Welcoming our new Chair of Trustees

We are delighted to announce that Neil Fleming has been appointed as the new Chair of Trustees at Ford Park.

Many of you will already know Neil for his incredible contributions to our community through Ulverston.com, the much-loved Retro Rendezvous, and of course The Ulverston Resilience Group.

Neil has been a trustee at Ford Park for some time, bringing valuable experience, and a deep commitment to Ford Park and the Ulverston community.

We couldn’t think of a better person to take on this important role following Shirley-Anne Wilson, who stepped down at the end of May. We’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Shirley-Anne for her outstanding leadership and dedication.

"I’m delighted to have Neil stepping into the role as Chair of the Board of Trustees at Ford Park. Neil has been a great helper and promoter of the park even before he joined the board and even more so since. His professional and community background makes him such an ideal person to take on the role. With Neil as Chair, I feel that Ford Park is in safe hands with the pragmatic, capable and genuinely caring person that Neil is" – Sam Ronson, Park Director.

We asked Neil how he felt about taking over as chair of the charity - “I'm pleased and proud to take over as Chair of Trustees from Shirley-Anne. She has invested many years of her life in the park and has a huge knowledge of its history and quirks. She is a hard act to follow.

I've been a park user and volunteer for many years, and a Trustee for the last 2 years. We have a great team of staff and volunteers, and a wide range of business partners, park users, and neighbours to consider. The park is an extremely important community asset, but as for most charities, is vulnerable to changes in the economy, pandemics, etc. We need to continue using our limited resources wisely to maintain the park, to keep it safe and available for current users and future generations and of course make improvements where we can.

It's great to see that the new path and benches are being well used. We are now raising funds to build an environmentally friendly community room and toilets in the body of the park, which should ease the current office and meeting room accommodation constraints, and help us to improve the quality of school educational visits, etc. I welcome your inputs and support on any park matters. Thank you.".

Please join us in welcoming Neil as Chair—we’re excited for the future of Ford Park under his guidance!