Page 18 - Thrapston Life January 2022

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF THE FACILITIES TEAM
You will have no doubt seen the Council van driving around the town and often wondered what we actually do! Well, every day is different and often unexpected events call for our attention. The Facilities Team comprises of two cleaner / caretakers for the Plaza, the Facilities Manager
and the Facilities Assistant who split the week working 15 hours each. The time soon disappears as you can see from the following diary!
Monday: Reports come in of fly tipping at Windsor Drive. On investigation it turns out that a stolen dairy van from Boston
had driven into the green space, the thieves dumping the contents onto the grass before making off! The owners of the diary were more concerned about the van than the milk, which meant that the Council team had to spend the day disposing of gallons of milk and scores of milk bottles!
Tuesday: The Council’s play parks are inspected on a weekly basis. The Facilities Team are qualified playground inspectors. Due to Monday’s debacle the inspection was held over to Tuesday. The town has nine play parks under the Council’s care as well as many green spaces. Inspections are recorded with any issues noted for action.
Wednesday: The morning started with a meeting with contractors at the toddler play area at the Peace Park. The play area is having the grass mat surface upgraded to
a rubber, all-weather safety surface. Today the contractors are removing the grass and grass mat and laying down the hardcore foundation to ensure good drainage.
With the prospect of winter weather arriving we check the salt bins that belong to the Council. Like Goldilocks’ porridge, one
is full, one is half empty and one is empty. We check on our stock of de-icing salt and return to the bins to re-fill them.
Thursday: Saw an early start to meet the arboriculturist at Meadow Lane who had come to inspect our tree stock that we have inherited from Persimmon Homes. The extensive green area stretches from Nine Arches Bridge, along the river to the sailing club and then runs between the lake and the Town Walk. The inspection will concentrate on the larger trees and any trees that may pose a hazard to the public. There is a continuous programme of management of all the trees in the town and independent inspections are on a three to five year cycle.
In the evening we meet up with the Christmas Decorators again to pick up the control units for the Christmas lights. We walk through the town to check that they are all working.
Friday: We meet contractors at the toddler play area to assist with the removal of the heavy machinery, the groundwork having been finished for the re-surfacing.
Over to the Plaza to meet with an air- conditioning engineer who is repairing and servicing the units in the hall. Whilst he
is working we take the opportunity to fix
a door in the Plaza that needs replacing, including fitting the lock.
The shift finishes with a visit to the Peace Park to see how the contractors are getting on with the drain at the Rose Garden. They are struggling with the squally weather
but appear to be making good progress nonetheless.
Now we’ve just got Saturday’s Christmas Festival to look forward to...!
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