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.

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

20 of these projects have launched, including a natural play project by the Rogate Appeal for a Playground (R.A.P) group in Hampshire; a nature trail & access improvement project by the Friends of Bennion Pools in Leicesterhire; and Skerton Community Association’s community garden project in Lancashire.

See the New Start website for our blog about Prince Charles’s visit to the Community Spaces-funded Westgate project at Ventnor Botanic Garden in the Isle of Wight: http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/blog/article/a-regal-start-to-second-year-of-funding-for-community-spaces/

If your Community Spaces project has opened or is close to opening please tell us about it here. We’d love to hear what you’ve got planned…

Local MP Patricia Hewitt helps plant a tree on commencement day. Thanks to Bennion Pools for the photograph.

The Friends of Bennion Pools are the first Community Spaces funded project to start sharing photographs of their project via Flickr.

The group, that are based in Beaumont Leys Leicester, have secured just under £50k to re-develop a former sewer farm into a natural parkland.

The group have been one of the first to join the ‘Community Spaces Fund’ Flickr group. We hope other successful projects will be inspired by Bennion Pools and start sharing their progress snaps too!  

To find out more about Bennion Pools you can read their story here, to visit their photo stream on Flickr click here .