We are pleased to confirm that the following groups have been awarded grants for their projects from GrantScape’s £500,000 “Community Greenspace Challenge 2011”.
Chalfont St Peter Parish Council
“Chalfont St Peter Riverside Nature Reserve” (Buckinghamshire) This project will transform an unused and unloved area, presently covered with concrete, stone and gravel, into an attractive new community greenspace which also enhances local biodiversity. The area, which was formerly a Highways depot, lies between the Lady Gibb Millennium Wood and the River Misbourne.
The project will landscape the site, reusing the broken concrete slab and gravel. It will then create various features, including native hedges and shrub planting, annual wildflower plots, hay meadow areas, hibernacula, a beetlebank, pond and footpaths.
Hogacre Common Eco Park C.I.C.
“Hogacre Common Eco Park Development Project” (Oxfordshire) This project forms the development phase in the creation of an exciting new environmental resource in Oxford. Here, a former sports field, with ancillary land and buildings, is being transformed into an ecological park that will demonstrate best practice in sustainability and carbon reduction.
The project seeks to enhance the biodiversity of the 11acre site in a number of ways. Three carbon-sequestering wooded areas (native deciduous, working coppice and orchard) will be planted. A wildlife pond will be dug, community gardens developed and bee colonies established, with a wildflower meadow to aid these. The site’s neglected mature woodland margins will also be managed to encourage greater biodiversity.
The site will be made more accessible for the community by providing an improved entrance, a forest school area, an outdoor classroom with a yurt shelter, a growing space, an area for foraging and picnics, and dog-walking access. People will also be able to receive training in traditional crafts such as pole lathe turning, hedge-laying, charcoal burning and firewood production.
Kempston Town Council
“Green Man Community Garden Project” (Bedford Borough) This project will transform an unused plot of land into a lovely new garden, accessible to all members of the local community. It will particularly focus on creating a natural, calm and welcoming environmental venue for use by local schools, community groups and residents, with opportunities for training, education and improved well-being.
Alongside the project’s physical delivery, the Town Council plans to develop a programme of activities for the new site, including its use as an outdoor classroom, a memorial space, a place for community learning and skills sharing, and somewhere where beneficial therapeutic physical activities can safely take place.
Long Buckby Green Space Group
“Cotton End Park – Access and Infrastructure” (Northamptonshire) The site for this project is essentially a grass meadow, with no proper access or infrastructure in place for visitors from the local community. It includes challenging terrain with restricted access and large unmanaged areas. Some of these are designed to be used as wildlife habitats, and some are simply because the Group does not have the necessary equipment to maintain them.
Amongst the uses for the new Park that the local community has prioritised are a barbecue and picnic area, a place for quiet relaxation, an area for informal sports, a nature study area, and a place for camping.
The project will, therefore, provide suitable means of access to all areas of the Park for the local community to enjoy. Funding will also provide heavy-duty mowing equipment, helping the Group to ensure that the Park can be properly maintained in the long-term. Alongside this, sheep will be used to graze the Park, especially the nature reserve area, enabling the Group to introduce interested members of the community to animal husbandry and agriculture.
Middleton Parish Council
“New Pocket Park for the Community of Middleton” (Northamptonshire) This project will sensitively transform an old orchard into a lovely new "Pocket Park" for the whole community of Middleton. This is particularly good news, because the village currently has no public open space where residents can enjoy a peaceful, natural and safe environment in which to walk, sit, meet and relax.
The site will be designed to encourage wildlife, especially birds and insects, and will include a natural sculpture and pergola. Materials, planting and landscaping will be designed to blend with the village surroundings, whilst easy access will be provided for everyone. Local community professionals, tradesmen and materials will be used for the work wherever possible.
Northaw Area Transition Town Initiative
“Northaw Community Orchard: a Sustainable Future” (Hertfordshire) This project will open-up land in the heart of the village of Northaw that has been closed to the public, providing a pleasant space for local people to enjoy. The existing fields, one of which is covered in brambles, will be transformed to provide a new community orchard comprising some 80-100 half standard trees. These will be traditional Hertfordshire varieties of apples, plums, pears, cherries and nuts. The rest of the site will remain grazed by donkeys to maintain its historical grassland character.
As well as providing a community orchard, the site will also house the group’s community bee hives. It will, therefore, create a new focus for the whole village to learn about more sustainable living, with the added benefit for villagers of being able to harvest the fruit for years to come.
Oxford Preservation Trust
“Wildlife and Community Enhancements at Wolvercote Lakes” (Oxfordshire) This project, in the centre of Upper Wolvercote village, will help transform and open-up a largely overgrown site that had been closed-off and unmanaged for a number of years until it passed to the Trust’s ownership in 2010.
The project will restore people’s ability to see and access much of the site by providing a new entrance, railings, surfaced footpath, bridges, a viewing hide, dipping platforms, benches and interpretation. Important improvements for wildlife and biodiversity will also be made. These will include cutting back and opening out vegetation to increase the diversity of flora, re-profiling pond margins to create shallows and areas of warmer water, and removing non-native plants.
Stanwick Pocket Park
“New Pond and Wildflower Meadow for the Community of Stanwick” (Northamptonshire) This project will create a new wildflower meadow and pond network/ wetland area in an existing overgrown area, dotted with rubble heaps. Planting will be designed to provide rich nectar sources for invertebrates, whilst special mounds will be created for butterflies by using the rubble on-site. Bird and bat boxes, seating and wildlife interpretation boards will also be included.
As well as greatly enhancing the local community’s overall enjoyment of the area, the transformed site will provide an important educational area for local schoolchildren.
