A Newsletter from the Huyton Environment Round Table (HEaRT)
Issue No 3 - Winter 2000 / 2001.
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Welcome to the third newsletter of the Huyton Environment Round Table (HEaRT). The group was formed to bring together members of the community and professionals who are concerned with environmental issues in Huyton. In this our third issue we hope to involve and inform you, our partners, of what is happening and how you can become involved in making the environment in Huyton a better place for all of us to live and work.
If you live in the Huyton area and are interested in representing the views of your community then please contact Jane Palmer on 0151 443 2276
Your
Views
Our newsletter provides an opportunity for you to tell us about
how you might be doing your bit to improve Huyton’s environment.
It might be what you have done in your own home, your garden or with your
community group. HEaRT is what you want to make it, so please get in touch
with any of the groups for more information or to take part in any of
the activities.
Senders of the best letters commenting on or contributing to the HEaRT newsletter will receive a free packet of wildflower seeds suitable for your garden, kindly donated by Landlife.
Send your letters to: Jane Palmer, Sustainable Development Unit, Department of Planning and Development, Knowsley MBC, PO Box 26, Archway Road Huyton, Knowsley, L36 9FB.
Sustainable Development Unit - Local Agenda 21
Over
the past few months the Local Agenda 21 project has delivered a number
of community training courses. These courses aim to raise awareness of
the effect that our lifestyles have on the environment and also to support
opportunities for local people to voice their opinions about how the future
should be planned.
Introduction to Environmental Issues – has been developed to give local residents a greater understanding of Local Agenda 21 and global environmental issues such as climate change, ozone depletion and acid rain. The course also involves many site visits, including the Catalyst Museum, an electricity generating station and the Alcan aluminium recycling plant. To date just under twenty local residents have taken part in this course.
Muddy Wellies - Continuing in the tradition of Alan Titchmarch and Charlie Dimmock, two gardening courses have taken place over the summer. Twenty local residents have completed a qualification in horticulture, learning new skills such as planting for all year round colour, hanging baskets, sowing seeds, propagation, soil types and the influences of sun and shade. All those taking part have also enjoyed a free trip to Ness Gardens on the Wirral. (more in Huyton Today)
Community Project Management – is designed to provide residents and community groups with all the skills that they will need to start and run community projects. Local residents from three community groups in Huyton are currently attending the course and will receive accreditation in the new year.
All of the courses are delivered through the Huyton Local Agenda 21 project, funded through the Huyton HELP SRB Partnership. Plans are in place to run similar courses in the new year. For more information or to book a place call Jane Palmer on 0151 443 2276.
Picture: Students visiting the Catalyst Museum in Widnes, the birth place of th chemical industry
Picture: Local residents celebrate the opening of St John’s Millennium Green
Sawpit Park in Huyton is one of 3 parks in Knowsley to have achieved the prestigious Green Flag Award for quality (the others being Halewood Park and St Chad’s Park in Kirkby). The Green Flag is awarded annually to those parks judged to be the best in the country! At present only 55 meet the high standards required. (more in Huyton Today...)
Sawpit Park re-opened in September 1999 after a complete refurbishment. Children from local schools were behind the imaginative maze design of the park that also includes a ‘castle’, ‘moat’ and ‘magic orchard’, set off by colourful, year-round planting schemes and distinctive railing designs and floor mosaics.
The
nearby St John’s Millennium Green was opened on 15th October
2000 with 300 people attending the celebrations, led by the Mayor of Knowsley.
The Millennium Green has been part funded through the Countryside Agency
and is leased to the community for 999 years. Formerly part of Sylvester
School, the Green is one of 487 Millennium Greens across the country.
Knowsley has a second Millennium Green at Millbrook in Kirkby.
Local people have helped transform the field into a place where local people can relax and children can play close to peoples’ homes. The Millennium Green has improved drainage, new footpaths, an events area and an ‘amphitheatre’, and trees to provide character and shade. School children investigated the history of the local area and incorporated their ideas into the final design.
The Parks and Countryside Service is based at the National Wildflower Centre in Court Hey Park, Roby Road, Huyton Knowsley, L16 3NA. For general enquiries telephone 443 3682 or visit our website at www.knowsley.gov.uk/leisure/parks/index.html
November sees the completion of the 2000/ 2001 HERP School Grounds Project. All the schools undergo a comprehensive consultation process which began in September last year. Individual schools produce relevant ideas to improve the environment of the grounds and enable the pupils to make the most out of playtimes.
The children at Brookside Primary in Stockbridge Village, have seen their playground come alive with a brightly painted dragon on the playground, a wooden maze which is very popular with the pupils and also planting of shrubs along the edge of the grounds.
St Dominic Infants have had a small play area painted using a water theme, with a pond, stepping stones, frogs and fish. Benches have also been installed complimented by brightly painted word plaques created through the Ford Jaguar Initiative.
St Gabriel’s C of E Primary improvements were orientated towards structural changes to the playground. The installation of a new drainage system, and resurfacing of the top playground now prevents the playground from becoming water-logged after heavy rain and has created a more usable play area for the children.
Roby Park Primary have a new paved circular area surrounded by landscaping and some new trees. Benches have been installed to create an area where parents can congregate when picking up the children.
All projects are managed through the Huyton Environmental Regeneration Programme and funded through Huyton HELP SRB Partnership. For more information contact: Hayley Misell on 443 2278.
Butleigh
Activity Group is a voluntary organisation run by Val Mather. Val
has been doing this for the last six years and organises day trips to
Theme Parks, Educational Centres, Street Parties and weekends away.
The group recently visited The Victorian School of the 3Rs in Llangollen,
North Wales. The children thoroughly enjoyed a lesson on how strict school
life was in Victorian times – indeed young Kenny Owens discovered to his
astonishment how strict it really was (below)!
Val does her own fund raising with the help of local residents to provide a host of activities for youngsters in Butleigh Road. All the children and adults of Butleigh Road have benefited greatly from the groups efforts.
If anyone would like any information about starting up a group in their own road contact Val on 0151 489 5347.
The £4m million National Wildflower Centre in Court Hey Park, Knowsley is a millennium project to encourage better understanding of wildflowers in our environment. The Centre will be fully open to visitors from April 2001 (Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm, entry fee payable).
In the meantime, there are special events such as a planned Spring Flower week in February when primroses, cowslips and other spring flowers will be on sale in the walled garden. The Children’s Junior Watch Group continues to meet every month when children can enjoy fun activities with an environmental theme.
Volunteers are always welcome to work in the garden at the centre to pot, seed and plant, from 10am to 4pm until the 14th December, recommencing in the New Year.
For more information about Landlife or any of the activities mentioned contact the National Wildflower Centre on 0151 737 1819.