Working with the community

The Parks Services Team has worked with local communities across the city to set up a number of friends groups and associations who wish to develop an active role in their local park, open space or woodland. Some go on to adopt constitutions which enable them to form Friends Groups, while others, such as schools and special needs organisations, see this as an opportunity to create ties to the natural environment around them.

Park friends

Friends groups generally consist of local people who meet regularly and on a voluntary basis, to develop ideas for community activities and to take an active role in the decision-making processes for the upkeep of their park/open space/woodland.

Activities which have become common place through the work of Friends Groups include shrub and/or bulb planting days, litter picking initiatives, clean up days, neighbourhood watch schemes and summer fun days.

Established groups within the city are:

• Friends of The Hoe
• Big Park Millennium Green, Beverston Way
• Friends of Freedom Fields Park
• Friends of Hartley Park
• Friends of Penlee Eco Park
• Friends of Victoria Park
• Friends of Devonport Park

School groups

Parks Services maintain the grounds of more than fifty schools in Plymouth and encourages  them to enrich their schools natural environment by providing them with advice and guidance, in addition to co-ordinating the supply of plants, bulbs and woodchip if required.

Initiatives with local school children are varied and range from enabling them to participate in planting days, where they work with members of the Parks Services Teams and Friends to plant bulbs, shrubs or young trees, to addressing vandalism issues of young trees with the Adopt a tree scheme. It may even lead to working with local community artists to develop ideas for arts and sculptures in the parks, or helping to celebrate an event in the park.

Special needs groups

The Parks Services team has forged strong links with a number of Special Needs Groups to provide safe places, materials and equipment where supervised activities can be carried out. Partnerships of this type exist with the following groups:

• The Dove Project (Beaumont Park)
• Probation Service
• Devonport Park Training Centre
• Plymouth Industrial Services

If you have any questions about these groups and partnerships, or wish to discuss your idea for a community led initiative, please contact the Park Services Team.

If you have any questions about any of the groups, or the work that is undertaken please contact the Park Services Team.

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