Community Tree planting – William Lee memorial Park, Wildlife Area

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Calverton residents plant trees at former pitch & putt

Almost one hundred Calverton residents joined a special weekend tree-planting session at the former pitch & putt site at the William Lee Memorial Park on Sunday 12th February.

Calverton Parish Council put forward the scheme to plant up the old pitch and putt site as part of Trees for Climate, a major climate change combatting scheme led by the Greenwood Community Forest initiative and funded by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The design for the site was agreed following consultation with local people.

The community event followed school sessions attended by St Wilfrid’s C of E Primary School who planted 120 native trees such as oak, birch, holly and field maple. Later in the week, Sir John Sherbrooke Junior School completed the school planting with a further 65 trees.

Nic Wort, Greenwood Community Forest, said: “It was good to welcome the schools to plant, but we also decided to hold a community tree planting event to give local people chance to get involved. I was pleased to see so many people planting over 500 trees on the day. This is another important step in our Trees for Climate programme which will see thousands-upon-thousands of new trees spring up across Greenwood Community Forest over five years.”

A further 400 trees will be planted by a contractor over the rest of the planting season to complete the design. Once completed and the trees are established the new community woodland will be accessible to all.

The Parish Council have also paid for a new access stile due to be installed at the end of March.  This will give pedestrian access off Park Road through the old Paviours field into the newly planted Wildlife Area.  There are plans for additional fruit trees to be planted in the wildlife area and to use fallen trees as seating in the picnic area during the next few months.

The Parish Council would like to thank Councillors Lorraine Brown and Joan Inger and for their hard work in bringing this vision to life and hope it will be enjoyed by residents, young and old, for many many years.

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Calverton School Children taste democracy ahead of May’s local elections

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Calverton Parish Council have completed a unique survey of village junior school children as part of the major refurbishment of both Parish Council owned parks, William Lee Memorial Park on Park Road and Seely Park on Main Street.

A working group headed up Cllr Lorraine Brown, included Cllr Joan Inger, Cllr Paul Winfield, and Cllr Andy Meads (Parish Council Chairman) produced a five year plan for the development of both parks and village hall. As part of this five year plan, a number of improvements were identified, including new play equipment at both parks.

When it came to choosing what play equipment to install at Seely Park, the working group decided to ask all the 630 or so junior school children from St.Wilfrids, Manor Park, and Sir John Sherbrooke schools to vote on what they would like. A presentation was held at each school by Cllr Meads and Cllr Inger. It was also an opportunity to talk to the children about the negative consequences of vandalism and graffiti.

Each child was supplied with seven coloured adhesive dots and a number of A4 photos of play equipment displayed for them to choose from. The total number of dots for each item of play equipment has now been collated so that the parish Council can finalise the quote and place the order from the contractor.

Work is expected to start in the summer and once completed, there will be a grand opening party.

At William Lee, the need for new bins and picnic benches (both adult and child sized) were initially highlighted along with new play equipment.  The transformation of the redundant old pitch and putt site to a new wildlife area has recently been planted with over 600 trees, many by the local community.  The village hall car park extension with improved lighting is due to start this month giving much needed additional parking for football matches and events.

Around £160,000.00 is being spent at both parks, with climbing nets and zip wires, new seating, and bins. The Parish Council are spending another £152,000.00 on the childrens play area at Seely Park, this has previously been the target for vandalism and arson.

The total spend on both parks will be over £310,000.00, none of this money is coming from residents Council Tax bills, instead it is being funded through grants and Section 106 money that Cllr Meads has claimed back from Gedling Borough Council on behalf of the Parish Council.

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Cost of Living Support event

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Worried about the rising cost of living?

The Core Centre are holding an event for information, advice and support on Tuesday 21st March between 10am and 12 noon.

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