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

    

Tree Pits start to go In on Wirral Streets

As the winter weather recedes however briefly this week and for once the sun shines, so it does on the progress of the planting of up to 375 new street and green space trees along Wirral streets in Bidston and St James and Birkenhead south of the Wirral Docks at West and East Float.

We hear from one happy resident commenting on infrastructure funding in the Wirral Globe 

'bloodtub' says... 

 Tue 26 Feb 13"  more trees ,it will look nice"

We hope so! With over 12 different varieties of trees going in there's still more opportunities before March 2015 to choose you shade - not only of cooling effect trees on those hotter summer days but of colourful spring summer and autumn shades.

With funding from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills The Mersey Forest is making the best use of the Newlands Project through the stuardship of The Forestry Commission as part of its Setting The Scene For Growth Programme.Linking areas of employment need with areas of upcoming employment whilst encouraging active travel modes through walking and cycling.The Local Sustainable Transport Fund part funded by The Department of Transport is helping get people to work but targeting polution hotspots with improved opportunities for alternative transport through improved bus services and local linking infrastructure like cycle lanes, bike hire and travel plans.The Mersey Forest is using LSTF funds to find out what makes residents more likely to use alternative travel modes to get to areas of Work, Education and Training.