Bryer Road Environmental Group celebrated the opening of their new natural play area in style by throwing a fun filled launch event. The group’s facilitator, David Hammond, reflects on how the play area has been transformed.

The hard work by the Bryer Road Environmental Group (BEG) in Prescot, Knowsley, has been rewarded this month with the launch of a natural play area which brings the beach to the centre of Prescot.

The natural play area is the third and final phase of a landscape master plan created back in 2001 with the help of local Groundwork Trust, Groundwork Merseyside.

A Surestart-funded children’s playground was the first phase of the project, sited behind the Bryer Road Community Centre.  A community garden & outdoor education area (used regularly by the children of nearby St Mary and St Pauls schools) was phase two. 

The natural play area – paid for with £35,000 of Community Spaces funding – is the third and most ambitious phase of the project.  It provides a range of challenging and fun equipment for both young and older children, including a wooden climbing frame, a tunnel, lookout post and boulder slope.   Rather than rubber or wood chip, the surface under the climbing frame is play sand, which is proving a hit with the local children.

Parents and tired children can enjoy taking a break on some very special benches.  Carved from solid logs with a chainsaw, the benches feature an array of wildlife.  Woodlice and centipedes crawl across the surface and a mole, dormouse and owl are just some of the creatures that peer out of the timber.

At the launch event, the face painting was as popular as ever.  And so a parade of young vampires, superheroes and animals enjoyed herb planting with the charity Landlife (based at the nearby National Wildflower Centre), jewellery making and a bouncy castle.  The mayors of Whiston and Prescot both visited to be shown around the play area by the BEG members.

Local residents enjoying the sunshine thought the new play area was fantastic.  One lady said ‘It’s like bringing the beach into Prescot. We will bring buckets and spades and stay all day.’

To see the fantastic photos from the launch event, visit our Flickr page.

Nine months after Abbs Cross Community Garden launched, Stafford Robbins, Chairman of the project, reflects on how their Community Spaces project has dramatically changed their local area.

It was always envisaged there would be a great deal of positive feedback for the Community Garden Project from residents. Most of them had sadly lived with the tarmac for many, many years and truly did not think the idea would ever become a reality. What has been particularly significant is the increase in numbers of people passing through the estate who are amazed and impressed at the change the garden has made to their daily walk to work, school or even just going shopping.

Our Community Group has a membership of around 280 residents, and throughout the long road from planning, obtaining funds and the eventual construction of their garden, the whole community has been drawn closer together with a realisation that great things are possible when just a small group of people with a big idea and lots of support work together. The residents now have the evidence of this significant achievement located right in the centre of their estate.

During the development of the project the members of our Group were asked to learn new skills and tackle a variety of unfamiliar tasks, such as garden design to suit all ages, and how to present a strong case with a viable project when seeking funds. High on the agenda was the formation of a ‘Garden Club’ to ensure not just the continued sustainability of the project but also the cultivation of communal areas of the estate that had been unused for many years. It is not difficult to see the wide-ranging benefits that the project has provided for all the residents.

With all the different aspects of the whole Community Garden it is difficult to highlight just one specific outstanding feature. However if pressed for a single item above all else, then it has to be the aesthetic value of the garden as a centrepiece to an estate that has truly ‘cleaned up its act’ during the three years it has taken to complete the project.   

To read more about some of the completed Community Spaces projects, visit the case study section on our website at: www.community-spaces.org.uk/default.aspx?page=55

The Friends of Evington Park in Leicester have entered their Community Spaces funded project to this years National Lottery Awards.

The Awards celebrate and recognise the nations favourite lottery-funded projects from across the country.

The Friends of Evington Park group secured just over £25k to create an outdoor gym in their park. To find out more about their project click here.

Entries to the awards are open until 5pm on 19th February 2010 – anyone hoping to enter their project needs to act fast! You can enter your project by visiting: http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards

We’d like to wish the Friends of Evington Park all the very best with their entry to the Awards – Good Luck!

The gardens used to be a magnet for anti-social behaviour, having fallen into significant decline over a number of years. But now, it is an oasis in one of the most densely populated, built-up areas of London.

The top three Best Heritage Projects will be decided by a public vote. To register your vote visit: 

www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards.

 NB This project is not part of the Community Spaces programme.