­The official opening of the Heeley Millennium Park BMX pump track and mountain bike trail in Sheffield was a great success, with novice and expert cyclists keen to try out the new facility.

The event celebrated the completion of the 1st phase of work on the Community Spaces Flagship project by Heeley Development Trust.

The changes to the park have received overwhelmingly positive responses. Local people had the opportunity to mark the park with their own planted trees and instructors from Recycle Bikes helped cyclists to exploit their skills and gain knowledge on the new trail.

As part as of the revamp, new play facilities have been constructed and extensive tree and shrub planting has been implemented with help from local schools, volunteers, Sheffield City Council’s Tree Officer and Tinsley Tree Project.

Andy Jackson, Heeley Development Trust Manager, said at the launch: “‘Parks are vital to the way that cities work, they are the lungs of our cities, offering moments of calm, a chance to see wildlife on your doorstep. They define the character and landscape of our neighbourhoods, contributing to health, wellbeing and the economy.

“Given how important they are, it amazes me how difficult it is to fund their maintenance and how quickly their budgets are reduced. This funding from Community Spaces has transformed our park, rekindling local people’s interest and getting people excited and involved again.”

The Heeley Millennium Park is the largest community owned and managed park in Sheffield and has undergone major transformation over the last few months.

The next phase of work on the park will include the installation of new climbing boulders, a multi use games area, an art trail and further shrub and herbaceous planting.  Once the full programme of work is completed, the park will be one of a kind, reflecting the countryside on the outskirts of Sheffield, giving users a ‘peek into the Peaks.’

For more information and pictures from the event, visit the Heeley Development Trust website or see our Flickr page.

Built as part of the major revamp for the Millennium Park by BikeTrack.org  and Heeley Development Trust staff the new track is just the first part of a Community Spaces Flagship Project. The new path weaves in and out of the trees across the whole of the bottom of the park.

Andy Jackson, manager of Heeley Development Trust, which owns and manages the Millennium Park, said: “Mountain bike riding is becoming more and more popular but not everyone can get out to the Peak District or the Pennines. This track gives people a chance to practise here in the city.

”There’s something there for everyone – from beginners to the most experienced – and folk can work their way up from getting round the corners up to some very technical ‘skinnies’ “ (that’s balancing beams to the rest of us). The Trust will have bikes for people to borrow on the day, experts on hand to give advice on riding the course and there’ll be a load of free-standing obstacles for people to try out.”

There have been big changes elsewhere in the park and in the playground a new giant birdsnest swing has sprung up. Park manager Thom White says: “Swings are one of those things that people have been asking for for years. I’m just glad that the Community Spaces funding came along and let us do it.”

Things will be kicking off from noon in the Heeley Millennium Park on Well Road, just off Chesterfield Road. Local councillors Tim Rippon and Cate McDonald will be cutting the ribbon at 12.30pm.

For more information go to http://www.heeleydevtrust.com/

The Millennium Park is currently undergoing a £500,000 transformation with funding from Community Spaces and the Events and Involvement Organiser will be key to the success of the project.

This role is suitable for someone with a strong background in community engagement, in environmental activities and in events organisation. Experience of successful fund-raising and open space development would also be useful.

The job is for 30 hours per week on an initial one-year contract, with a possible extension subject to funding and comes with a salary of £19,656 pa pro rata.

The closing date is January 16.

For information contact the trust on 0114 250 0613, email
thom.w@heeleydevtrust.com or call in to the Heeley Development Trust Offices at 62-68 Thirlwell Road, Heeley, Sheffield, S8 9TF

Radio One DJ Sarah Cox and comedian Rufus Hound are about to embark on a camper van tour of the UK, showcasing National Lottery-funded projects and highlighting the difference they make to their surrounding communities.

There’s a choice of two projects in each area, with Cox and Hound only visiting the project that gets the most votes. At each location they will take part in a ‘challenge’ to be featured on the National Lottery draw show on BBC1 on Saturday November 19.

Two projects that have received Community Spaces grants are in contention – Rosliston Forestry Centre in Derbyshire representing the Midlands, and Sheffield Manor Lodge in South Yorkshire representing the North.

To vote, go the Cox and Hound Facebook page then follow the instructions on screen.

Simple!

Royd Regeneration, which secured a CS grant to renovate a memorial garden in Mytholmroyd, has been using its additional Sustainability Grant to hold events in the new garden.

The latest was held to unveil the restored statue of a soldier on the village war memorial. Children from three local primary schools came together to sing at the event and they proved such a hit that the choir is being brought back to sing at the forthcoming Remembrance Day service on November 13 as well as carol concerts in December and a “Wake up the Garden” event planned for next March.

Jade Smith of Royd Regeneration says: “The children were absolutely marvellous. They were fascinated by the history of the war memorial as almost all the 132 men named on it were from their schools and some of them were related.”

The war memorial was originally unveiled in 1922 by local First World War veteran Gilbert Hartley. It was vandalised in 1992 and the head was stolen. A replacement proved universally unpopular with villagers, says Jade.

Once the memorial garden was built, local campaigners set about finding a new head for their statue. They commissioned West Riding Stone Carvers to make a fresh replacement, which was unveiled at the latest event by Gilbert Hartley’s daughter Barbara Jeffrey, accompanied by her great-grandchildren.

Work on the statue was funded by private donations, street collections and a grant from Calderdale Council.

Jade adds: “We had the new head in place and covered with a sheet for three weeks before it was officially launched and I am delighted to say that our local youngsters respected the site and left it well alone until the unveiling.”

Here, Don Crabtree, communications rep for the Friends, explains how the group takes advantage of traditional and modern methods to let the world know what’s happening in their green corner of Doncaster.

I act as communications rep for the Friends of Sandall Park. Sounds grand but it’s not – it just means that all our communications strands are tied in together and any conflict of info is kept to a minimum.

It is fair to say that the fortunes of our group changed for the better when we developed a communications strategy for the group that linked our website to the park noticeboards – we have three.

Usually whatever appears on the website will appear – If appropriate – on the park noticeboards. Each noticeboard has the website address – www.sandallpark.org.uk – emblazoned across the top and we find that park visitors often read an article and then follow it up by visiting our website to send us a comment.

“Feeding” the noticeboards is by the far most time-consuming activity – but it is worth it as not everyone has a computer. Actually updating the website only takes minutes a day if the information is to hand.

We are on the second version of our website. The first was a DIY effort, which worked (just) but was hard work. We struggled with it but it showed us exactly what we really needed. Armed with this information we were in a position to approach a local company to design us a web site VERY, VERY cheaply. Because they were local they had a local interest and supported us accordingly. The company no longer exists but the owner and employees (now in a different business) still sponsor us.
 
Anyone that views the site will realise that the website is really a blog and the home page is the blog page. This is different to most websites. There are other standard pages but the key is the blog page as it is so easy to update and is the first thing people see and realise it is bang up to date. We try to put something on every day.

We monitor the viewing stats daily and can easily tell what is popular and the impact that an absence of items has. For example, if the web master goes on holiday we put stories on the blog in advance so they ‘pop up’ every day as we noticed that if there was a gap of week without an item visitor figures dipped dramatically and were hard to recover.

Figure-wise we get about 200 genuine visits a day or just short of 6,000 a month. These figures increase/decrease depending on park events. For example, concerts in the park attract massive numbers of visits, especially if the weather is dodgy. Likewise following events we get double the usual visits from people viewing photographs of the event or leaving comments – good and bad!

We also put updates on Facebook and the website (via Blackberry) from the actual events to let everyone know what people are missing in the park!

It is interesting that visitors to the site include Doncaster Council (which owns the park), the police and importantly the local press who use it a first port of call for stories. We actively encourage the council and the police to tell us of both good and bad news in the park – this helps to keep an interesting flow of information and different stories.

The third strand to the communications strategy is Facebook. We have a Facebook page. There are 360 ‘Friends’ signed up. We find this useful to prompt interest in park ‘happenings’ as the website relies on people initiating the visit, whereas using Facebook forces the information out to the ‘Friends’ and if worded correctly will attract them to the website for further information.

Linked to the notice boards we have most bases covered.
 
From a technical point of view the whole website is in WordPress and is free (always a bonus). It is simple to use and although I have only an average knowledge of computers I find it very easy to use and administer.

We try to make items attractive with photographs wherever possible – hard work to start with as you need a bank of standard photographs to feed the story – but once photographs have been captured they can often be reused and supplemented with up to date photos of incidents such as damage, litter or more importantly improvements made in the park and the latest work of our group.
 
I will probably regret saying this but the website is four years old and has never let us down. It is literally our shop window to the world as we get inquiries from expats all over the world but more importantly prospective funders can see we take our role in the community seriously and all our meeting minutes and key policy documents are there for the world to see and scrutinise.
 
We feel the key to the success of the website is the link we maintain between the low tech notice boards, the website and the ability to “force feed” information via Facebook. We could Tweet but we don’t.

Why not visit www.sandallpark.org.uk to see what can be done? And if you have any experiences to share about your adventures in communication please get in touch with us at Community Spaces.
* The Friends of Sandall Park received a £21,400 Community Spaces grant in 2009 to help with their work of “designing out” crime from the park.

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

Share the joy!

A little note from Lesley Jones from the Friends of Calder Holmes Park telling us about the launch of their new skatepark in Hebden Bridge;

“Fair for Youth 2011 in West Yorkshire doubled as the launch event of the newly extended skatepark in Hebden Bridge which was made possible through a grant of almost £50k from the Community Spaces programme.

The Friends of Calder Holmes Park have been working to extend the skatepark for over two and half years. When it finally launched a couple of months ago it was a testament to the patience and ongoing involvement of a group of local skaters and bikers who were finally able to celebrate the completion of the project.

A skate and BMX jam was held which attracted over 133 entrants and the day was a celebration of the achievements of the young people of Hebden Bridge and the surrounding area. The event, including the skate jam was planned and organised with significant input from the local youngsters and a popular element were the performances over the day of local bands and DJs. 

The Friends group hope that local young people of the area will remain involved by helping to raise the funds necessary to stage a similar jam event again next year.”

The pictures from the event are fantastic – we think this is going to be a well-used local resource and will hopefully give talented local skaters and bikers a space to practice and perform their skills!

The Friends of Calder Holmes, in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire raised awareness about their Community Spaces project through the use of their website and Facebook page.

The group received fantastic news in December when they were awarded £49,999 from Community Spaces to extend their current Skate Park 

The group have continued to share the news and updates with their community by keeping their Facebook page regularly updated with daily pictures and information.

Using social media sites is a great way to share your news and get people involved in your project. There is some useful information about how to set up your own social networking sites in our Publicity Toolkit, which can be found on the Community Spaces website 

Alternatively, if you are completely new to the social media world, the view our social media help pages on our blog.

To see all the latest pictures and news about Hebden Skate Park, visit their Facebook page.

We look forward to following the projects progress!

Construction has finally started for one of Community Spaces large projects. Ingham Play Park secured £100,000 of funding to turn a derelict play area into a vibrant new playground for children of all ages

Before the group received funding from Community Spaces, the play park was derelict and overgrown. Over time, the play equipment had deteriorated and had been removed by the Parish Council, as they did not have the funds to replace the equipment. This meant that the nearest play area for children was a four-mile car ride away.

 Now, the residents of Sleights village has had their wishes come true by receiving a £100,000 grant, which is paying for a complete redeveloped play area, a picnic site, along with safety surfacing and new landscaping.

 Alyson Elder and Lisa Ward, who worked hard to complete the funding applications, said “ After all the hard efforts, it’s so exciting to finally see work starting on the site. We now get to see the end result of a wonderful play area for the children of Sleights to use and enjoy.”

 The work is due to be finished in Decemeber, where the group will hold a grand opening to celebrate the new park, followed by a 12- month programme of events on the new site. We look forward to seeing the finished project in Decemeber!