Name of meeting: CABINET Date: 7 October 2014

Title of report: Country Park - update

Is it likely to result in spending or YES saving £250k or more, or to have a significant effect on two or more electoral wards?

Is it in the Council’s Forward Plan? YES

Is it eligible for “call in” by Scrutiny? YES

Date signed off by Director & name Jacqui Gedman – 25/09/2014

Is it signed off by the Director of David Smith – 19/09/2014 Resources?

Is it signed off by the Assistant Julie Muscroft – 25/09/2014 Director - Legal & Governance?

Cabinet member portfolio STREETSCENE AND HOUSING

Electoral wards affected: Dewsbury South, Dewsbury West,

Ward councillors consulted: All

Public or private: PUBLIC

1. Purpose of report To inform and update Cabinet regarding progress on the continuing creation of Dewsbury Country Park. To approve the allocation of £50k, already identified, from Investment & Regeneration’s Capital Plan to support the car park and other access improvements which form part of this scheme.

2. Key points 2.1 Background

The development of the Lower Spen Valley Country Park, now termed Dewsbury Country Park, was included in the proposals for restoration which were drawn up when planning the former Lower Spen Valley Landfill Site, around 20 years ago. The early problems with methane on site were overcome, and the initiative was restarted to create a new country park, primarily serving the communities of Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury Moor and Heckmondwike.

The Council’s priority to improve the health and well-being of its residential and working population is one which is well met by this scheme. Not only is the site provided for people to use at their leisure, but there are a number of activities and events which take place to which people can attend to learn a new skill or find out what makes the park a special place.

Forestry Commission funding

A successful grant application was made to the Forestry Commission’s Woodland Creation Grant (for tree planting) and Woodland Improvement Grants (footpaths, seating, etc) to fund a project whereby the basic infrastructure of a country park could be created on the site.

The Forestry Commission grant of £494k has been used to start the transformation of the former landfill site on Park Road in Ravensthorpe into a new country park, serving the catchment communities of Dewsbury Moor and Ravensthorpe primarily, but also to attract people from further afield. Work started on site in Autumn 2012.

The funds are primarily paying for the planting of the largest new woodland in the north of England (80,000 trees over the 72 hectare site). In addition the funding has contributed to the creation of an extensive footpath network across the site, new wetlands, seating, signage and interpretation, and supplemented by a new car park and enhanced entrance features. The woodland will be termed a ‘Diamond Wood’ (one of only 60 in the UK), linking the scheme to the celebrations marking the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Leading up to the Forestry Commission application there was an intensive programme of community consultation to increase peoples’ awareness of the project and also encourage people to get involved. A three year community engagement plan was drawn up in 2013 to complement and contribute to the park’s management plan. A midway review shows that the team have achieved well against community engagement targets and priorities.

Work started on planting the trees in November 2012 and continued during the planting season into 2013 and again in 2013/14. In total, 74,000 trees will be planted, the majority by volunteers from the local community. This has included a number of species, such as silver birch, rowan, sessile oak, hawthorn and Scots pine. These trees have all been protected with tree guards to prevent them being damaged by the rabbits and hares which live on the site.

Over 1000 metres of footpaths have been constructed to create an accessible route around the park for all visitors, including those using wheelchairs and with pushchairs. Due to the nature of this work, this aspect has been carried out by contractors.

A series of new wetlands have been created, located close to the boundary with the Spen Valley Greenway, which have already become a home for swans, coots, moorhens and an array of other wildlife.

To the end of 2013/14, around £265k of the £494k has been spent on the project, with the spend profile for the remainder of the scheme being - £142k in 2014/15 - £43k 2015/16 - £1.6k 2016/17 - £19k 2017/18 - £24k 2018/19

In 2013/14 £30k was allocated to the footpaths element from the Investment and Regeneration Service Capital Plan.

£50k has been earmarked from the I&R Service Capital Plan 2014/15 to contribute towards the car park area, access improvements leading up to the site from Huddersfield Road and also new signage to the site. Planning permission is in place for this car park, and the money will be spent by the end of March 2015.

Involvement of Volunteers The site benefits from the support of Cummins Turbo Technologies and McDonalds who encourage their staff to carry out voluntary work as part of their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility. Up until May 2014, Cummins alone had provided 221 volunteer days to the country park.

A great deal of the work on site has been carried out by volunteers taking part in sessions organised by the Council’s Countryside Officer, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), or through groups including the Ansaar Scout Group, Al Mahdi Mosques, and Environmental Action Team. A number of Council staff have volunteered at the site, including staff from the Creative Economy Team, Housing Solutions, Landscape Architects and the Voluntary and Community Sector Link team. Kirklees Countryside Volunteers have also planted over 2500 trees and led guided walks to promote the park.

This work has included tree planting, hedge laying, pond clearing, litter picking and a range of other maintenance activities all across the site.

Creative Engagement In order that the local community finds out about, and embraces, the new site, a considerable amount of engagement work has been carried out with people from the local area. This has taken the form of a number of projects, in order to give focus to the engagement: - ‘Landscoping’ profile raising and consultation through creative engagement activities.

- ‘Earthworks’ was around coming up with designs for the new entrance to the site.

- ‘Together @ Dewsbury Country Park’, funded by the Council’s community engagement team and delivered by Get Out More CIC (a form of social enterprise), who led creative outdoor activities for families and young people of Dewsbury Moor.

- Following on from the ‘Together’ programme children and families of St Paulinus and Boothroyd Junior Schools are enjoying wild food foraging, bread making and outdoor cooking on the site. Also run by Get Out More CIC and funded by the Council’s Community Engagement Team.

- ‘Forest holiday scheme’ a holiday activity programme for young people funded by Kirklees IYSS and run by Get Out More CIC. - ‘Art Hike: HOST’ was a guided walk led by professional artists, aiming to bring creatively minded people together to walk, talk and create.

- ‘Beyond Graffiti’ was run by the Milestone Society, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts in the Neighbourhood, working with 66 young adults on the creation of stone sculpted way-markers for the site.

- There are a number of walking groups who make use of the country park, including those based at the Greenwood Centre in Ravensthorpe.

- ‘Plant-Life-Cycle’ was part of the Yorkshire Festival, linked to the Grand Départ, through which three artists in residence used the site to inspire them to explore cycles in nature; and raise the profile of the country park in Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Holmfirth.

Forest Schools Named after the country park, Diamond Wood Community Academy is the new name for Ravensthorpe Infants School. As part of a commitment embedding outdoor learning and Forest School practice within the school, the whole staff team have enjoyed two Forest School training sessions at the country park, led by Kirklees’ Forest School practitioners. The school is planning to use the country park as the primary resource for their outdoor learning activities. (Funding for this training was provided by the NHS Trust as Forest School programmes have been shown to have a positive effect on children’s health and well-being.)

Education partnerships The architecture course leaders at the University of Huddersfield have designed their first year programme around using the country park as the inspiration and backdrop to exploring and designing shelters and structures. The third year students will be working with Cummins engineers to explore concepts for bridge designs over the River Spen which runs through the country park.

Apprentices The site will form part of the training and learning for the 2014 cohort of Streetscene apprentices, who will use the site to learn about a variety of countryside management skills and techniques, including tree planting, hedge laying, dry stone walling and meadow management, together with access improvements and other tasks and activities across the site.

The recruitment process was successful in appointing a number of young people from North Kirklees, but unfortunately there were no suitable applications from the Dewsbury and Spen areas.

3. Implications for the Council

Due to the site being designated as a country park, the levels of maintenance and public expectations will be lower than an urban park. However, visitors will still expect it to be tidy, safe, welcoming and accessible at all times.

The transformation of the former landfill site into a country park was something which was informally happening prior to the commencement of the Forestry Commission project, with the monies making the transformation happen much faster and with greater impetus. Part of the funding package includes for an annual Farm Woodland Premium (FWP) payment, of £5,495, for a period of 15 years to aid the maintenance of the newly planted woodland areas. So, whilst this money is primarily for the management of the planted areas, there is scope for it to contribute to the general maintenance of the site.

Public use was already being made of the site, prior to the project. By making the site safer and encouraging greater access, we are offering local people a greatly improved natural resource in an area where sites of this nature are lacking.

The site is already playing a significant part in the Council’s efforts to improve the health and well-being of the communities surrounding the site. This is expected to continue to grow as the country park takes shape in the years to come, with the growth of the thousands of newly planted trees.

The main revenue implication for the Council is the long term maintenance of the site. As such, our efforts are currently focussed on instilling a sense of ownership over the park by the local community in order that they are better able to assist with, and carry out some of the routine and less frequent maintenance tasks, preferably without supervision. To this end, we are looking to set up something along the lines of a Friends or Action group, with the focus being on physical work, events and activities on the site. The FWP money will help with this, but it will not be sufficient without additional funding from elsewhere. This is another area where we are hoping the site based group can assist.

However, the costs of the minimal maintenance required for the site have been estimated to be in the order of £5,000 per annum. This would cover the works required to ensure paths were cleared of vegetation, hedges were trimmed, the wetlands were managed, site inspections carried out, wildflower meadows cut and the grass collected and fortnightly litter picking. There would be additional tasks relating to the newly planted areas, however these would be covered by the Farm Woodland Premium.

It should also be noted that this capital investment will incur an annual revenue charge of approximately £3,650 over a 20 year period.

The Council has contributed £30k to the scheme already to help the funding of footpaths around the site, and is seeking to contribute a further £50k towards access improvements leading to the site, new signage and also the car park itself.

4. Consultees and their opinions Ward Councillors have been informed of the project throughout and receive regular updates of progress. They are all in support of the scheme.

The community engagement sessions held over at least 2 years have found a great deal of support within the local community for the project.

The project board is made up of officers from Streetscene (Parks & Landscapes and Environmental Projects), Investment & Regeneration, Planning – Conservation and Design, and Environmental Health.

The Working Group consists of officers from Parks & Landscapes, Public Rights of Way, Creative Economy, Communications, and Conservation & Design.

The project proposal was supported in its infancy, and continues to be supported, by the Dewsbury Regeneration Board, the ‘Outdoor Dewsbury’ steering group, the Wellbeing and Health in Education Programme Board, Heavy Woollen District Countryside Forum, Kirklees Wildlife and Landscape Advisory Partnership. In addition, Natural England support the project.

The Forestry Commission are very much in favour of the scheme, as is the Woodlands Trust and the White Rose Forest.

5. Next steps The project will continue to be carried out in line with Kirklees Council procurement procedures, working with the neighbouring communities to address local needs where possible.

The remainder of the works outlined in the Forestry Commission submission will be actioned in line with the project timetable.

Further work will be carried out to engage local residents and groups in the project, some of which will require external funding bids to be made (requiring officer time to complete the relevant paperwork).

6. Officer recommendations and reasons That Cabinet members approve the aims, principles, outcomes and achievements of the project.

That Cabinet approves the allocation of £50k from I&R’s capital plan to support the creation of a car park, access works and improvements to the site. This amount is already identified within the plan for the scheme.

7. Cabinet portfolio holder recommendation

Cllr Cathy Scott supports the recommendations

8. Contact officer and relevant papers John Fletcher Head of Parks and Landscapes, Streetscene and Housing Tel: 01484 234132 Ext: 860 4132 Email: [email protected]

9. Assistant director responsible Kim Brear Assistant Director Streetscene and Housing