvements will come from further donations and by seeking grants through awarding bodies.

The votes were held to elect the new committee, including a new chair following the departure of Antonia Savvides earlier this year.

  • Chairperson – Dodie Melville-Riddell
  • Treasurer – Stephen Spiro
  • Secretary – Brian Chapman
  • Communications Lead – Sarah Brook
  • Education and Environmental Advisor – Simon Braidman
  • Landscape Advisor – Natalia Kuznetsova
  • Volunteer Coordinator – Jonathan Freedman
  • Committee member 1 – Helen Ryan
  • Committee member 2 – Jackie Lindop
  • Committee member 3 – Glyn Watkins

The posts of Event Coordinator and Funding Coordinator remain vacant. If you are interested in assisting the Friends in those roles, please do get in touch with us at info@pinnervillagegardens.org.uk.

Dodie will be well known to our volunteers and frequent visitors to the park and has been co-opted onto the Committee for most of the last year as Volunteer Coordinator. She has been in particular leading on the design of the new planting scheme for the Hereford Gardens entranceway. We would also like to welcome back Jonathan Freedman to the post of Volunteer Coordinator, who is another very familiar face to all those in the park frequently.

New Committee Elected

The Friends of Pinner Village Garden Annual General Meeting for 2021 was held last night, on 14 June. As part of this yearly meeting, the FoPVG Committee is elected for the forthcoming year.

This year’s election was also a little different, as two new posts on the committee were created to reflect specific a greater focus on fundraising and ensuring that the the landscapes in the park are recognised and protected.

The following members were elected to the Committee:

Antonia Savvides – Chair
Brian Chapman – Secretary
Stephen Spiro – Treasurer
Sarah Brook – Events Coordinator
Glyn Watkins –  Funding Coordinator
Simon Braidman –  Environmental and Education Advisor
Jackie Lindop –  Committee Member 1
Helen Ryan –  Committee Member 2
Natalia Kuznetsova –  Landscape Advisor

The posts of Volunteer Coordinator, Communications Lead, and Junior Ambassador were left vacant on the night with no one standing for them.

Upcoming FoPVG Annual General Meeting

The Friends of Pinner Village Garden’s 2021 Annual General Meeting is set to take place over Zoom on 14th June. Papers were sent out to all members this past Monday.

At the meeting, we will give updates to the work taken place in the park over the last two years, along with a financial update and the current membership status. We will discuss the current five year plan for the park, and hold the election for the committee members.

While all posts are up for re-election, we would like to highlight the following vacancies should you think that you could help improve the park through one of these posts and would like to stand:

Communications Lead
Manage FoPVG Facebook, website, Twitter, and newsletter. Manage communications with outside media sources.

Volunteer Coordinator (50% of role as part of a job share agreement)
To support, advise and encourage current members. Organising work parties/ liaising with /recruiting new volunteers. Record volunteer hours /report this to Chair. Must be available to attend events and recruit new members.

Junior Ambassador
Support/encourage/ recruit younger members

Should you wish to stand for these or any other roles on the committee, you will need to be a member first. To sign up, please go to our Become a Member page for further information.

If you’d like any further information about these, any other roles, volunteering in general or the AGM process, then please do Contact Us.