Membership
MEMBERSHIP: DECEMBER 2022 UPDATE
We maintain the waiting list for membership, when open, strictly by date of application. Currently the waiting list remains closed.
Waiting times depend on how many Members resign each year. Every October, we assess the number of vacancies and offer new memberships to the next applicants on the list.
Previously, waiting times were between two and three years. However, we had an unprecedented number of applications during the pandemic, and fewer resignations. In September 2021 there were over 400 people on the list, and we reluctantly had to close it as an interim measure.
After this autumn’s round of membership renewals, there are 270 people on the waiting list. At current rates the last applicants on the list may have to wait another three, possibly four years for membership. We regret this but we are clear that increasing membership numbers beyond current levels is not in the best interests of the Park or its Members.
As a small charity, we do not have the resources to send individual emails updating people about their position on the waiting list, but are planning to send group emails in the next few months to those on the waiting list broadly indicating their position (first 70, second 70 and so on), with our best estimate of how much longer they may have to wait.
We will update this page again when the situation changes. When we re-open the waiting list, the level of demand means that we will only be accepting applications to go on the waiting list from those living in the L23 postcode, consistent with the terms on which the trust was set up.
Any applications or emails sent in while the waiting list has been closed will not be retained and will need to be re-submitted when the list opens again.
Finally, a note about how applications are made. When the waiting list is open, these are submitted by email. Applicants receive an email acknowledgement (they are asked to chase up if for any reason they do not receive one) and must keep this as proof of their application. No system is perfect, but given the length of time for which we have operated this system, we are likely to be sceptical about claims that we have mislaid applications from people who say they applied some years ago, of whom we have no record and who are unable to produce their email acknowledgements.
The Trustees, December 2022
PARK RULES
