Issue 013.

One month until the start of Love Parks Week
This year’s Love Parks Week campaign is set to be the biggest and best to date, with over 400 events already registered on the website. Between 25 July and 2 August, parks across the country will be hosting Love Parks Week events, sending out the message that parks are vital for our communities...

GreenSpace News

One month until the start of Love Parks Week
This year’s Love Parks Week campaign is set to be the biggest and best to date, with over 400 events already registered on the website. Between 25 July and 2 August, parks across the country will be hosting Love Parks Week events, sending out the message that parks are vital for our communities.

The more events that are registered, the stronger our campaign for continued investment and support for parks will be. For that reason, if you have any events taking place during the week please make sure you register them at www.loveparksweek.org.uk. Don’t forget that events don’t need to have been specifically organised as part of Love Parks Week, you can register any activities that are planned in your park between 25 July and 2 August. The Love Parks Week logo, a template press release and other useful resources are available to download on the website. More

Postcards from the Park competition launches
The Postcards from the Park competition, organised by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund in partnership with GreenSpace, was launched on 20 June. The competition calls on people to get out and enjoy their parks, while capturing on film what they most love about them. This year special categories include people at play, wildlife and heritage. All winners will have their photos professionally exhibited at a London gallery, and photos will also be made into postcards and distributed at Lottery-funded venues. The closing date is 3 August 2009, so get snapping!

The competition celebrates Lottery investment in parks; The Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund have already invested over £1.2bn in improving public parks and on environmental projects. Both continue to invest in regenerating our precious parks and green spaces. This year also marks the National Lottery’s 15th anniversary. Since 1994 over £23bn – that’s £25m each week – has been raised by Lottery players for the arts, sport, heritage, environment, education, health, charity and voluntary sectors. Go to www.postcardsfromthepark.org.uk to enter the competition and to find out more.

Green Flag Awards set to be awarded to around 1,000 parks
Record numbers of parks in England and Wales are set to be awarded the Green Flag Award for quality this summer. A partnership of Keep Britain Tidy, GreenSpace and BTCV took over the Green Flag Award in March, with the winning Green Flag parks set to be announced in July. TV star Michaela Strachan will present the awards in Bournemouth on 22 - 23 July.

Green Flag Awards recognise and reward the best parks and green spaces in the country. Last year 743 parks and green spaces received a Green Flag Award, and a further 73 community managed spaces won Green Pennant Awards. This year the number of sites receiving the top accolade is set to rise substantially and could reach close to the 1,000 mark.

Judges are busy assessing the quality of parks and green spaces across the country, and this year other green spaces such as allotments, hospital grounds and shopping centres are also being considered. To find out more about the Green Flag Awards, please visit www.greenflagaward.org.uk.

GreenSpace Online Community Network Forum
Some of the current topics of debate currently on the online forum include:
• Worm surveys and how they can be a fun alternative event to hold in the park
• Lighting in parks and whether parks should close at night
The online forum provides the opportunity to share experiences and pass on advice to other groups - the more people post and reply to messages, the more useful the online resource will become. Log on now. More

Contribute to the Community Bench
If you have any useful information you think would be of interest to other community groups (perhaps a website, publication or resource you have used) why not send us an email and we'll try to include it in the Community Bench. We are also looking for more Community Profiles, so if your group has done something you'd like to share with others please email community@green-space.org.uk.


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Funding news

Local food scheme applications suspended
Huge demand from local food groups for the Local Food programme has resulted in the scheme being suspended from 21 August. In the 14 months that the award has been running, the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts has already received enough applications to potentially utilise the £50m of funding available. These applications are currently being assessed to see if they meet the criteria for grants, but potential new applicants still have until 21 August to submit new first stage applications. Some projects already funded include a Devonshire community cafe, an urban farm in Sheffield and a cooking club for autistic children in Stockton on Tees. More

Online directory to search for landfill grants
ENTRUST, the government-appointed regulator of the Landfill Communities Fund, have an online directory of funders that community groups can use to search for landfill grant schemes in their local area. More

If you find a grant/funding scheme you think may help other community groups please email Matthew Hartgrove at community@green-space.org.uk

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General news and features

Help for bumblebees
Garden Organic, the national charity for organic growing, is urging gardeners to combine flowerbeds with untended garden areas to help to protect the UK's declining bee population. Garden Organic surveyed the habits and numbers of bumblebees in their members' back gardens and discovered that flowerbeds and borders for foraging accounted for 65% of all bee sightings. It was also discovered that three quarters of the participants that actively encouraged bees to nest felt scrub areas were more effective than bee boxes as nesting habitats. Foxglove and Pulmonaria were found to be the types of ornamental plants most visited by bees, while herbs such as Lavender and Comfrey proved most popular to the bees overall. More

New environmental activities website for families
A new website, Muckin4life, has recently been launched by the government with the aim of promoting fun, healthy environmental activities for all the family. The website contains links to a number of organisations who provide volunteering opportunities for families including bird watching, bat spying, wildlife gardening and pond de-sludging. More

Help shape the future of green belts
The charity Campaign to Protect Rural England is currently undertaking a survey to discover how the general public and landowners feel green belt land should be used. They are currently looking for responses from people living around the London, Bristol and Merseyside area. More

Three of the best grow your own websites
Grow your own is a huge craze at the moment that everyone seems to be having a go at. Below are three of the best websites we’ve found offering help and advice on growing your own vegtables, as well as ways to introduce new people to growing food.
www.gardenorganic.org.uk/growyourown/easiest.php
www.bbc.co.uk/digin/
www.rhs.org.uk/growyourown/index.asp


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Events

4 July
Gardening for wildlife (enhancing natural pest control)
Organiser: Eco Works
Location: Nottingham
Contact: www.ecoworks.org.uk
A one-day event exploring garden ecology - including creating habitats, choosing plants and designing natural pest control features for gardens.

19 July
The Big Lunch
Organiser: Eden Project
Location: Nationwide
Contact: www.thebiglunch.com
A one-day event encouraging communities to come together through organising street parties and lunches across the country.

25 July - 2 August
Love Parks Week
Organiser: GreenSpace
Location: Nationwide
Contact: www.loveparksweek.org.uk
A week of events celebrating and promoting awareness of parks and green spaces. Please register your events taking place during Love Parks Week at www.loveparksweek.org.uk.


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Community Profile

Feedback

COMMUNITY BENCH is the online newsletter of GreenSpace aimed specifically at community groups. It reports on community green space issues across the country and the work of organisations and groups that take an interest in the green spaces.

Past issues can be viewed in the community news section of our website at:
http://www.green-space.org.uk/community/cgparchives.php/

Written by: Matthew Hartgrove, Network Officer, GreenSpace
Edited by: Emma Donaldson, Senior Communications Officer, GreenSpace



To be removed from the list reply to this email with ‘remove’ in the subject header. To add someone to the COMMUNITY BENCH please follow this link http://www.green-space.org.uk/community

The COMMUNITY BENCH e-newsletter is published and circulated by GreenSpace. Any comments, opinions or views expressed in the COMMUNITY BENCH do not necessarily reflect the views of GreenSpace Forum Ltd, its staff, partners or funders. Replication or duplication of this publication, in whole, or in part, without written permission is strictly prohibited. © 2008 GreenSpace.