News
Roger Gates is the new Forum Manager for the South West region. Roger is currently finishing an Msc in Climate Change and Risk Management along side running the regional forum. Previous to this Roger gained a number of years experience working for Ealing Council.
Roger Gates
Development Manager, GreenSpace South West
GreenSpace South West
T: 07881 850073
E: rgates@green-space.org.uk
June's open saw a good turnout for a presentation from Jane Stoneham on Access and Equal Inclusion. View Presentation
CABE Space have recently updated their website to make it easier for different sections of the sector, including green space managers and community groups, to find information and resources.
This year's Love Parks Week takes place between Saturday 25 July and Sunday 2 August. The national campaign, run by GreenSpace, aims to raise awareness of the importance of Britain's parks and green spaces and the central role that parks play in communities across the country. Since launching in April over 200 events have been registered on the Love Parks Week website, from bug hunts and nature walks to family fun days and live music performances.
We would be really grateful if local authorities could support the campaign by spreading the word about Love Parks Week to their members. We want to use the campaign to promote continued investment and support for parks and green space, and the more people get involved in it the more powerful this message will become.
The Love Parks Week website has been redesigned to make it easier to register and edit events, and for members of the public to find events near them to attend. The site also contains a campaign toolkit with advice on getting involved, promotional materials and template press releases to help you plan and run events. In addition to this we have pages on Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word about the campaign, with over 500 fans and supporters already.
For more information about the campaign and how to get involved visit www.loveparksweek.org.uk, or contact Emma Donaldson with any enquiries on 0118 946 9068 and emmad@green-space.org.uk.
Love Parks Week 2009Love Parks Week 2009 will this year be taking place between 25th July - 2nd August. To let us know what your organising- email info@loveparksweek.org.uk
The Forum has successfully bid for DCLG funds to appoint a full-time Forum Manager. It is planned to appoint someone as soon as possible after April. The person's main role will be to manage the implementation of the Forum's three year business plan which will mean working closely with members of the Forum to improve parks and green spaces by raising awareness, involving communities and creating skilled professionals.
The membership of GreenSpace has doubled over the last year or so, with members also taking an increasingly active role in its running. This increase in membership and activity has laid down a good foundation from which the Forum can push forward its own agenda over the coming years. However even with this significant increase, the percentage of local authorities who are members of the Regional Forum stands at 33% and it remains a priority for the Forum to increase the membership over the next couple of years to around 66%.
Forum Chair, Peter Wilkinson, says: “Whilst the injection of Central Government funding is to be welcomed, the Forum members would rather that other local authorities and organisations join us in order to provide enough core funding to safeguard our future. The funding we have recently secured here in the south west has to be seen as an opportunity to grow our membership and take action ourselves to further the many benefits of green spaces and parks. Please join us.”
GreenSpace, Natural England and Play England have been working with The Eden Project, ROSPA, University of Gloucestershire, Forestry Commission, Sensory Trust and Groundwork to help local authorities and others to include natural and wild play in their plans and activities.
They have planned three subregional events for the Spring and early summer which have been designed to support play partnerships, green space managers and planners to collaborate in providing natural and wild play opportunities for people, particularly in the context of the Play Pathfinders and Play Builders initiatives.
The Natural Play Group is also developing a web based portal to help practitioners find the latest information, guidance and advice relating to natural and wild play – another first for the South West. As with the GI portal, the Natural Play portal will lead people to various websites where up to date advice and guidance is held. The GreenSpace South West site will host case studies.
We are still looking for case studies and would like to hear from you if you can provide one. Please contact Roger Gates.
Natural England have been funding work to develop guidance and best practice around Green Infrastructure, Local Area Agreements and Green Space Standards. In partnership with CABE Space and Sustainability South West, the Forum and Natural England held two sub-regional events looking at how to integrate Green Space with the Grey Space Agenda.
Around 60 delegates attended the events and from these a web based portal will be developed by April to provide access to advice and guidance on Green Infrastructure planning and delivery in the South West. The idea is to have an overview of what is happening and links to a number of partners web sites where up to date information can be found. The GreenSpace South West site will be used to host case studies from local authorities and others and will require input from the membership from time to time as best practice is developed.
The Forum has agreed to formalise its relationship with a wide range of partners in the region, some of whom it has already developed close working relationships with. The local authorities who make up the majority of the Forum membership recognise that they share a green space agenda a with a range of organisations and agencies in the region and are keen that the Forum be used as a way of facilitating joint working, growing understanding, bidding for funds and lobbying government.
Peter Wilkinson and Nick Jones have taken on the roles of Chair and Vice Chair respectively and from March 09 will be overseeing the embedding of the new ways of working that the Forum has been developing. This includes a number of county and sub-regional groups and topic working groups.
Somerset and West of England local authorities as well as those across Devon are meeting to share learning and raise issues for the regional Forum to include in its business plan. There are also opportunities for appropriate issues to be championed by the National GreenSpace Forum.
Over the second half of last year, the Training and Skills topic working group were very active, working with training providers to develop a training strategy for the Forum, getting involved in the Cabespace consultation and strategy development for the "Skills to Grow" initiative. Other topic working groups include Fund-raising and Membership, Community Engagement, Promotions and Marketing. Please contact the Roger Gates if you are able to help develop these groups.