News, comment and features

What an absolutely fantastic story. How can you possibly put a price on this with its huge spectrum of benefits: health (physical, mental, now and later), community glue, comradeship, personal development across numerous dimensions, on and on. It’s also great for the Palmers Greenery, itself providing fantastic community and personal development, and with so many teams coming from out-of–area, it’s clearly a marvellous flagship for PG. It beggars belief that there is a real risk of it folding due to the capital needs of the courts. We really seem to have lost the plot as a society in where the line between money and value lies. (And lets hope PG Tales can eventually buy themselves a fuzzy mic cover to mitigate the wind noise! Well done to them too in bringing this success story – and current issue - to the attention of so many .)

The Council is now paying for resurfacing of the courts - see below, which is an excerpt from an item on the council website . Perhaps someone in the Civic Centre watched the PG Tales film?

Ahead of next month’s Netball World Cup, Enfield Council has been awarded a £150,000 grant to resurface nine courts which will help maintain the popularity of the sport in the borough.

The court improvements will ensure the continuation of the North London Netball League (NLNL) which is based at Broomfield Park, Palmers Green. The League has been fundamental in nurturing local talent aiming to follow in the footsteps of the England squad who stormed to Commonwealth gold in 2018.

Enfield has a long association with netball with four clubs based in the borough - Minchenden, Oakwood, Palmers Green and Southgate Olympic NC – which are part of the NLNL. The teams making up the NLNL provide the opportunity outside the school environment to train and socialise. The League has also played a strong role in developing talent and providing opportunities for girls from all backgrounds to progress in the sport at a competitive level.

Enfield Council was awarded the money from a £1.7 million funding pot from the London Marathon Charitable Trust. The money will go towards the resurfacing of nine courts, six of which will have dual use with tennis at Broomfield Park.

With around 1000 committed participants already, the Council will be measuring the impact of the new courts and would like to increase participation by 10% in year one and 20% in year two.

In addition, to promote inclusivity in the sport, a new walking netball programme has been proposed for those who have perhaps been inactive, or unable to play at a more energetic level. For those who have played netball in the past and want to get back into the game, there will also be a Back to Netball Programme. To keep up-to-date on these proposals, sign up to Enfield Council’s newsletters at https://bit.ly/2kjGUW1.

Excellent news and many congratulations to Maria and team for pushing this through. Now to look forward to Phase 2 and the clubhouse revamp.