Bournemouth

Green Bournemouth

Bournemouth is renowned for its fantastic seven miles of golden beach and award winning gardens but did you know ten of their green spaces have Green Flag status and that Bournemouth has ten Local Nature Reserves? These include a variety of habitats from saltmarsh to heathland, all within a predominantly urban borough.

The management of their reserves using grazing animals such as Shetland and Galloway cattle, Exmoor ponies and goats has been a real success story. The local council works closely with partners such as the Dorset Wildlife Trust and has good community support from a range of ‘Friends of’ groups who take pride in their local sites and help to look after them.

Becoming a Breathing Places Town was the perfect opportunity to reach out and inspire even more of their residents to get involved and make a real difference to the local environment, leaving a legacy for Bournemouth as a nature friendly place.

For more info about green spaces around Bournemouth check out the local council website

Big Green Fortnight

Bournemouth Borough Council chose the middle Saturday of its ‘Big Green Fortnight’ to launch to its residents its new status as a Breathing Places Town for the following twelve months. The sun shone on the wide range of activities on offer in the public gardens which included hands on activities such as bird box and bird feeder making.

Many partners including the RSPB were there with attractive displays and without doubt the biggest draw was the ‘Big Green Bus’ parked outside the Pavilion Theatre that had toured five schools in the area during the previous week.

A very proud Mayor of Bournemouth, Councillor Stephen Chappell, wrote a pledge on the giant Breathing Places banner to clear litter in the town saying as he did so "This initiative is first class", and an equally proud Stuart Clarke from Bournemouth Borough Council said "We were doing a lot already in the town but being a Breathing Places Town is the pinnacle. Friends groups and community groups wanted us to raise the bar and that’s exactly what we intend to do."

Mayor Stephen Chappell pledges to clear litter

Green Matters Project

Bournemouth’s newly awarded status as a “Breathing Places Town” will be further reinforced on 22nd June at an official celebration by the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Mrs Valerie Pitt-Rivers, to celebrate the expansion of a gardening project to help young people with learning difficulties.

Two years ago a pilot project was set up called ‘Gardening Matters’ between Parks Operations and Community Care Services, to create and run a fruit and vegetable plot for clients and volunteers.

The produce has been used in Kings Park Infants School to provide the children with fresh fruit and vegetables and once a year they come to visit the project. The food is prepared at Wallisdown Heights Day Centre by people with disabilities and then served by people from the Day Centre at the school.

At the beginning of this year a new organisation joined the initiative, the Education Youth Service funded by the Learning Skills Council, to initially help and then expand the ‘Gardening Matters’ project. They are bringing in young learners from the age of 16 to 25 who may have various learning difficulties or have been unable to find work since leaving school to learn the "green finger" art. The project even offers 10 young people with learning disabilities the chance to work towards achieving entry level and level 1 NVQ. The ultimate aim is for them to have clear progression pathways into voluntary or paid employment, most likely in outdoor work.