Page 54 - ALG Issue 4 2017

Eastern
Tributes to Darren Fazackerley
I met Darren when he joined Harlow Council’s Parks and Landscape Department under the leadership of Robin Bletsoe, more than twenty years ago. I got to know him well and developed a very personal friendship. He was instrumental in getting us to become self-managed and guided us in many ways towards that goal. He was always very supportive to the allotment community not just in Harlow but throughout Essex, having founded the Essex County Body.
His remit was not only allotments but also the biodiversity and wildlife within Harlow and he worked very hard to gain the Green Flag awards for our local nature reserve. He will be sadly missed, not only by Harlow’s allotment community but by many voluntary groups including the biodiversity partnership, the green team and by the town’s Park Users Group, to name a few - and most of all by myself. Derek Harris, Harlow Allotment Association
Darren worked for the Council for 23 years and he was widely known by many environmental community groups and volunteers who help to maintain the town’s many green spaces. Darren was a passionate advocate for environmental issues and biodiversity, and was instrumental in Harlow achieving its rst ever Green Flag award at Parndon Wood Nature Reserve in 2008, an accolade that the reserve has held on to for nine years in a row. This achievement, along with the Town Park getting its rst award last year, was something which he was extremely proud of and rightly so. He also loved running and keeping t and was part of the Council team that supported parkrun to successfully set up in the Town Park. He took part in many events outside of work to raise money for charity. He will be sadly missed by me and many in Harlow.
Jon Clempner, Leader of the Council, Harlow District Council
Welcome to our new members...
Brandon Allotment Association Catton Grove Allotment Association Duchess Grove Allotment Association Mill Allotment Association
North Lynn Allotment Association Walpole Allotment Group
12 individual members
Darren was the only Fazackerley that I’ve ever known. Appropriately for that locational family name Darren was born in nearby Wigan. My involvement with Darren concerned the South Primrose Hill allotment site in Chelmsford and his position as rstly the secretary and then the chairman of the Essex Body of the National Allotment Society. His guidance and management of affairs here will be greatly missed and it is so ironic that he had many plans for 2018 that sadly cannot be ful lled.
But his interest in allotment affairs was not parochial as for more than twenty years he regularly attended the National Allotment Society’s Eastern Region meetings and national AGMs wherever
the venues might be. Allotments were also part of his remit as Landscape and Biodiversity Manager at Harlow Town Council where he worked for over twenty years. Darren did so much to ensure that their sites are well managed and in good order and it is a testament of his interest and stewardship that Harlow is such a good example. Beyond allotments, he covered as a warden at Parndon Wood Nature Reserve in Harlow, he was closely involved with the Essex Biodiversity Project where he was chairman for some years and took a keen interest in Marconi Ponds Nature Reserve in Chelmsford. The lifelong passion for horticulture and wildlife in general was deepened by study at what was then Writtle Agricultural College.
Whenever, Darren kindly took me to an Essex Body meeting, you could be sure to expect an earlier start as there was inevitably the need for a parkrun to be incorporated in the arrangements. Running was very much a part of Darren’s life and Dawn must have been a long-suffering wife in this regard. Marathons in plenty were achieved by Darren and he was the eyes for a blind runner to whom he was seriously committed. Sport more generally was something that
was very much part of Darren’s life with football allegiances in his county of birth as well as locally where he was a volunteer steward at Chelmsford City and with cricket where I also enjoyed his company. That, perhaps, is something that needs quali cation as it was with some relish that he would remind me of the game where Essex subsided to 20 all out against Lancashire. Even so, I’ll genuinely miss such partisan banter and his presence. The last game he attended with me was in early April this year when he was in good heart and happily conversed with several acquaintances from work, church and our allotment site.
At the heart of his being, Darren found and lived a Christian commitment and on marrying Dawn made his allegiance to the United Reform movement at Christ Church, Chelmsford. That faith trans gured everything he turned to. Such was Darren and he will, indeed, be sadly missed. At 48, it was far too soon. God Bless. Allan Trigg, Minuting Secretary, NAS Essex County Body
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