The Conigre Mead Volunteers have set up a blog to keep friends and supporters up to date with developments at the project.

The volunteers, who help to maintain Conigre Mead Nature Reserve in Melksham, which is owned by the Wiltshire wildlife Trust, are using their £47,710 Community Spaces grant to improve the reserve.

Work include new surfaces to paths, new gates, new notice and information boards, and new seats. It will be carried out during the next few months and will be finished by June 2012.

The work will make the reserve more accessible and friendly to all users, particularly those with disabilities. Wheelchair and buggy users will be able to use the reserve all year round.

Seats will be installed suitable for all ages and will be useful for school groups and others.

There will be up-to-date and seasonal information about the site and its wildlife

And don’t forget to let us know how your launch went… we love seeing your photographs, videos and reports.

Share the joy!

Community Spaces have just awarded Rosliston Forestry Centre in South Derbyshire £41, 814 to create a 40ft herb garden in the shape of a human!

The human shaped herb garden, which has been nicknamed ‘Herbie’ will consist of a raised flower bed planted with herbs used for medical purposes on different parts of the body.

The group are aiming to a to have ‘Herbie’ finished by the summer! We look forward to seeing some photos of the finished garden!

We first mentioned the ‘Herbie’ project in our innovation blog piece see: http://blog.community-spaces.org.uk/2010/09/what-is-innovation  If your group is developing a project that is a little bit different please tell us about it by following the link.

The Friends of Bennion Pools has been awarded a Green Pennant Award for the Bennions Pools Nature Reserve near the Walkers crisp factory in Leicester.

 The Green Pennant Award is a national award that recognises high quality green spaces in England and Wales that are managed by voluntary and community groups. The Award is part of the Green Flag Award scheme, the national standard for quality parks and green spaces.

The Friends group was awarded just under £50k to re-develop the site, increasing access to the pools and encouraging local people to get involved.

Chair of the Friends group, John Greasley said, “We are delighted to be receiving this award – it’s a real boost for the local people who have volunteered so much time to the pools and the projects we run here. We’re also thankful for the Community Spaces funding, without it what we have created here would not have been possible.”

The group worked closely with Leicester City Council to develop the project. Since receiving the funding they have organised many events encouraging local people to get involved in further developing the site and ensuring that it is kept clean and safe for everyone to enjoy.

Are you looking for some new trees to plant in a local park, community garden or open space?

Then look no further as the Woodland Trust are offering free tree planting packs to all community groups that want to plant trees in shared community spaces.

The tree planting packs are available in two different sizes. The small pack holds 105 trees and the large pack contains 420 trees (that’s a lot of trees!). The packs can be separated and planted in small areas that best suit your community space.

These trees could be an ideal addition for any Community Spaces project looking to green-up their project site.

 To find out more and apply for your free tree planting pack, visit: http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/plant-trees/help-advice/Pages/trees-for-communities.aspx

With the summer now in full swing, there is nothing better to do then get outside and enjoy your local park, and there’s no better excuse then ‘Love Parks Week.’

 Love Parks Week is an annual celebration of our parks and green spaces. It is organised, by Community Spaces partner organisation, Green Space http://www.green-space.org.uk. Love Parks Week raises awareness of what our parks have to offer, and is a campaign to save these valuable community assets.

 The annual celebration starts from the 24^th July, and continues all week until the 1^st August.  There will be organised events across the country for people to get involved in. If you’ve received funding for your park through the Community Spaces programme then your group might want to use Love Parks Week as an opportunity to promote your project and get more people into the park.

 To find out more about organising your own event or about events happening near you visit www.loveparksweek.org.uk

The Big Lottery Fund has launched a new small grant programme for communities that want to come together to explore, protect and celebrate wildlife.

BIG has teamed up with the BBC Wildlife Fund’s Go Wild Campaign to develop the Community Wildlife programme.

The programme offers grants of between £300 – £10,000 to not-for-profit groups, local councils, schools and health bodies who want to get local communities more involved in their local wildlife.

Projects can range from  discovering local wildlife areas or animals, learning more about local wildlife, or creating or enhancing local wildlife areas.

If your looking for a small pot of money to develop a local wildlife project then please follow this link to Big Lottery Fund’s website.

David Bellamy with Bishop of Taunton and the Dulverton Churchyard Committee

A new garden surrounding the All Saints Church in Dulverton, Somerset, has been officially launched by David Bellamy. Mr Bellamy opened the site announcing it was the opening of “God’s Garden’.

The Churchyard Committee Development Group secured almost £50k from Community Spaces to create a wild life garden in the old churchyard as well as open up access and encourage local people to use the site more.

The launch attracted hundreds of visitors and the group served up over 200 cream teas to guests! Entertainment was also provided by the South Molton band.

David Bellamy was on hand to talk to people about the wild flowers that had been planted in the new garden and the types of wild life this would go on to attract. Mr Bellamy also emphasised that it was everybody’s responsibility to now look after the new gardens.

The Bishop of Taunton, Rt Revd Peter Maurice  said; ““All the work that had been done in the Church and Churchyard could be summed up in the single word Hospitality.”

Official launch of the Warley Woods Wilderness project, Smethwick, Birmingham

The Warley Woods Community Trust celebrated the completion and launch of their project in Smethwick, West Midlands, yesterday.

Chair of the Trust, Steve Eling, officially cut the ribbon at the new entrance gates and local school children were given a tour of the newly refurbished site and wildlife area.

The site, which was previously used as a dumping ground, secured almost £50k from Community Spaces to transform it into a wildlife haven. The group used the funding to improve access to otherwise unused areas of the woodland and are also hoping to plant two wildflower meadows to encourage flora and fauna.

We look forward to watching the wildflower meadows flourish and it’s fantastic to see local youngsters already getting the opportunity to enjoy their environment and wildlife in an otherwise urban town.