A walk in Central Park

It not all dog poo in the Park come and see for yourself

quote from an e-mail

Hope to see some of you for the Friends Forum on Monday:

Agenda for Monday 16th June

18:00-20:00 Life Centre Conference Room

18:00 – Walk down to Wildflower meadows led by Buglife

18:30 – Plymouth Plan sofa

18:45 – Natural Connections update/SS2N role profile

19:00 – Central Park Masterplan/Urban Designer role profile

19:15 – PCC update/Newsletter

19:30 – Groups update/AOB

20:00 – Close

Kind regards,
Jeremy

Jeremy Sabel
Green Infrastructure Officer
Planning
Plymouth City Council
Civic Centre
Plymouth
PL1 2AA

What is taking place around the City. (you will not read this in the Herald)

PLYMOUTH, PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE
Summer 2014 update

Wildflower Meadows

Since 2012 together with Buglife we have been getting Plymouth Buzzing! Our existing sites, including Central Park and Brickfields, are blooming lovely! In 2014, the work continued with the creation of more wildflower meadows and bee verges alongside arterial routes into the city, including Embankment Road, Billacombe Road, Novorissisk Road, Tavistock Road and the St Budeaux Bypass in addition to the creation of Whitleigh Meadow.

Grow Wild – Bringing communities together!

Supported by the Big Lottery Fund and led by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Grow Wild is an exciting four year programme that will bring people together to sow UK native wildflowers. In Plymouth, Grow Wild is funding opportunities for friends groups to run wildlife themed events during Love Parks Week 2014.

Grow Wild Flagship Site Funding bid

Grow Wild is awarding £120,000 to transform one site in England into an exciting and inspiring space that will leave a lasting footprint. PCC has applied and have been shortlisted along with 9 other sites. Grow Wild will announce the final shortlist in July 2014, and these will be put to a public vote from October 2014 – keep up to date with progress on our Facebook and Twitter accounts!

Natural Connections

The Plymouth hub team have been working with schools in the city to support their
Outdoor Learning activities. In April we hosted a schools network meeting at Shakespeare Primary School that introduced the Outdoor Learning kits for woodlands and beaches that have been created and are available for all schools to use for free. The summer term is a busy one with Woodland Woods hosting a Woodland Week involving 5 schools in activities. The project will provide training and curriculum planning support to schools to help deliver outdoor learning in the natural environment.

Heritage Walk and Talk

On a beautiful sunny afternoon in April members of the Yealmpton & Brixton
W.I. enjoyed a guided heritage walk around Devonport Park. The walk, led by Leigh Jones from Plymouth City Council’s Street Scene Services proved a huge success - Linda Morris from the group enthused ‘from the feedback, I think we may well ask for a repeat of the walk and talk’.

Plym Valley bid

Plymouth City Council submitted a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £830,000 on behalf of the Plym Valley Connections Project. If successful, the total project value will be approximately £1.3m with match funding from the partners. The project aims to improve built heritage, the natural environment and access in the Plym Valley and will provide a range of opportunities for local people to get involved in activities and events.

The Ride Saltram

Plans to improve the footpath and cycle route along the Ride (adjacent to Chelson Meadow) will soon be submitted for planning. The project will deliver part of the Saltram Countryside Park Masterplan which is a key project in the Green Infrastructure Delivery Plan. The project aims to improve access for walkers and cyclists and improve the environment for people and wildlife.

Latest from around the city

Weston Mill Creek Clean-Up

Street Scene Services did a great job of cleaning up of Weston Mill creek.
New Tractors and Bailer PCCs fleet renewal programme has purchased 3 John Deere tractors for grass cutting and hedge maintenance and 2 New Holland tractors equipped with front loaders for tasks such as loading bails, moving earth and carrying out pitch maintenance. Following the success of PCC’s wildflower meadows programme PCC now has a bailer. Where previously bailers were loaned from local farmers, now there is the flexibility to bail when convenient.

Poppy flower bed

Plymouth City Council has planted a poppy shaped flower bed on the inside of
North Cross Roundabout to commemorate World War I. The petals are formed from red begonias and the centre is made up of dwarf black ornamented grass.

Friends of Radford Woods

In May the Friends of Radford Woods hosted a wildlife session for pupils of Oreston Primary School at their bird hide. The Friends talked about birds and other wildlife and the children liked having a chance to get their questions answered. The trip was enjoyed by all!

John Randall
Chair of the Friends of Ham Woods, John passed away over the Easter weekend. John played a key part of the nature conservation community in Plymouth and will be sadly missed by all who knew him. You can read more about John here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Play at Saltram Stepping Stones to Nature is working in partnership with the National Trust at Saltram on a new natural play area. Using the natural landscape and Saltram’s history for inspiration we’re working with play company Touchwood to develop an inspiring, flagship play area near the café. Look out for the Grand Launch of this play area during Love Parks Week!

We’re into the final phase of this play area improvement at Kinterbury Creek and have just installed a play trail, including a beautiful wooden crab sculpture designed by Riverside Primary School children. The next phase will be complete for the summer holidays and includes wind-up sound panels with recordings of Kinterbury bird life and a slide down the meadow bank.

Love Parks Week – Woods, Waves and Wide Open Spaces

Explore the blue and green spaces on your doorstep through this exciting programme of city-wide events. This year’s programme includes sporting events, bughunts, story-telling walks, bat walks, art in nature and much more… This national event starts on Friday 25th July with a Wildlife Event launch in Central Park from the Devon Wildlife Trust, and runs until Sunday 3rd August. There will be a host of free events in your local green and blue spaces, and everyone is invited!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Keep an eye on our events page, there’s a lot going on! As well as Plymouth City Council (PCC) led activities, we aim to promote local Friends Groups and community events that happen in natural spaces too.

Send the details to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (date, time, venue, activity and contact details) and we’ll get them posted. Remember you need to get PCC events forms completed and activity approved first!

Why not ‘follow us’ on our new Twitter account? @NaturePlymouth and ‘like’ SteppingStones Plymouth on Facebook where we regularly post free family events, activities and training in Plymouth’s natural spaces?

Some great stuff going on there mate, good to hear some positive stuff, people cracking on and doing things.

on a nice summers day you cant beat central park and its green space. It will be such a shame when Brent or another destroys it with a carpark

I miss Tuesday meeting the council was showing plans where to build the hub, (cafe, toilets and changing rooms)

Tgwu wrote:

I miss Tuesday meeting the council was showing  plans where to build the hub, (cafe, toilets and changing rooms)

is that the sweetner for building near cottage field that was mentioned in the hhp clusterfuck or something different?

It was always in the plan for the park,

On Thursday I notice a traffic servey team were sat in the corner of the outland rd side of the car park

cool its about time they had something like that up there in truth.

Ford Park Cemetery

It been a busy month start to the month ahead there is more to come for Ford Park Cemetery in Plymouth

JULY heralds another busy month for Ford Park Cemetery - so here are some dates for your diary.
Saturday, July 5, a walk entitled Notable Ford Park Graves led by Richard Roach, takes in the graves of ‘People of Importance’ including the Scott family and George Hinckley VC.
There will also be a visit to the beautifully restored Victorian Chapel which houses the memorial plaques to our city’s civilian war dead.

Please were suitable footwear and meet at the Visitor Centre at 2pm for the walk which lasts around 90 minutes. The event is free of charge but donations are welcome and refreshments will be available.

July 19 is our annual Bug Hunt held in conjunction with Wild About Plymouth, starting at 11am until 1pm.

Our second event on this day - back by popular demand - is our quiz evening. Tickets cost £6 (includes pasty, tea/coffee), call 01752 665442 weekdays only 9.30am to 3.30pm. Quiz master this year is Richard Roach.

Sunday, July 20 is the Friends of Ford Park table top sale including books, bric-a-brac, craft and home-made cake stalls. Refreshments available throughout the afternoon running from noon until 3pm, including cream teas.

And last but not least, our next exhibition, Plymouth Goes to War, celebrates life home and away at the start of The Great War.

Open to the public Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10.30am until 3.30pm, Saturdays and Sundays, 12.30pm to 3.30pm.

The exhibition, which is free of charge, but again donations welcome and refreshments available, starts on July 26 and continues until September 21.

Friends of Central Park meeting: 8th July 2014.

Welcome:The meeting began by welcoming Tom Lowry, Urban Designer from Plymouth City Council (PCC). Tom had been invited to help us focus on the Café Hub part of the presently proposed master plan for Central Park. Tom is part of the Natural Infrastructure team within PCC, previously called the Green Infrastructure team.

Tom began by saying that there was a Master Plan aspiration that as a whole had an approximate cost of £12M to deliver. PCC does not have this sum of money to deliver this plan. Instead by looking at funding and seeking pots of money available individual projects could be tackled bit by bit to bring about delivery.

Tom understands that some bits of the Master Plan may be unpopular, however the Master Plan is a ‘plan’ and is not ‘set in stone’. It was developed through a long period of consultation with the Central Park Community Forum of stakeholders and is now the Council’s adopted strategy for the park.

Some parts of it may be amended as the details are worked out and the proposed new Central Park Master Plan Delivery Group would begin to revisit this with ‘working’ parties.
The first planned phase of the Master Plan is the sports plateaux and improvements to the wooded valley. The café hub is not ‘officially’ in this first phase. This is because the sports plateaux and other projects were identified as the initial priority. Funding is available from the sporting bodies and money can then be sought through them to fund changing rooms as part of the hub. The rest of the money will need to be found.

There are plans for tennis courts in this hub area. It is known that the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) would be keen to have courts available to the general public within Central park. This would be a part of the LTA’s drive to increase participation in tennis within Plymouth. They could have capital funding available which would then help to deliver the Tennis Courts and move the café project along.

Questions re how we manage the café hub project:

1) Look for funding and then look at what you can do.
2) Ask what do we really want and what are we trying to create? Energise the community and set imagination going.

The second approach is a ‘can do’ rather than a ‘here’s finding out what we can do with it’ approach.
The position is at the moment that the council would not commission an architect to do work on the design of this café hub if they didn’t reasonably think they could deliver it. Therefore aspiration works, but there is a need to be realistic too. The group agreed that the building would need to be carefully thought through to make sure that it was right for Central Park.

Historic information:

There are already some schematic plans drawn, but it was felt that we would need to start again. However the original scheme could be revisited and used as a starting point for discussion.

Getting the process going:

Discussion took place re 106 money and percentages that could be spent within Central Park. Specifics of where this money could be spent, as it is not open to be spent freely. There is a proposed (but possibly controversial) Pennycomequick housing, which would have impact on the park. This is part of AAP and money from this goes into the park. The question was asked about a summary balance sheet with ‘how much money will be in the pot’ and how much is allocated and ‘in the pot’ now, so to speak?

Tom confirmed that there is not a single ‘pot’ of money and each project is funded separately. This is typically through a combination of Section 106 and funding applications to external organisations such as the Sport National Governing Bodies etc.

Design thoughts and usage: What is proposed?

1. Changing rooms 2. Tennis 3. Café 4. Golf 5. Toilets

Each area will need to be carefully thought through. I.e.: Tennis courts: Lighting, poles, fencing is there support or not for this? What are the FoCPP’s views on these tennis courts? Café Hub in principle, does the group agree with having one?

Materials and detail discussed briefly some ideas thrown out: Natural materials to be used in building, solar panels, wood burner, and realities such as it must be a viable business in its own right – a commercial venture with lease needing to cover cost of maintenance. Could include a hub and meeting place for environmental charities, tools and storeroom space available (Tidy Team) Rentable space with café having dual use aspect? Some open meetings to let everyone have a voice.

Tom asked the group if there would be support for the Tennis Courts project. One person in the group was against the installation of fencing and flood lighting however the others were supportive of the proposal.
Tom asked if the Friends of Central Park would be in a position to support the project if it comes forward. It was agreed that this would be discussed by the group in due course.

The group thanked Tom who had been invited to come and stayed with us for nearly two hours discussing this. We thanked him for his information and giving light to the realities of the café hub project. Tom then left.

AOB:
Financial update:
Chris gave the financial update. We have a balance of £2264.13 of which £1800 is ring fenced for the tree projects proposed and unanimously agreed last month. This money will be moved out of the FoCPP account when needed and Andrew Young will sort.

Membership money: Pete still has this at the moment and the membership list can be brought to the September meeting. Pete will give membership money to Chris to bank. This will be the first
financial transaction for 2014 and of the new group!

Love Parks Week:

The grant application had been successful and we have been awarded the full £250. Thank you Tidy Team for doing this!

The Grand Tidy Day is Wednesday 30th July from 10am – 12noon.
Meet at the Golf Hut and bring gloves! (R/A attached for information) Young people under 16 should have a responsible adult with them. Public Liability will be bought using this money and the cheque should be received within the next two weeks. Jeanie and Liz are also producing bookmarks to give out stating how long substances take to degrade and will have Haribo for prizes. They will purchase more litter pickers and black sacks etc as specified on application form. The Tidy Team is also doing a litter pick on Wednesday 9th July (morning after meeting) as specified in last month’s minutes.
More volunteers to help on the Grand Tidy day: Andrew Young, Chris Fice, Chris Bowhay and Barbara Prout all volunteered to be there to support Jeanie and Liz. We have no idea of how many from the general public will attend. Posters have been produced to go on the notice board etc and the Love Parks week publicity includes this Grand Tidy morning.

Plans for next meeting on the 12th August:

* Meet in Bowling Pavilion at 7.15 for refreshments. Andrew Young to organise key and open/close and secure the Pavilion at the end of the meeting. Andrew can you chair this meeting as I am away?

Thanks.
* Chris Fice and Chris Bowhay to organise refreshments. (Tea, coffee, milk etc, plus tea towel for drying cups at end and some paper plates for cakes. Anything else you can think of?)
* Chris Fice to bring historical plans drawn up previously for café hub.
* Andrew to bring some large sheets of flip chart paper for new ideas and comments.
* Walk around café hub proposed area.
* Return for discussion
* Andrew to correlate / record ideas to feedback to PCC via Tom.
* Group to propose agenda for September meeting.

Once completed summary to be given to Tom Lowry summarizing aspects of the café hub and what FoCPP would be keen to support. He can then look at how this can move forward.

Dates for future meetings:
August 12th (see above) September 9th, October 8th, November 12th and December 10th (Party)