A dispute between the Shaftesbury Lake volunteering group and a parish council which threatened to boil over appears to have been settled.

Co-founders of the Friends of Shaftesbury Lake Facebook group Gail Collins and Pam Jones confirmed that after being put on hold, gardening events at the lake will continue. 

The move follows what was labelled a "hijacking" from Nythe, Eldene and Liden (NEL) Parish Council, which had tabled a motion to take over communication for events at Shaftesbury Lake. 

This, along with a request for the names of all volunteers from the Friends of Shaftesbury Lake to be given to it in a list, almost put an end to the year's worth of work the community had done to improve the area. 

The motion went to a vote at a meeting this month and passed - five votes for, one abstention and two against from the eight councillors. But there is a compromise promising a way forward. 

"I'm pleased to say that group monthly gardening events will continue," Pam wrote on Facebook.

"Thanks to everyone for their support lead volunteers Gail and Pam met with NEL this week, and all have mutually agreed on the way forward."

The full details of what that will entail will follow but Pam added that she would not be part of them for the time being. 

"Due to personal circumstances, I won’t be able to organise the monthly group events for a while," she said. "It will be entirely up to Gail if she wants to organise those.

"If not, but you’d still like to help with some general maintenance at the lake, please contact either one of us to have a chat."

Friends of Shaftesbury Lake was started in 2018 by Gail and Pam, who used it to help transform the area, helping to organise flower planting events.

But at the beginning of June it was announced it could not continue because of the parish council motion. 

The most contentious sentence was later amended to make it clear that event communication would be a joint endeavour and there was discussion about the necessity of keeping a list of volunteers, with it stated a sign-up sheet on the day of those who had taken part would suffice.