Category: Green Spaces

Improvements to leisure facilities

Thanks to £1.3 million funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), Hillingdon Council is delivering a range of improvements to the borough’s leisure facilities, public spaces, and supporting volunteer opportunities.

In Hayes, the funding is being used to identify improvements to the area around Hayes station, and in West Drayton, as part of the delivery of the new Platinum Jubilee Leisure Centre, a rooftop astroturf football pitch.

Additionally, children’s play areas in Cranford Park, Stockley Recreation Ground, Fassnidge Park and Ruislip Lido have been upgraded, with the latest modern equipment, including accessible play equipment where possible and in Cranford Park, wooden equipment was used to match the woodland setting.  Similar improvements to Shenley Park in Ruislip Manor and Hayes End Community Park, are set for completion by March, 2025.

To enhance the borough’s green spaces, new wildflower meadows have been sowed and the council’s tree-planting programme bolstered, with more than 700 young trees planted. The fund has also supported local opportunities for volunteering, including the Woodlarks and Waders group which helps look after Highgrove Woods in Eastcote and nearby waterways, as well as 36 other local volunteer positions.

Jess Lee, of the Woodlarks and Waders says their work gives them a ‘tremendous buzz’. She said: “This funding is not just paying for a rake, or a pruning saw or a pair of gloves, it is providing the magic wand that puts a little sparkle into everybody’s lives.”

Cllr Steve Tuckwell, Hillingdon Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning, Housing and Growth, said: “UKSPF support has enabled the council to accelerate its existing work programme for improvements to public spaces and facilities.

“The wide range of initiatives delivered during the past year as part of the ‘communities and place’ element of the funding is helping to ensure our borough remains green, pleasant and a brilliant place to live.”

Funding under the UKSPF is being delivered in Hillingdon across several themes: communities and place, capital programmes, supporting local business and people and skills and supplier readiness.

Find out more at www.hillingdon.gov.uk/ukspf

have your say on a rewilding project

We would like to invite you to have your say on an exciting rewilding project in Hillingdon.

London Wildlife Trust has commissioned a suitability project, that aims to study options for reconnecting Gutteridge Wood, Ten Acre Wood, and the floodplain meadows and pastures between and around these nature reserves.

We would like to invite local people and users of the area to share their issues and hopes for the area.

We would be very grateful if you could spread the word, so we listen to as many voices as possible.

Online consultation on the 23rd of January

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-consult-for-rewild-project-in-hillingdon-only-local-people-users-tickets-779989829577?aff=oddtdtcreator

if participating in the online consultation is not possible, please fill this online form:

https://forms.gle/VwPSNCSYv7BVnAMx9

Thanks and regards,

 

Alex Toledo

Conservation Ecologist 

London Wildlife Trust – London’s wildlife for the future

Colne Valley Regional Park (CVRP) campaign and five-point plan

The Colne Valley Regional Park (CVRP) has launched a campaign and a five-point plan to realise its full potential for people and wildlife and to see it preserved for future generations to enjoy. See https://www.colnevalleypark.org.uk/project/campaign/

After nearly 60 years of positive action and creating tremendous value for money on relatively little public funding, the Colne Valley Regional Park is under pressure like never before. Its recent experience is a classic and alarming illustration of precisely what is going wrong with the Green Belt nationally. But all is not lost.  If there is the political will, the Park can be at the forefront of developing pioneering solutions, that can then be shared with similar areas across the entire country.

Our campaign is focused on how the countryside can fulfil its potential now and in the future. We are pressing for implementation of a five-point plan to:

  1. Influence Local Planning
  2. Restore the Landscape
  3. Reform National Planning
  4. Establish Status (specific protection for regional parks)
  5. Protect Nature

The CVRP Trust is the organisation at the ‘coal face’, has positive proposals. But this is a five-point plan for everyone, and we need support and action from local authorities and national government if your local countryside is to be saved.

I hope your community group will actively support this campaign. In the short term:

  • Please share the weblink above and draw attention to ‘how individuals can help’ at the end of the page
  • Please lobby your local councillors and MPs about the Colne Valley Regional Park and this campaign.

If you need any further information please contact me.

Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

Regards

Stewart Pomeroy
Colne Valley Park Managing Agent
Groundwork South
www.colnevalleypark.org.uk
www.south.groundwork.org.uk

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