GROUNDWORKnews

Photograph: Climbing ball at the Micklefield Diamond Jubilee Play Area

Creating better placesOne of GROUNDWORK’s best-known services is helping people come together to make their surroundings greener, safer and healthier.

Every year we work with community groups and partners to create exciting new uses for their local greenspaces, and strengthen the green infrastructure of our towns and cities. From pocket parks, play areas, green roofs and biodiversity projects, to landscape visioning, Groundwork leads the way in community design. By working together we are able to create bespoke places which meet the needs and aspirations of the user and increase pride and connection to the environment. Here are some of our recent and current projects:

Total funding: £Total funding: £150,000

Marlborough Towers & Marlborough GrangeMarlborough Towers, situated close to Leeds city centre, is a 1960s, 17-storey block of flats surrounded by 7 blocks of maisonettes.

Some of the surrounding public spaces had fallen into decline over the years, making them unusable and attractive locations for anti-social behaviour. The Marlborough Residents Association were keen to turn this situation around and reclaim the areas for the benefit of those living there.

Groundwork has worked with the group, the wider community, and West North West Homes Leeds to develop plans which involve creating two new green roofed gardens: one in the form of a growing area and the other a high quality seating area.

Work started on site in February. The finished gardens will also include unusual features such as a greenhouse made from eco-friendly materials, wood cladding to disguise a wall of old sheds, and pear trees.

Shakespeare Community GardensThe three Shakespeare Towers, near St James’ hospital in Leeds, are home to over 300 families, all with no gardens of their own and limited access to communal green space in their immediate area.

This scheme - currently coming to fruition on site - will provide these families with three interconnecting community gardens around the towers, featuring informal seating areas, timber planters, planting beds, new trees and shrubs, spring bulbs, and blackcurrant, gooseberry and redcurrant shrubs.

Residents will be able to sit, relax and enjoy fresh air, children will be able to use the space for informal play, and everyone will have the opportunity to have go at growing their own food.

As the gardens will be linked it will also be possible to walk through the community in a safe, attractive setting away from traffic.

GROUNDWORK is the community charity with a green heart, working to:

Improve people’s prospects

Promote greener living and working

Create better places

•

•

•

Micklefield Diamond Jubilee Play AreaThe installation of a skate park at Micklefield Recreation Ground had successfully catered for older children and teenagers, with younger children left without a quality play space. The Micklefield Regeneration Partnership and Micklefield Parish Council worked together to explore the possibility of turning an overgrown and unnattractive area of the grounds into a state of the art play area and, with assistance from Groundwork, successfully attracted funding.

The completed play area includes an impressive 10m slide, zip wire, climbing ball, swings, roundabout, and informal play features. Additional improvements included new pathways, seating and planting.

Opened in 2012, it is hoped the combination of traditional play equipment and informal play features will encourage imaginative play, and that the new improved facilities - alongside the existing skatepark - will attract a broader range and age of users for years to come.

Final corner for three-year youth programme

All good things must come to an end, and sadly this is the case for our three-year programme Turning the Corner (TTC).

TTC has been busy helping young people take ownership of their local areas, as well as improve relationships between the young people and local business owners to benefit the community as a whole.

In total we worked with over 400 young people in Leeds, Bradford and Calderdale, either linking them up with local businesses or amenities such as their local park. Some groups worked with local takeaways to collaborate on healthier meal options, design menus and decorate shutters, while others created mosaics to help give their local charity shop or youth centre more of an identity. Many more examples and photographs can be found at: www.turningthecorner.uk.com/mycorner-leeds.php

TTC may have ended, but this doesn’t mean its legacy won’t live on. Now the links have been forged it is hoped they will continue to thrive and keep benefitting the local communities and young people alike.

Images: Top - street art at the Windhill Skate Park, Brad-ford; bottom left - sheep sculpture outside The Palace, Chapeltown, Leeds; bottom right - mosaic outside the Noah’s Ark charity shop, Ovenden, Halifax.

£140kinvestment

£95kinvestment

100kinvestment

generated £10 of match funding for every £1 of Leeds City Council Project Support

Fund invested

In2011/12 we:

In total, we estimate that over 6,000 people have benefitted from our land improvements

£1.2M of additional match funding for capital projects from

a diverse range of sources

Welcome to our spring newsletter!As spring is the time for all things new, our newletter has had its own little re-vamp. We hope you like it.

Creating better places, one of our three core objectives, is the main focus of this edition. We feature three projects - one completed and two in progress - which illustrate a range of different communities’ ideas, needs and aspirations, and the range of solutions we have developed to meet them.

We’re delighted to highlight our continuing work in partnership with Leeds City Council and the crucial land improvement schemes that increase people’s access to local greenspace.

Adrian Curtis Executive Director

Creating better placesOne of GROUNDWORK’s best-known services is helping people come together to make their surroundings greener, safer and healthier.

Every year we work with community groups and partners to create exciting new uses for their local greenspaces, and strengthen the green infrastructure of our towns and cities. From pocket parks, play areas, green roofs and biodiversity projects, to landscape visioning, Groundwork leads the way in community design. By working together we are able to create bespoke places which meet the needs and aspirations of the user and increase pride and connection to the environment. Here are some of our recent and current projects:

Total funding: £Total funding: £150,000

Marlborough Towers & Marlborough GrangeMarlborough Towers, situated close to Leeds city centre, is a 1960s, 17-storey block of flats surrounded by 7 blocks of maisonettes.

Some of the surrounding public spaces had fallen into decline over the years, making them unusable and attractive locations for anti-social behaviour. The Marlborough Residents Association were keen to turn this situation around and reclaim the areas for the benefit of those living there.

Groundwork has worked with the group, the wider community, and West North West Homes Leeds to develop plans which involve creating two new green roofed gardens: one in the form of a growing area and the other a high quality seating area.

Work started on site in February. The finished gardens will also include unusual features such as a greenhouse made from eco-friendly materials, wood cladding to disguise a wall of old sheds, and pear trees.

Shakespeare Community GardensThe three Shakespeare Towers, near St James’ hospital in Leeds, are home to over 300 families, all with no gardens of their own and limited access to communal green space in their immediate area.

This scheme - currently coming to fruition on site - will provide these families with three interconnecting community gardens around the towers, featuring informal seating areas, timber planters, planting beds, new trees and shrubs, spring bulbs, and blackcurrant, gooseberry and redcurrant shrubs.

Residents will be able to sit, relax and enjoy fresh air, children will be able to use the space for informal play, and everyone will have the opportunity to have go at growing their own food.

As the gardens will be linked it will also be possible to walk through the community in a safe, attractive setting away from traffic.

GROUNDWORK is the community charity with a green heart, working to:

Improve people’s prospects

Promote greener living and working

Create better places

•

•

•

Micklefield Diamond Jubilee Play AreaThe installation of a skate park at Micklefield Recreation Ground had successfully catered for older children and teenagers, with younger children left without a quality play space. The Micklefield Regeneration Partnership and Micklefield Parish Council worked together to explore the possibility of turning an overgrown and unnattractive area of the grounds into a state of the art play area and, with assistance from Groundwork, successfully attracted funding.

The completed play area includes an impressive 10m slide, zip wire, climbing ball, swings, roundabout, and informal play features. Additional improvements included new pathways, seating and planting.

Opened in 2012, it is hoped the combination of traditional play equipment and informal play features will encourage imaginative play, and that the new improved facilities - alongside the existing skatepark - will attract a broader range and age of users for years to come.

Final corner for three-year youth programme

All good things must come to an end, and sadly this is the case for our three-year programme Turning the Corner (TTC).

TTC has been busy helping young people take ownership of their local areas, as well as improve relationships between the young people and local business owners to benefit the community as a whole.

In total we worked with over 400 young people in Leeds, Bradford and Calderdale, either linking them up with local businesses or amenities such as their local park. Some groups worked with local takeaways to collaborate on healthier meal options, design menus and decorate shutters, while others created mosaics to help give their local charity shop or youth centre more of an identity. Many more examples and photographs can be found at: www.turningthecorner.uk.com/mycorner-leeds.php

TTC may have ended, but this doesn’t mean its legacy won’t live on. Now the links have been forged it is hoped they will continue to thrive and keep benefitting the local communities and young people alike.

Images: Top - street art at the Windhill Skate Park, Brad-ford; bottom left - sheep sculpture outside The Palace, Chapeltown, Leeds; bottom right - mosaic outside the Noah’s Ark charity shop, Ovenden, Halifax.

£140kinvestment

£95kinvestment

100kinvestment

generated £10 of match funding for every £1 of Leeds City Council Project Support

Fund invested

In2011/12 we:

In total, we estimate that over 6,000 people have benefitted from our land improvements

£1.2M of additional match funding for capital projects from

a diverse range of sources

Welcome to our spring newsletter!As spring is the time for all things new, our newletter has had its own little re-vamp. We hope you like it.

Creating better places, one of our three core objectives, is the main focus of this edition. We feature three projects - one completed and two in progress - which illustrate a range of different communities’ ideas, needs and aspirations, and the range of solutions we have developed to meet them.

We’re delighted to highlight our continuing work in partnership with Leeds City Council and the crucial land improvement schemes that increase people’s access to local greenspace.

Adrian Curtis Executive Director

-

Printed on 100% recycled paper

GROUNDWORK is the community charity with a GREEN heart, working to:

Improve people’s prospectsPromote greener living and workingCreate better places

GROUNDWORK Leeds operates across Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees, working on hundreds of local projects each year. We focus our activity on disadvantaged communities where we can make most difference.

Groundwork Leeds, Environment & Business Centre, Merlyn-Rees Avenue, Morley, Leeds, LS27 9SL

Tel - 0113 238 0601 www.groundwork.org.uk/leeds

•••

Yes, your friendly neighbourhood environmental charity has been hard at work in Leeds for a whole 25 years! To mark the occasion we’re looking back at a range of projects from the last quarter of a century in a special online retrospective. Amongst other things, you can find out how we began, plus see the incredible transformation of the old Rothwell Collieries into Rothwell Country Park. More past projects will be added throughout the year.

Visit: www.groundworkleeds25.org.uk

What’s new?

@GroundworkLeeds

Stop-motion greenimation

Our new Green Media Workshops encourage adults to unleash their creativity, trying out photography, drawing and stop-motion animation, and creating work inspired by the environment – whether the local streets, the nearest park, or the global environment.

Previous participant, Stuart Pailing, said: “This course has been great fun and really interesting. I had seen animated films always thought it looked difficult to do, but now I have the skills needed to make animations at home with the kids. The Green Media Workshops have also shown me how to make the most of my camera. I enjoyed it so much I’ve volunteered to help on the next course!”

Sessions continue until July 2013, including a special week-long course during Adult Learners’ Week in May. Please see our website for more details (including photos and videos created by participants), or contact Josh Daykin on 0113 238 0601 or 07739 164945 / joshua.daykin@groundwork.org.uk for more information.

New ‘Men’s Shed’ for Leeds

Name:Gemma Tilley

Role:Assistant Environmental Business Advisor

How do you take your tea?Builders tea or milky coffee with two sweeteners

Best thing about your job:The friendly atmosphere and open appreciation and acceptance of ferrets

Green for Go-ing further!

Men in Sheds is a brand new project for Leeds aiming to bring men from all backgrounds together on a regular basis to take part in practical activities such carpentry and woodturning. Aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at older men, the ‘shed’ aims to build people’s skills and confidence, while encouraging social interaction. It is based on the international and highly successful “Men’s Sheds” movement.

Working in partnership with Age UK Leeds - and funded by Leeds City Council - the Leeds ‘shed’ will be setting up home in south Leeds shortly.

For more details please contact Will Gore on 0113 238 0601 / will.gore@groundwork.org.uk. You can also visit www.ageuk.org.uk or www.menssheds.org.uk to find out more about successful sheds already set up in other areas.

Green for Go - which has enjoyed a number of different incarnations - is returning to Leeds in the form of a series of workshops at the Osmondthorpe Resource Centre.

Aimed at adults with disabilities the workshops will focus mainly on carpentry and joinery skills, with a view to creating bird boxes, planters, bird tables, seating, and a variety of other garden items. The workshops are due to start in April and will run for twelve weeks.

For more information, please contact John Cummins on 0113 238 0601 / jcummins@groundwork.org.uk. For more information about Green for Go in Kirklees, please visit www.greenforgokirklees.org.uk