The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks Project, in partnership with the Natural Cambridgeshire, the Local Nature Partnership for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, to promote Community Led Nature Based Solutions. By offering small grants to local communities to undertake nature recovery on local and accessible open space. The project sought to better understand how local communities could be better supported to deliver community led local nature restoration in parks and green spaces.

The headline findings were:

• Communities throughout Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are resourceful, creative, enthusiastic and motivated, want to see nature thrive where they live and are beginning to make this happen.
• Local Councils and landholders working together can do more to enable rewilding and other nature recovery projects on their land, including initial upfront support to groups and guidance to develop 5-year Local Nature Recovery Plans, and link these with neighbourhood plans and local plans.
• Together we need to build capacity to enable more communities to acquire skills and knowledge they need to accelerate local nature recovery, and to identify sites for nature enhancement close to where they live.

At the beginning of the project  applicants were asked to demonstrate how their project would achieve one or more of the following criteria.

• To deliver significant increases in key wildlife habitats.
• To raise levels of local pride, aspiration and community cohesion by helping communities to understand, appreciate and enjoy their natural heritage.
• To promote public health and wellbeing.
• To create resilient countryside and communities, where nature is at the heart of the approach to tackling the climate emergency.
• To champion examples of best practice for sustainable development and management of parks and public green space.

Out of 22 local communities applicants, 9 funding applicants were awarded grants between £250 – £750. These are as follows:

• Octagon Chapel Graveyard Restoration, Wisbech– aim of project to turn an abandoned site into a wildlife haven with public access for community to enjoy and involve the community in nature restoration.
• St John the Baptist Churchyard, Barnack– The grant enabled the purchase of plug plants and bults, and were sourced from a company that guarantees native British provenance. With assistance from the local community the bulbs were planted.
• Peacocks Meadow, Littleport– the project aimed to include the community in the mass planting of 1000s of native species woodland plants and bulbs to recreate a woodland habitat.
• Wheatfields Playing Field and Community Green Space, St Ives– this project aimed to create and maintain a small wildflower meadow in public open spaces in St Ives.
• Swavesey Community Orchard, Swavesey– the grant was used to replace four of the orchards heritage fruit trees lost due to flooding and drought.
• Fassage Green, Lode– this project focused on improving the biodiversity of Fassage Green in the village of lode.
• Orchard Park, Cambridge– the grant awarded was used to purchase bulbs and fruit bushes for the Eastern End of Orchard Park.
• Eastern Meadow Area, Midsummer Common, Cambridge– The aim of this project was to undertake feasibility work to see if an old drainage ditch at the Eastern end of the Common would be suitable for opening up to create a more nature rich habitat.
• Challis Pond, Barrington– The project was to dredge the pond, reinstate and reshape the banks, regrade and seed/replant the periphery, reduce the size and height of the island and improve the filter system to reduce sediment entering the pond in future

Overall, the findings from the Community Led Nature Based Solutions project had a positive impact on both communities and the enthusiasm to develop projects to support nature-based solutions. The project proposed  next steps including, partners working together to build on existing community assets to develop and explore:

• Policy guidelines for town and parish councils about how to write and implement a biodiversity policy, why this is important, and what their responsibilities are/or will be in regard to the new 2021 Environment Act.
• Nature Recovery Now!  – A Community Climate Champions programme to recruit and train 25 local people in enable them to lead nature recovery projects where they live, and also training and advice, opportunities for skills development, and networking opportunities that enable knowledge sharing and information exchange for communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
• Funding for community nature recovery grants, including seed corn monies.
• Community-led local nature recovery plans for every ward, and town and parish council in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, with clear links identified to local plans and neighbourhood plan.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks Project, in partnership with Fenland District Council, have developed a toolkit to demonstrate the steps needed and lessons learnt to setting open space standards using benchmark standards that were set in an Open Space Standards Mapping Report produced by Jon Sheaff & Associates. The toolkit, developed by LUC, sets out the recommended steps to be taken by Local Authorities when developing their local open space standards, these compromise the following standards:

• Quantity – accessible open space available per person in the give area
• Accessibility – distance travelled to reach accessible open space
• Quality and value – level of facilities expected

This toolkit was developed alongside a pilot project testing and adjusting the baseline standards set out in the Open Spaces Standards Mapping Report for Fenland District Council’s Local Plan for Open Space. The work records and builds on the lessons learned during this process, developing the baseline open space standards across the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area. By setting out the 5 main steps to develop open space standards, including the key lessons learned such as:

1. Prep

Timeline for completing the work should be realistic and with good preparation, including having a clear scope and purpose, understood by all key stakeholders and partners.

 

2. Understand the local context

There is no one size fits all approach to developing open space standards, therefore having a good understanding of local context will ensure the open space standards are appropriate and reflect the value and importance of open space in the local area.

 

3. Understand supply

Similar to step one it is important to allow sufficient time to collate and sense check all the available open space data, this is in order to create a robust dataset used to set the open space standards.

 

4. Understand demand and need

By understanding demand and need provide key evidence to support the development of open space standards, this step will be required to scrutinise and test the proposed standards (see next step)

 

5. Set and test standards

This fifth and final step involves bringing all previous steps together, using the available evidence to make and inform recommendations.

Open space standards will need to be incorporated into policies to be applied as part of development, therefore an understanding of additional guidance such as local policy frameworks and planning process will assist in the development of open space standards.

This toolkit is for planners, parks and open space professionals, consultants / advisors and geographic Information Systems (GIS) professionals. It is intended that the toolkit could be used by local authorities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. However, the key steps would also apply nationally.

Follow this link to download a full copy of the Open Space Standards Toolkit.

Parks and green spaces have a range of benefits and should be seen as essential infrastructure, alongside roads and railways. COVID-19 demonstrated the importance of parks and green spaces and resulted in a huge increase in the number of visitors. This mainly reflected the proven physical and mental health benefits that parks provide by creating opportunities to connect to nature. However, they can also make significant contributions to tackling climate change through carbon capture and can help strengthen local communities via local Parks Friends Groups and providing places for community activity.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough GreenGround Map represents the parks and green spaces within five key urban areas, including Cities Cambridge, Peterborough and Ely and the Towns of Huntingdon and Wisbech. By drawing on the river, railway and trail themes as key lines, the map clearly shows the accessibility of parks and green spaces for everyone to enjoy. For example, the map includes the Hereward Way walking route, which passes through Peterborough and Ely to reach the Breckland Heaths on the Cambridgeshire / Suffolk County boarder. Also, the Rothschild Way walking route from Woodwalton Fen in Huntingdonshire to Wicken Fen in East Cambridgeshire, covering a distance of 39 miles.

This is the first urban and rural GreenGround Map developed by Graphic Designer Helen Ilus, who previously focused on more urban settings to develop a network of parks and green spaces and promot the many benefits that are offered.

The map presents these precious spaces as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s very own local ‘National Park’ offering a wide range of outdoor experiences that are good for people and good for nature.

November has been a busy month for world leaders and the challenges posed by the thread of Climate Change. World Leaders gathered at the COP26 summit to accelerate action towards goals in tackling Climate Change. Taking place in Glasgow on 31st October – 12th November, the following declarations have been key outputs from this event.

Declaration on Forests and Land Use Pledge

A total of 141 countries identified the critical roles forests hold to achieve the balance of removal of greenhouse gas emission through carbon sinks. Through shared efforts, world leaders commit to:

• Conserving forests and other terrestrial ecosystems, by accelerate restoration of such habitats.
• Promote sustainable development, through consumption that do not drive deforestation and land degradation.
• Empowering communities, by building resilience and enhancing rural communities.
• Review, Implement and redesign agricultural policies.
• Increase finance and investment from a wide range of public and private sources.
• Align financial flows with international goals to reverse forest loss and degradation.

Declaration of reduction in Global Methane

Over 100 countries, including United States and European Union launched the incentive and expanded financial and technical support to reduce global methane emissions to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. This includes committing to reducing methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. Achieving this goal would assist positive effects, identified as preventing over 200,000 premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma related emergency room visits and millions of tons of crops lost.

Global coal to clean power transition

This declaration is to phase down coal power and transition to clean energy, with 46 countries agreeing to this pledge. This includes ending finance to coal and international public support to the fossil fuel energy sector.  Developed national have agreed to support to developing countries to make the transition over to clean energy.

Declaration on accelerating transition to 100% Zero emission transport

Influence the future of automotive industry and road transport, by committing to transition to zero emission vehicles. World leaders are committed towards sales of new vehicles by zero emissions by 2040 or earlier. This includes creating zero emissions vehicles the new norm, by making them more accessible, affordable, and sustainable.

Declaration for green shipping corridors

This declaration supports the establishment of green shipping corridors. By creating zero emission routes between at least 6 green corridors by the middle of this decade, this will be achieved by scaling up activity to support more green corridor routes. Through the facilitation of partnership between ports and operators to support the decarbonisation of the shipping sector.

 

These pledges could nudge the world 9% closer to the 1.5C pathway and combatting the impacts of Climate Change. If you are interested in what the Cambridgeshire County Council will be doing to assist with the COP26 declaration, more information can be found here.

 

 

Credit: Special guest writer Gabriella Yeomans, Project Officer – Future Parks Accelerator has been following the recent COP26 summit