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

He cut the ribbon to mark the opening of a new boules/petanque piste, a basket swing, wooden shelter, grassed mound with tunnel and slide and a seating and picnic area, all joined up with a metre-wide path.

The latest phase of the project was made possible through a £49,999 Community Spaces grant.

For more on what’s happening at Stratton-on-the-Fosse see the village website

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

Share the joy!

 A campaign by young Gypsies in Cornwall for a safe place to play has paid off with the launch of a multi-purpose sports pitch.

The £49,800 project, at Boscarn Parc, near Redruth, is part of a wider revamp of the site. It lies on what was an overgrown field, plagued by fly tipping and used for grazing horses.

The idea for the sports site came from the young Gypsies themselves, who took part in a consultation exercise organised by Cornwall Children’s Trust and identified a safe place to play as their main priority.

With the help of Devon and Cornwall Police and TravellerSpace, which supports Gypsies, Irish Travellers and New Travellers in Cornwall and the South West, they successfully applied to the Community Spaces programme for help.

They were actively involved in the entire bidding process, including making presentations to council officials, visiting other sites for inspiration and helping to organise the launch party.

The £49,800 Community Spaces grant has transformed the site and provided a valuable amenity for all local youngsters as well as the wider community.

To celebrate the completion of the project, a launch party attracted more than 50 visitors, who played five-a-side football, learned circus skills and took part in dance and craft workshops.

A spokesman for TravellerSpace said: “With comments from youngsters including ‘I love it’ and ‘really really really good’ we hope the children have many happy years of playing.

“The young people worked really hard to make their plans a reality. They should be proud of what they have achieved for their community.”

The young people were supported TravellerSpace, Pool School, Devon and Cornwall Police, Cornwall Council and the Eden Project.

Stoke Gabriel Pre School, in Totnes, Devon, has built a natural play area in their village orchard using funding from Community Spaces. However, the group were so keen on making this a community based project, they have got the entire community involved in making the play area.

The group ran community workshops to create hand-carved, wooden benches for the play area. The benches were designed and created by the local residents – with careful guidance from a local woodworker. The workshops were held during the day, so the non-working; older members of the community were able to take part in creating something for the youngest members of the community.

A true sense of community spirit was felt by everyone, especially, Caroline Curtis, the Project Manager for Stoke Gabriel Community Park, “Thank you for your support of the project, which will make such a huge difference to the children, parents and grandparents of people who live in and around Stoke Gabriel. I feel privileged to have worked as the Project Landscape Architect and Administrator and have received such positive feedback and support for the project from people living, working and visiting the village. None of this would have been possible without the funding from Community Spaces.”

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.”

All Saint’s Community Development Company in Birmingham is awarded their grant.

Groundwork UK has today announced nine projects that will be benefiting from upto £450k each, through the lottery-funded Community Spaces programme.

The nine successful projects have been developing since Summer 2008, when the limited flagship grant awards were announced. The following projects will benefit from the funding:

The Dean & Chapter of Exeter Cathedral will be using the grant award to realise their Vision of the Green – they will be transforming the area around the cathedral into an accessible green space, which will nurture wildlife.

Saltash Waterfront Resident’s Association in Cornwall will be using funding to open up access to the Elwell Woodlands; the project will also see the installation of an iconic 20 metre Celtic Cross.

Paignton Town Community Partnership will be using just under £450k from Community Spaces to transform a former green space on the Paignton sea front into a state of the art natural play park.

All Saints Community Development Company will be using the funds to create an open village square off a busy High Street in Kings Heath, Birmingham.

Dudley Canal Trust will be revitalising and opening up access to the Dudley No.2 Canal Corridor, which is a 4-mile stretch of canal between Dudley and Sandwell.

Friends of Tees Heritage Park in Cleveland will be improving accessibility to the park and installing a trail around the site using digital and Bluetooth technology.

The Byker Centre in Newcastle has secured funding to create a community garden, which will include an amphitheatre, play facilities as well as more spaces for recreation.

Halton Community Association will be creating a Heart of Halton using £450k from Community Spaces. The project will open up a green space for all ages, the facilities will include a toddler and teenager play area, a multi-use games area, a skate park as well as a wildlife area.

Heeley Development Trust has planned to use the funds to create the Heeley Millenium Park in Sheffield. The local community hope to take more control of the existing local park and introduce better play facilities, BMX trails and community orchards.

Click here to find out more…

The Community Skate Park Project in Taunton, Somerset are getting their plans together after securing a grant of just under £50k from Community Spaces.

The project, which is costing around £200k in total, is currently being designed and planned by the group and will hopefully be opened in May 2010.

Further information about the project, including the exciting skatepark plans in 3D, can be found on their dedicated website: http://www.apeskates.co.uk/skatepark/taunton or by visiting the groups Facebook page.

The plans are looking really good! We look forward to receiving more updates from the group and wish them the very best with the delivery of their project.

Tom braves the zipwire at Furzeham playground

It’s often hard for Grants Officers to find the time to visit projects, so when I was invited to the launch of Friends of Furzeham Green’s Playground Improvement Project in Torbay, I set myself the challenge of visiting some of the other Community Spaces projects in the area.  

My journey began at 5am, I was aiming to visit six project sites in the South West. Martin Fine, Community Spaces Facilitator, was my hospitable guide for the day and, first, we met with the Roundham and Hyde Ward Partnership in Paignton to find out how they were coping with their stage 2 flagship application. It was interesting to hear their feedback on the process and how they felt about the competition with other possible flagship applicants in the South West region.

Next we were due to see two project sites that only recently secured funding from the programme. There was already a notice up at Shiphay Park acknowledging their success, and the sparse equipment currently on site demonstrated the visual impact Community Spaces funding will have. The rain meant the trip to Chelston Park had to be cut from the hectic schedule, but it was great to find out that the contractors were due to start work on the site soon.

It was still raining for the launch at Furzeham Green, the group had very cleverly created a ‘Plan B’ and the opening ceremony took place at the local school hall. Over 70 children showed their appreciation of the new additions to their play area by cheering and shouting ‘thank you!’ A little break from the rain meant that Friends of Furzeham Green’s Chairman, David Lilley, could show me around the completed project. It was a good example of how adding additional equipment to existing play areas can expand the range of ages catered for – and to prove this I braved the zip-wire!

Finally, as it continued to rain, I had a view of Hookhills Park from the car window, before meeting group member Henri Treece. It was good to know that Henri was thinking about the launch of the project even before the work on site had begun.

On the train journey home, I reflected that it would be nice to return in a year’s time to see the difference Community Spaces funding has made to all this sites. Note to self: Probably best to plan future visits in the summer…

More photos from the day can be seen on Flickr – please follow this link.

Landowner, Anthony Mildmay-White, officially opened the re-vamped play park.

The Friends of Holbeton Park launched their Community Spaces project to the public last weekend. Looks like they had a fantastic turn out to celebrate the opening of their £30,000 village play area based in Brent Hill, Plymouth.

If you were there to celebrate with the group and have got any stories from the day please leave comment below and let us know what you thought of the new play area.