Sandra Hoisz (Programme Manager, Communities and Young People) to present an overview of work undertaken in Haringey.
Minutes:
The panel agreed to invite a number of community groups to attend to present some of the work that is being undertaken in Haringey. The focus of this work was to:
· Help raise the profile of local environmental community groups in the borough;
· Help to build links with members and council services;
· Identify current work challenges and make recommendations on how these may be overcome;
· Identify opportunities to extend work and improve outcomes in the borough.
Groundwork is a charity that has been delivering environmental regeneration projects for 30 years. The group has a long history of working in Haringey (8 years) and has worked with the Council, Homes for Haringey and voluntary sector groups. A key approach of groundwork is to work with and empower local residents. The group offers:
· Consultation, design and implementation expertise;
· Professional input into local environmental projects (landscape architecture, project management);
· Community engagement and capacity building skills;
· Employment skills and training.
Groundwork London helps people and organisations make changes in order to create better neighbourhoods, to build skills and job prospects and to live and work in a greener way. A six year funding agreement is in place with the council which Groundwork use to attract further funding into the Borough. The panel noted that an additional £565k of external funding has been secured towards projects in Haringey over the past 2 years.
A key area of work for Groundwork is to produce Master Plans for Parks development and produces 3 per year. A typical landscape project on a park or open space will involve an extensive period of consultation and with work being coordinated by a local stakeholder group. Once a design has been agreed, Groundwork will work to secure the required funding, typically through charitable trusts, the Big Lottery and landfill funding awards. Once secured, the project will be delivered in partnership with the council. Past development projects included:
· Fairland’s Park (£270k); LBH, Big Lottery, LMT and Veolia
· Stationers Park (£160k) – LBH, Biffa, Big Lottery LTWGS
· Ducketts Common (£250k);
Groundwork also support the development of Community Action Plans which help to guide local people’s efforts to look after green spaces. This plan is developed in partnership with LBH, residents and local groups and sets out tasks and responsibilities for implementation. Local groups are trained to help build capacity.
A time-bank is also supported by Groundwork in which the skills and experience of local people (e.g. cooking, baking, woodcraft) are exchanged for other services. This service operates out of Winkfield Road, has 200 members and exchanged over 5,000 volunteer hours.
The panel noted that a community gardening scheme is in operation, which seeks to bring back in to use small areas of land which are neglected or abandoned. There is a good partnership with Homes for Haringey, which has helped to identify local green spaces on housing estates and facilitated community engagement and involvement. In Ferry Lane, there were 30 local residents involved in community gardening. Other outcomes from this work include:
· Skill building, improved confidence;
· Community cohesion;
· Access to cheap fruit and vegetables.
The panel noted that employment, skills and training is provided through Green Teams. This scheme offers accredited training to dedicated groups (young people, vulnerable people) to learn new skills, gain qualifications and enhance employment prospects as well as helping to create better greener places. There are two schemes in operation in Haringey one within Homes for Haringey (vulnerable tenants scheme) and the other within LBH Parks (parks maintenance). The Green Team maintain 3 parks in Haringey including Downhills and Chestnuts,
The panel noted the key priorities for commissioned work in Haringey for 2013-2015 include:
· Master Planning for Parks;
· Community Action Plans;
· Capacity building for local groups;
· Local volunteer and recruitment;
· Developing effective marketing and publicity;
· Working with hard to reach groups;
· Employment, skills and training;
· Fundraising.
The panel noted that key outcomes delivered by Groundwork included:
· Bringing together, social, economic and environmental regeneration and improving local green parks and spaces;
· On average, 650 days of active involvement of local adults and young people in local projects
· Fundraising ability: £565,000 of external funding secured to projects in 2 years;
· Supporting two Green Teams (Employment, skills and training to local people).
The panel indicated that there was significant potential to build and extend upon the principles embodied through the work of Groundwork, in particular using community engagement and involvement to indentify, cultivate and maintain small pockets of neglected green spaces across the borough. This approach could help to bring community ownership / involvement in to green regeneration and bring neglected areas back in to use.
It was noted by the panel that a significant factor in the success of local projects was the degree to which local residents, community groups and friends of parks could be engaged and involved. The panel noted that the presence of strong, effective and mobilised community groups was a significant factor in the success of such projects (e.g. Lordship Recreation ground), though local engagement varied across the borough.
The panel noted that current sites supported by Groundwork for community gardening were on the whole, those nominated by officers (in consultation with other bodies). The panel suggested that there should be a more organic or ‘bottom up’ approach to the identification of potential sites to be developed, and indicated that there should be a mechanism through which to consult local communities to help identify areas of neglected green space in each ward.
Agreed: that a mechanism is created through which to consult local residents to help indentify ‘pocket sites’ to be potentially redeveloped as community green-space (e.g. community garden).
Similarly, the panel felt that the selection of sites for redevelopment could also help to ‘designing out’ those sites associated with fly tipping, particularly if these were cross referenced with Veolia and Neighbourhood Action Team data NAT).
Agreed: that Veolia and NAT fly-tipping data further informs the selection of pocket sites for potential redevelopment.
It was noted in discussions, that whilst conversions of pocket sites would not necessarily problematic, that maintenance and upkeep of such sites would represent much more of a challenge. There were however, examples presented to the panel of such pocket sites which could be very low maintenance e.g. green roofs, green walls and rain gardens.
In addition, the panel noted that there were many instances where new development had created small pockets of land which were neglected. It was acknowledged that in respect of technical guidance on landscaping there was lack of in-house expertise, and that the planning service would welcome further input. It was suggested that the experience and skills of Groundwork could be put to greater effect in design consultation stage of local development to ensure that potential ‘dead land’ is not incorporated within plans and to maximise the greening of local development.
Agreed: that Groundwork would attend a future meeting of the Development Management team to provide further expertise and guidance as to how green spaces can incorporated in to new development and minimise the occurrence of ‘dead spaces’ that could become neglected.
Agreed: That the sustainable Design Guidelines would be reassessed.
The Chair and the panel thanked Groundwork for attending and for giving a full and informative account of its work in the borough.