Leap of faith leads to greater parks usage

A project funded by Veolia Environmental Trust and more widely by The Forestry Commission's Setting the Scene For Growth programme is seeing greater usage of a run down green space at the heart of a plan to plant 1200 street,park and green spaces across Birkenhead and Bidston that will encourage greater inward investment in the docklands regeneration area and Enterprise Zone - Wirral Waters.

This small but key part of the programme started by planting a single Ginkgo tree at the top of the small hill leading up to nearby North Birkenhead Development Trust headquarters, The St James' Centre the catalyst for much good and change within the community.

With the assistance of a £67000 grant from the Veolia Environmental Trust the park space has been transformed into a lively green space with a diverse range of activity and green elements.Some 3000 bulbs are being planted as well as wildflowers to attract wildlife and especially bees to the park.

Students from Woodchurch High School help plant winter bulbs in the park -A range of crocii,daffodils large and small,snowdrops, and tulips were planted.Looking forward to spring!
Ben Greenaway Green Streets Coordinator said - 'The planting of over 70 diverse trees in the park space certainly has made the park more friendly and of a human scale attracting a wider audience to a range of play activities and incidental engagement opportunities within the park.Even people passing through can take a breather on the way to the shops of local transport connections by sitting on one of our newly installed stones.They were hollowed out of the Peak District and brought here by wagon back in August'.

The improvement activities that are ongoing, are an opportunity to engage with school children,parents,local residents and even passers by who want to get involved with nature and its connection to park spaces.

When the trees a range of ornamental and larger form species are planted - Honey locust,Indian Bean,Giant Redwood,Cherry,Swamp Cypress amongst others- visitors will be able to appreciate year round interest in shape,form,texture and colour.

Bidston Rise Residents to Get Street Trees

The residents of the Bidston Rise area of Bidston, Wirral are to get over 32 new street trees in their streets.Residents called into a drop in session to look at plans of the project this Saturday.

See plans below.

click on image to enlarge

click to enlarge - tree locations -dark circles

Jean Mc Intosh of the Bidston Rise Residents Association said 'I'm really excited to hear that the trees might now finally be going in after years of campaigning.I remember when The Mersey Forest came and planted trees in Norman Street back in 2008 and residents were very keen on having trees then'.
Ben Greenaway, project coordinator said  'these trees will brighten up the long grey streets of the estate and bring some much wanted greenery'

Consultation materials at the drop in event in November

A Portrait of Birkenhead Business - Len Grant exhibition Trees.Work now showing!

@merseyforest planting trees to improve Birkenhead business. We like the photo gallery @FriendsWAGM of the businesses http://t.co/IgAvYoyTX6
— TEP (@TEP_Ltd) November 8, 2014

A new photographic exhibition celebrating the success and diversity of Birkenhead business launches this week at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museums.You're all invited to come and see the photos until November 23rd (closed Monday Tuesday).
How to get there: CH434UE.

here are some pictures.....

Nice photos by @len_grant and @merseyforest at Williamson Art Gallery. Go and have a look. http://t.co/J0Y9xYvxgl http://t.co/5ngZIuxDy4
— Peerless Steve (@PeerlessSteve) October 27, 2014

For more on business success read more @ www.wirralwaters.co.uk/   and wirralchamber.co.uk/ and also /investwirral.com/

See photos of award winning North West companies and see the video below....





 View in full screen mode (click ikon to right)

ben‏@greenstreeter

@kelvbrownsword @TEP_Ltd When it comes to growth 1200 @merseyforest trees #Birkenhead make £6M + GVA to @WirralWaters expanding investments

Summer Festival at Ilchester Park a Success

      Local resident group North Birkenhead Development Trust lead a procession of
      community made art and banners around the park.

     Communities gathered in the park following torrential rain up to midday but a turn
      around in the weather meant that they then  enjoyed 4 hours of uninterrupted
      sunshine to show true community spirit and to enjoy ongoing improvements to their               park through the Veolia Environmental Trust Grant which has seen many new trees 
      planted in the park as well as extensive tarmaced paths being laid.

Children enjoy experiencing play at Ilchester Park

Over the coming weeks local children will be familiarising themselves with the emerging improvements at Ilchester Park. Play sessions over the summer organised by The Mersey Forest and run through

Playout, a local play organisation will focus on interaction and understanding of the value of natural play and valuing your local park.

Improvements to the park will include tree planting, natural play features such as climbing logs, improved pathways and wildflower meadows funded by Veolia Environmental Trust who have supported improvements to the park with a £67000 grant benefitting the people of Wirral.

Playout sessions will be run every Wednesday and Friday (23rd July—20th August) 12—4pm  in the run in to a big celebration event in the park on August the 23^rd from 12-4.Children of all ages are invited to take part in free open access play and craft activities and can bring a picnic.  If it’s raining, sessions will take place at the

St. James Centre nearby.

Local community workers said ‘it’s great to see so many children enjoying the improved park space and appreciating the value of natural play in a green setting, amongst all the new park trees’

Here an avenue of birches marks the site of the entrance path soon to be laid into the park.

Listen to the Zone

 The Mersey Forest worked with FACT &       Close and Remote to bring people to and  discover Bidston Moss - The Zone

 See how people interacted !

   Look Listen Learn -how has this space            affected you?  

The Zone

In this space near you!

  Listen to The Zone

The Mersey Forest would like to thank Simon Poulter and Sophie Mellor of  Close and Remote and Edwin Pink of FACT in bringing this production to Bidston Moss and the people of the Wirral and Merseyside! 

               

                   More info on The Zone

       Take a visit download The Zone Map 

“I’d never even heard of it (Bidston Moss) but my friend says we should come back and explore it 'cos it just seems so vast.”

“The Zone Project was really good, it looked at Bidston Moss in a slightly different way, not just as your bog standard nature reserve. It was about exploring what this site had been used for previously and odd artifact that had been left behind that were just a bit interesting.”

See how people feel about Bidston Moss in the context of the intervention

Find out about the Green Streets Programme

Watch the short version of our film about the programme

  

                                            click box in right hand bottom corner to go full screen!!


                                 Longer version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYF9SnSB50o

The Mersey Forest to deliver 12km of greened streets in Wirral by 2015

Read all about the tree planting in the Wirral as part of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.Part funded by the Department of Tranport. Read about the aspirations for an improved Wirral Waters and the green infrastructure around it in our Wirral case study and find out where else The Mersey Forest is planning on planting trees across Merseyside as part of the programme. http://www.merseyforest.org.uk/green_streets_case_study.pdf

The juction of Brassey Street and Laird Street

before planting

The same location after planting making the area more attractive for walking and cycling

Ilchester Park to get Investment in Access, Play and Green Infrastructure

A project to transform Illchester Park in the Wirral into a vibrant and attractive greenspace has been given a funding boost from The Veolia Environmental Trust. Ilchester Park in Birkenhead has been awarded the Community Forest Trust a grant of £67,055 through the Landfill Communities Fund towards developing the park. It is anticipated that the project, which will be delivered by 

The Mersey Forest Team, will lay new paths, plant trees and wildflowers to enhance the park's biodiversity, and install an exciting new play area. Access has been a key issue for the park with limited paths connecting from the main roads and railway station nearby.

New trees will give a greater sense of enclosure to the park whilst maintaining the open aspect that members of the community said they liked about the park. This grant will see more than £100,000 being invested in the park through The Mersey Forest since 2012. 

Speaking about the awarding of the funding, The Mersey Forest Team’s Green Streets
Co-ordinator, Ben Greenaway, said: "This is great news for our project. "The grant is very welcome and we look forward to working with the Trust team to ensure our plans become real and benefit both the community of Birkenhead and its wildlife."

Paul Taylor, executive director of The Veolia Environmental Trust, added: "This grant is a great example of how the Trust and the Landfill Communities Fund makes a real difference to all types of communities across the UK.

Further investment is being made throught the Forestry Commission's Setting The Scene For Growth Programme that The Mersey Forest are utlilising which comes from the Department of Business Innvovation and skills.This will see more than 1200 street and green space trees planted across Bidston and Birkenhead by 2015.

Looking across Illchester Park towards Birkenhead North Railway Station from Stanley Rd

As it appears now               

                                   & visualised with landscaping and trees

Tender for phase two of the programme is let for Wirral Green Streets

Further to extensive work with residents and partners the second phase of street tree planting has been tendered to companies through Cheshire West and Chester Council's CHEST, an on line procurement initiative that allows registered landscape companies to tender for this type of work.The tender will ensure that the programme realises best value for the investment in this part of Wirral and will ensure that the contract is delivered to a high specification.

Work on the tree planting is set to start in January 2014 with over 200 trees planted on Cleveland St, price St, Beaufort Rd,Shore Rd, Tower Rd and parts of Argyll and Hamilton Streets. 

 Some trees like those pictured will be removed and replaced with larger trees with a greater volume of soil in their tree pit which will help the tree realise its potential and be more sustainable in terms of helping Wirral adapt to climate change.Tree typically are 7 degrees celcius cooler under the canopy and filter pollutants out of the air on busy transport routes.

 Trees around Price St and Cleveland St will make by the approaches to and through the area more presentable and more attractive to inward investment. Business areas have increased value where green infrastructure is part of the immediate landscape.

Travel along greened sustainable transport route on you security marked bike

Travel along greened sustainable transport route on you security marked bike.

Come along to your local station to get your bike security marked for free!!

Bike Security Marking Tuesday 10th September 2013 with The British Transport Police will be at the following Liverpool rail stations to mark your bike

In Liverpool

 • Liverpool Lime Street 15:30 - 17:00

 • St Michaels Aigburth 18:00 - 20:00

 In Wirral:

 • Hamilton Square 0800 - 1030

 • Conway Park 1530 - 1800

New footbridge for Birkenhead North Station

SECOND PHASE OF IMPROVEMENT WORK TO BEGIN AT BIRKENHEAD NORTH STATION 'Work on the second phase of improvements at Birkenhead North Station is set to begin this month. Phase one saw the creation of a new 274 space car park with Blue Badge parking, lighting, CCTV coverage, secure fencing and provision of adequate drainage. Phase 2, which is due to be completed by March 2014, will see the installation of a fully accessible pedestrian bridge, equipped with passenger lifts, linking the car park to both platforms. Phase 1 was financed through the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) but the grant funding did not cover the cost of phase 2, which has been funded from a number of sources including rail industry finance, money from the Department for Transport and Merseytravel'. Hopefully the Green Streets project can get some trees along the front of Beaufort Rd to complement these works soon.

Planning Application goes in for Rampworx facility in Valley Road Bidston

Exciting news as a planning application has been submitted for a site close to recent tree planting just off Hoylake Rd.The development would be a great boon to local youth who are always looking for things to do.

More details and the site location can be viewed here:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/plans-revealed-6m-indoor-skatepark-5325666

http://www.wirral.gov.uk/planning/Docs/DMZfiles/19146_1.pdf

ABW architects

Wirral Community news said 'Ambitious designs for a £6m indoor skatepark and sporting village in Wirral have been revealed.

Rampworx has submitted plans to the council for a 5,600 sq m complex on 1.3 hectares of land off Valley Road, Bidston, that would create up to 35 jobs as well as volunteer opportunities.

The charity and social enterprise, which works with young people to provide sporting and learning opportunities, already has a skatepark in Aintree catering for around 1,300 people a week.

Rampworx has been working with Liverpool firm ABW architects on the plans and has now released artist’s impressions of how the state-of-the-art development would look.

As well as the skatepark, it incorporates a climbing wall, workshop and office space, cafe, business start-up units, a music rehearsal room, dance studio and parking.

The complex would also cater for other sports including futsal, gymnastics, roller derby, trampolining and handball.

Work on the Bidston project began in 2007 and the charity has now applied to secure planning approval for the Rampworx Youth Village Wirral development, which will allow the charity to apply for grant funding for the scheme.

Tony Berry, Rampworx development manager, said: “It will be a flagship building for extreme sports, drawing in top-level athletes from all over the world. It’s multi-use and there’s social and educational aspects too. It’s family-based, not just for kids on BMXs and scooters and would be a sporting village for the whole area.

“We’ve had backing from the community, councillors including Bidston Cllr Harry Smith and MPs Frank Field and Angela Eagle. It’s taken six years to get to this point, it’s an excellent idea but that’s all it is at the moment.

“It’s now going to planning and if we get approval we can start looking at applying for funding from the likes of Sport England and the lottery and try to make it a reality.”

Documents lodged with the plans include a feasibility study setting out the need for the facility following a public consultation.'

What you Said about Activity and Tree Planting

74% of respondents to our survey on park improvements and street trees said that street tree planting would encourage them to spend more time walking and cycling when asked at an event in the Wirral.

Consultation Underway For Ilchester Park Improvements

Over the last week leading into our Picnic in Illchester Park The Mersey Forest has been asking your views on potential improvements to Illchester Park near Birkenhead North Railway Station.We'll now look closely at your views and collate them so that we can see what you like , dislike, and want improving in the park so this can inform  any future funding bids made in partnership with Wirral Council and Wirral Partnership Homes.
We know that of the 500 people who attended the event alot of you wanted to let us know your views and we collected them in a variety of ways.Face to face interviews, form filling, sticking labels on photos, making artworks to decorate the park on the day of the picnic and video interviews.We'd like to think that your views count,so we'll be taking particular interest in the views of young people!

Click image to enlarge!

Some of your feedback about the event!

Come along to our Picnic In Illchester Park hosted by The Mersey Forest

To celebrate the planting of up to 400 new street and green space trees and several Gingko and Swamp Cypress trees in Illchester Park, The Mersey Forest is holding a picnic event in the park.

 We want residents to come and sit out on the grass, enjoy the view of the docks and give us their ideas of how the park might look in the future. 

 There will be lots to do, with: a climbing wall, a circus skills tent, african drumming workshop, cycling skills course, rides out to Bidston Moss, facepainting, crafts and much more!!

Join our facebook page! 

Click on image to view large!

How might the park look in the future?

What views might you wish to share with us about your day and the park experience?

Visitors From Forestry Commission and Mersey Travel are Impressed with Delivery to Date

This week Birkenhead and Bidston were visited by both representatives of Mersey Travel,Wirral Council and The Forestry Commission who are supporting the Wirral Green Streets and Green infrastrucutre Programme through until 2015.

The Merseyside Local Sustainable Transport fund will create a minimum of 8km of greened routes, planting over 1000 large street trees in 'green-deprived' areas leading up to the dockland areas of West and East Float in the Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone.

Mersey Travel representatives were impressed with the number and scale of the plantings that have occured in such a short timescale and the impact this will have in terms of creating greened routes for walking and cycling as part of sustainable transport options for residents wanting to access training, education and employment.

Keith Jones Forestry Commission Area Director for the North West and West Midlands said 'strategic tree and woodlands creation acts as a ‘spark plug’ to ignite wider growth' after visiting the Wirral Green Streets and Green Infrastructure plantings where 360 trees have been planted this year on Wirral's streets and green spaces across Bidston and Birkenhead.

Jane Hull, principal Advisor for Social Forestry (Place) in Forest Services for the Forestry Commission said 'I cam away with a strong sense of how the investment in green infrastrucuture was not only improving the immediate environment and prospects for the local economy, but crucially helping the confidence of investors in the positive future of Wirral Waters'

   Richard Mawdesley Projects Director for Peel Developments, who own the
   Wirral Waters site is working on a number of bids to attract further investment
   in the areas infrastructure and to attract investors to create jobs, housing and
   an accessible functional dockland area.Further information can be found on the
   Wirral Waters and Mersey Waters websites.

Local Young People Comment on Green Space and the value of Trees

Students from the Princes Trust are honing their digital skills in filming recording and interviewing themselves, each other and local residents with the help of Liz from DigiEnable to find out local views of recent tree planting and the value of trees.

Funded by The Mersey Forest's Wirral Green Streets and Green infrastructure Project, these young people are learning the ropes of social media,and online resources to assist in creating a greener Wirral in areas of greatest need and setting the scene for growth in investment in jobs.

Ed  Pink from FACT in Liverpool who have helped set up the programme said 'given that the students have only had two days of learning new skills this is an excellent first stab at understanding the views of local people and capturing the essence of the place'.

Here the group filmed Illchester Park close to Birkenhead North railway station and park and ride,the focus of a fun day celebration of the first round of plantings in the area on June 15th 2013 from 12 till 4.

Watch this space!

To follow the students work as it develops,go to www.greenstreetswirral.wordpress.com

Smooth Finish for Tree Pits

These tree pit base grilles allow water to permeate to the tree roots from rainfall through resin bound gravel,gravel infill around the tree and a serviceable watering tube, for when the contractor visits the site for maintenance as and when needed during the 5 year maintenance period.Here this tree, a Turkish Hazel is slowly coming into leaf in early May 2013.

New Tree Planting Starts Green Revolution

Here a row of Metasequoia trees go in on Hoylake Rd Bidston Wirral.Over 200 tree pits have now been dug along Wirrals streets.Part of 375 trees being planted this year and over 600 being planted by March 2015 in needy Wirral streets lacking in greenery.From grey to green the project is  greening Wirral and linking people to training and education and employment as it emerges in the nearby Wirral Waters enterprize zone.

    

    Here a new tree is installed with a grille base ready for the surface to be inlaid into the grille.
    Note the watering tube.

     Trees stretching down Hoylake Road from Bidston Village Rd
      See location mapped here:  http://goo.gl/maps/8Z4C0



   Beaufort Rd looking down towards Bidston Moss. Mapped here http://goo.gl/maps/AkSIy

Hoylake Road looking towards Bidston Village Road.Mapped here http://goo.gl/maps/nJm6O

Illchester Park on Stanley Rd looking towards Birkenhead North Station and West Float

Mapped here http://goo.gl/maps/FkiVQ

Laird St shops looking towards Birkenhead Park. Mapped here http://goo.gl/maps/ZUNk9