TROWBRIDGE Town Council are difficult to work with, according to the chairman of the Friends of Trowbridge Park group who this week handed in his resignation.

Sharl Adabashi, who has been the chairman of the Friends of Trowbridge Park group for over five years, says ‘enough is enough’ and called the authority’s claim of working with the community ‘vacuous and bogus’.

In a letter addressed to the town’s Mayor and Neighbourhood Services Committee chairman Dennis Drewett, Mr Adabashi outlined the reasons for his resignation as being due to: “the town council allowing funfair operators to pollute the park with diesel fuel, deliberately destroying a wild flower meadow around the apple orchard without consultation and failing to uphold its promise to secure a free of charge exhibition space for the group at the Armed Forces Day, for the past two years.”

The letter goes on to say Trowbridge Town Council has “failed to show any support to the 10-year business plan which was developed with officers for more than 10 projects in the park” and failed to “show due regard for the hard work staff and volunteers have put into the park over the past five years.”

Speaking to the Wiltshire Times, Mr Adabashi said: “It is a real pity that after five years of hard work and endless hours spent by a number of volunteers and a large amount of funds raised, we have failed in our bid to turn Trowbridge Town Park into a destination befitting the county town of Wiltshire.

“There have been so many projects to which they have said yes but nothing has been done about them.

“I am then told maybe they didn’t mean yes, maybe it was really a maybe or even a know. I cant work with that.

“I have been to schools and have told them about a youth centre which we wanted.

“I should have listened to the students who said councils always promise things and don’t deliver, but I told them I am a business man, not a politician. But it didn’t go through.

“I wanted to have a wild flower meadow in the town park which was agreed on.

“Then out of no where it was cut down without any consultation because a child fell in dog muck.

“The whole park is full of dogs so should we have to destroy the play area if a dog mucks there?

“I have been dealing with the council for a number of years now and they lack vision, creativity, and I am sorry to say they have no integrity. They do not deliver on their promises and don’t know the meaning of the word community.

“They have never acknowledged their mistakes, they just want to do as little as possible, not rock the boat and make sure they are re-elected.

“I can’t waste any more time trying to work with people like that. “I don’t know how they can stand up in front of the people of Trowbridge and promise such things and “

“I want to say I am really sorry things haven’t been delivered through a lack of will and determination.

“Look at Frome for example, they are led by a business-run community and have been transformed. For crying out loud, this is the county town of Wiltshire.”

“The town council have spent millions on the museum which I have said to them is out of the way and no one sees it.

“I suggested it should be moved into the town hall and combined with the arts, but they couldn’t see that either.

“I have sacrificed a lot of time but enough is enough now. They wont find someone who has put as much time and effort into this than I have.

Mr Drewett said: “It is very regrettable that Sharl has decided to take this course of action. He and the Friends of the Park have had a considerable influence on the development of our People’s Park over the time that the Friends of Trowbridge Town Park have been in place.

“His enthusiasm and drive along with his considerable time commitment will be missed I am sure. But without a stated and agreed understanding of how relationships between official bodies and Friend groups should work, there will always be misunderstandings and disagreements.”

“The aim of the Memorandum Of Understanding was and is to clarify and define the working relationship between the two groups going forward. My hope is that the Friends Group will consider the MOU and agree that it is a good foundation for a positive relationship moving forward.”