Over a thousand people who expressed an interest in volunteering in Brighton & Hove’s parks and open spaces are being contacted by the council asking how they would like to contribute.
Last autumn the council staged its Big Parks Consultation on priorities for parks, given that it had to save £600,000 from its parks budget over four years.
Around 3,500 people responded to the survey – a record for such a consultation in the city. Email addresses were provided by 1,100 people who said they could be contacted about volunteering in parks.
Would-be volunteers are now being emailed and invited to events over the coming months, where they can meet parks staff and find out how to get involved. Everyone is welcome.
The response will help the council’s Cityparks service put detail on its plans to create a high-quality volunteering service, to supplement, rather than replace, paid staff.
Cllr Gill Mitchell, chair of the environment, transport and sustainability committee, said: “We want to say thank you very much to over 1,000 people who gave us their email address indicating an interest in volunteering. Now we’re really keen to harness that enthusiasm and find out how this goodwill can be turned into activity to improve our parks.”
Full details of volunteering in the city’s parks, click here:
Two types of events have been lined up during May, June, July and August – there are ’clean-up days’ and ‘introduction to volunteering’ days.
♦ Introduction to volunteering: These sessions involve meeting a park ranger for a short while, walking around a site, looking at the sort of thing volunteers can do there and elsewhere:
♦ Saturday, May 6, 11am: Waterhall – meet below the Rugby Club car park
♦ Saturday May 27, 2pm: St Ann’s Well Gardens – meet by the park well
♦ Sunday May 28, 11am: Stanmer Park – meet at the Lower Lodges park entrance
♦ Friday June 2, 11am: Ladies Mile – meet at the end of Ladies Mile Road
♦ Clean-up Days: These sessions involve meeting ranger, helping clean up and learning how to assist in keeping a local green space cleaner. General parks volunteering opportunities can be discussed:
♦ Sunday, May 28, from 10am: Hove Park – meet adjacent to the play area
♦ Sunday, June 11, from 10am: Easthill Park – meet adjacent to the play area
♦ Saturday, July 22, from 10am: Preston Park – meet adjacent to the play area
♦ Bank holiday Monday, August 28, from 10am: Bevendean Avenue – meet at The Avenue, opposite Nisa
At each venue volunteers should look out for a Cityparks vehicle.
Anyone interested in volunteering can email: cityparks.volunteers@brighton-hove.gov.uk or click here:
An update report on the Open Spaces Strategy will go to the Council’s environment committee on June 27.
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