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.