North Nechells Parks Friends
The North Nechells Parks Friends group was formed recently from local residents who want to work in partnership to improve the parks and green spaces located in the north of the Nechells Ward in Birmingham. The group are concerned about Mount Street Park located by Star City, Eliot Street Park, Eliot Street Play Area and Nechells Public Open Space, on Nechells Park Road.Mount Street Park
Local residents recently worked in partnership with Birmingham City Council to improve Mount Street Park with a new play area. The park however has been highlighted for further improvements by the local community, so the North Nechells Parks Friends are working in partnership with Birmingham City Council, local residents, schools and businesses to find funding to make further improvements. This park is very popular with the young people as a sports location and so the group are looking at improving the sports facilities in the park, to accommodate their needs. The Chair of the group has recently started running a local football team in the park and the manager of Star City is very interested in helping out and is a member of the friends group.
In the autumn last year, the community planted a mixture of daffodils, grape hyacinth and snowdrop bulbs in the park, which helped to bring in extra colour to the park, as this is lacking at the moment.
Eliot Street Park & Play Area
A recent consultation was carried out for Eliot Street Play Area by the group, as at present the area contains only two pieces of equipment, broken down brick benches, overgrown shrubs and broken tarmac. This does not attract the local children to use the area and so it has become a derelict, unused space. The group therefore needed to know from the local children what type of play equipment would attract them back to the area, so that they could enjoy safe play again. A consultation was therefore carried out at Nechells Junior & Infant School, as it is located next to the play area and will be used by the local children from the school.The children were all very enthusiastic and very safety conscious, insisting that the safe flooring was used under all the equipment. They agreed that swings were fun, but far too dangerous as small children could get hit if they run in front of them, they wanted to see “sensible, realistic and safe” equipment put in to the play area. The group are now carrying out funding bids to find the money needed to improve the play area.
Eliot Street Park has been highlighted by the community as the place to go to relax in. The group has worked in partnership with Birmingham city council to improve the area by the planting of new shrubs with Glendale and the installation of new benches and bins. They are now looking for funding to install picnic benches.
Nechells in Bloom
The friends group is working in partnership with the Nechells in Bloom steering group, who are working towards brightening up North Nechells to enter the Heart of England in Bloom Competition.
This is the second year that North Nechells has entered the Heart of England in Bloom Competition and the local residents are excited to continue on the success of the Merit Award from last year. The steering group that formed from local residents and service providers is very keen to see this project continuing its work towards improving the neighbourhoods around Nechells Ward for the whole community and creating a sustainable cleaner, greener, safer environment.
This initiative is led by the residents who will be influencing local change and improving the well being of the community. It is being run in partnership with Birmingham City Council, Ladywood District, Nechells Green Garden Centre, Glendale Grounds Maintenance, Housing Associations, local schools and CSV Environment.
Activities
This year the variety of community and school activities included:
- Litter picking activities with the schools
- School garden competitions
- Bulb planting activities
- Undergrowth clearance
- Bedding planting with the community
- Front garden competitions
- Tree planting
- Weed removal
- Hanging baskets
- Graffiti removal with local residents
As a result of all this hard work Nechells in Bloom was presented with a Silver Award for 2006 and local residents Brian & Veronica Edwards were presented with an award for Outstanding Work within the Community. The group is now looking towards improving on their silver award for next year.
The North Nechells Parks Friends Group is open for anyone with an interest in these parks to join. They meet regularly once a month at the old Nechells Baths on Aston church Road, which is now a beautiful new community facility. For further information please contact Sarah Royal at CSV Environment on 0121 322 2058.