A Young's Park PeoplePublication

Britain in BloomNeighbourhood Award

2008

CONTENTS

Formation 1Flower Beds 2Wild Fowl Conservation Area 6Recycling 10Consultations 11Grants 12PAG Affiliation 13Initiatives 14Our Members 16Social Events 17History 19Future Aims 20

Acknowledgements 21

Page

FormationThe Young’s Park People group was formed in May 2007.

After many years of neglect, caused by financial restraints on TorbayCouncil, a group of park users and traders decided ‘things had to bedone’.

An open meeting was held and despite concerns raised about anothergroup in the area - which had been dormant for many years, it was decid-ed to form Young’s Park People. The constitution was drawn up with ad-vice from Torbay Council and their first formal meeting where the electionof executive were voted in, was held on 1st May 2007.

The first priority was to tackle the central flowerbed which was bestdescribed as a dust bowl eye sore.

With the support from Cultural Services, the parks department and theinvaluable knowledge of the council gardeners they set to make atransformation of Young’s Park - back to it’s former glory.

Young’s Park People not only wanted to improve the flower beds andgeneral appearance of the park, but also wanted the park users to feelpart of a caring community. They have tried to do this by listening tomembers’ ideas and of course their valuable support when it comes todigging and planting out the flowerbeds. What has been great are thedonations from YPP members (and non members!) and the offer ofcuttings and plants from people who care. This park should be allembracing and above all inclusive to all.

The park was looking good by June, the first time in years! YPP arejustifiably proud of what they have managed to do, as a group, in such ashort time, by having determination and the ‘will’ to get things done.Sometimes obstacles have been put in our way – but on the whole, with

the help of CulturalServices and ofcourse the gardendepartment. wehave succeeded inour aims.

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Flower Beds

Before

Make a start

What an improvement!

Planting out

Our first project ......

By the 24th May 2007 we had already success-fully completed our first project, which was toreinstate the main, central flowerbed. The sadlooking piece of ground had been unkempt for anumber of years, due to the the local council'slack of resources.

The group constructed a limestone wall to enablethe bed to be raised, with compost and extra topsoil.

A Phoenix Canariensis (stunning palm tree) wasplanted as a centre piece - surrounded bytropical grasses, small palms, hardy perennialsand bedding plants.

All this was accomplished by members of YPPvolunteering their time, effort, plants and indeeddonations. Advice from the Park's Department ofTorbay Council concerning the types of plants touse was invaluable, but no scarce, public fundingwas given.

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Flower Beds

From this...................

...................To this!!

Prior to the intervention of YPPthis was a ‘hard standing’ piece ofwaste land.

Such a huge improvementwith hard work and plantdonations from members ofYoung’s Park People andpark users.

The ‘D’ Flower bed

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Flower Beds

The ‘Ladies’ Flower bed

One of our Planters

The ‘Long’ Flower bed

‘Our greatest achievement in the first year ofoperation, is the vast improvement to themany flower beds of Young’s Park.’

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Flower Beds

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Wild Fowl Conservation AreaThe wild fowl conservation area is on the western side of Young's Park.  Itwas originally marshland and after many decades of trying to keep itdrained as parkland, Torbay Council eventually decided not to fight natureand have allowed it to return to it's natural state. A boardwalk was builtand a few willows planted, but then along came budget cut backs and thewild fowl area was sadly left un-managed for a number of years.

 We, Young's Park People, have been given permission by Torbay Council tomanage this area. In December and January students from South DevonCollege's Environment and Land  Based Studies Department worked veryhard in the area to clear away a large amount of Willow Herb - an invasivespecies which was taking over'. We have raised money for 4 RSPB nestboxes which were sited in thewild fowl area in February duringNational Nest Box Week and arecarrying out identification ofspecies during the differentseasons.

 Marsh Orchids have been seenin this area and we are hopingthat clearing some of the willowherb will allow more orchids tocome through this year - watchthis space!

An overgrown mess?

No. In fact, it's ideal for all the animals that inhabit it.In its  natural overgrown state, this area  is a haven forbutterflies, dragonflies, damselflies, beetles, more insects, blue tits, greattits, green finch's, mallards, moor hens, coots, as well as hundreds of otherspecies.

Sure, to us humans it doesn't look particularly neat, or well trimmed andmaintained like a botanical garden, but remember, it's not a garden, andit's not primarily for us.

Next time you're in there, take time out to take in the beauty of this area.

Every time I walk through, I'm overwhelmed by how much it's grown andchanged.

With YPP's help, this area will begin to progress andimprove, and  I hope you'll all start to enjoyvisiting this area more often.

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extract from Hana’s blogon www.ypp.me.uk

Wild Fowl Conservation AreaYoung’s Park People have been busy again in Goodrington, thistime supplying and installing bird boxes in the wild fowl areain time for the spring nesting and of course for “national nestbox week”. This voluntary group raised money for these RSPB bird boxesby holding regular raffles and coffee mornings, during thesummer, at the North Sands Ice Cream Kiosk, Goodrington.Each autumn Young’s Park People volunteers will clean out theseboxes ready for the next inhabitants to take up residence thefollowing spring

South Devon College Students

Nick and Hannah ( two YPP members who are at present atPlymouth University, reading Animal Conservation) went intothe wildfowl conservation area last autumn to start the labo-rious task of identification and logging the many differentspecies of plants and animals in this area.

Main species they found were:

Plants; Loads of different species of grasses (poaceae),rushes (juncaceae), lilies (lilliceae) along with the beautifulWillow and Horse chestnut trees and lots of plants from theasteraceae family (daisy family). The bull rushes are reallyworth a look, most of them at least 7 ft high!Animals- Butterflies; Red Admiral, Common Blue, SmallWhite, Meadow Brown and lots of Fritillary's were the mostcommonly seen species.

The information board at the car park entrance to the con-servation area will be used for any updates in the wildfowlarea, including any noted breeding species and unusualsightings.

As well as this sign, both Nick and Hannah are working onproducing the interpretation boards to put up along the newboard walk, identifying key species and giving a bit of back-ground info on them.

Students from South Devon College help out theYPP in December, with clearing the willow herb thatis 'taking over' the Wildfowl area. Once this wascompleted we will be able to assess the area andsee what ~ possibly rare and beautiful ~ plants arelurking in the overgrowth!!

7‘Rare’ Wild Marsh Orchid

Wild Fowl Conservation AreaYoung’s Park Wildfowl Conservation Area Management Plan 2007-2009

Mission statement- We want to help protect and conserve British endemic speciesthat lie within this conservation area so that future generations can admire and enjoyvisiting it.

Aims-

interference.

terference.

estimated numbers of species.

lies alike.

attract more people to the area (Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, RSPBetc)

Objectives-

causing as little natural disturbance as possible.

they can see in the area.

conjunction with Torbay Coast & Country Trust).

police and Torbay Council as it has been noted that there has been no cygnetsfor the past 2 breeding seasons, which is highly unusual.

Ideally, we’d like the above aims and objectives to be completed within a 2 year peri-od upon which after the 2 year period we reassess and create another managementplan in accordance with Torbay Council.

Next page is a template for a one year management plan which can be added to andadapted to at any timeconsidered necessary uponagreement with TorbayCouncil and any otherincluded conservationalbody i.e. Torbay Coast &Country Trust.

By Nick Chandler & Hannah Gorman

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Month Aim

January Litter Picking.February Litter clearing and basic maintenance.March Pre-breeding season survey work. As well as general litter clearing and maintenance.April Litter clearing and basic maintenance.May Litter clearing and basic maintenance.June As little interference as possible. Basic monitoring of species. As well as general litter cleaning. Limited plant identification without disturbing nesting birds.July Litter clearing and basic maintenance.August Post-breeding season survey work. As well as general litter clearing & maintenance. Limited plant identification without disturbing nesting birds.September Litter clearing and basic maintenance.October General Maintenance and litter clearing.November Litter clearing and basic maintenance.December Litter clearing and basic maintenance.

Bulrushes

Boardwalk

Nature lover with friend

Interpretation Board

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Recycling

Grey Water Recycling System

The early stages of YPP’s Compost System

With funds won from O2’s ‘It’s Your Community’award YPP purchased two water butts and diversionkits. Members of Young’s Park People repaired theguttering behind the Public Conveniences andconnected the diverter to the butts. The council verykindly provided and installed a secure gate toprevent vandals.

An area in the Wild Fowl Conservation area behindour Information sign was cleared by members toallow a compost system to be formed. The Councilhave offered to partition this area into three sections.The first for new cuttings, the second for 1 year old

waste and the finalsection for theuseable qualitycompost.

Only organic fertilizerand pest control areused in the park byYPP. The mostsuccessful slug killerbeing, used are‘Fairtrade’ groundcoffee grindings(from our chairman’skiosk on the sea-front) and old brokenegg shells.

Awaiting a council decisionon recycle bins in the park

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Consultations

First PUBLIC CONSULTATIONOctober 7th, 2007 – Young’s Park People carried out a public consulta-tion in Young’s Park. The Council provided a standard questionnaire andwe added some questions of our own – about the wild fowl area, recyclebins, showers and problems concerning irresponsible dog owners.

Local Councillors and YPP Membersoutside the consultation unit inYoung’s Park Paignton

The consultation showed that people:

o think colourful flower beds are very important in the parko would use recycle bins if they were provided in the parko would like to see ‘vandal proof’ showers on the park/promenadeo are concerned about some dog owners not cleaning up after their dogo would find plant identification signs useful, especially in the wild fowl area

At the consultation we were approached by the Chairman of Torbay In Bloom Pluscommittee and asked if we would like Young’s Park to be included on the judgingroute for Paignton.

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Grants

Young’s Park People celebrate withBucks Fizz on hearing they hadbeen successful in their 'O2 Awardsfor All' application in April. We wereawarded the maximum £1000which is being spent on tools for YPP volunteer gardeners, water buttsto collect rainwater (in case of  a long , hot summer - we live in hope!)plants and interpretation boards.

We are thrilled to have been awarded £10,000from the Big Lottery Fund!

Our application for funding from the BreathingPlaces Big Lottery Fund has been successful andwe are now able to start the improvements forthe Wild Fowl Conservation Area. The money willbe spent on providing interpretation boards,seating, wireless CC TV camera and extendingthe boardwalk as well as planting additionaltrees.

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PAG Affiliation

Young’s Park People have helped another park group in PaigntonPalace Avenue Guardians who were at risk of folding ,due to theircommittee not wishing to stand for re-election. They had been operatingfor some 4 years and it seamed a shame to let them disband, after all theexcellent work they had done.

Palace Avenue Guardians (PAG) and Young’s Park People (YPP) havemany similar aims and objectives and their joining forces will strengthenthese causes.

Gardening parties are held here every third Wednesday of the month.

Both groups are still run independently but will have a single executivecommittee. This ensures that PAG members can continue to care for theflowerbeds in this beautiful garden without the burden of administrationworries.

Paignton Railway Station

YPP members have beencaring for the plantersat Paignton’s Railway

Station since January 2008

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InitiativesYPP supports thePAWS for Thought

initiative with TorbayCouncil to tackle the

growing antisocial dogfowling situation

Keeping in touch with our membersis paramount. Use of email makescommunication easier but we still do‘snail mail’ if required!

The grant from the BIG LOTTERYwill enable us to purchase CC TVto help protect the swans in Young’sPark which have failed to breed forthe last three years.

This picture shows the unsuccessfuleggs being removed (under license)in July 2008 for analysis.

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THE GOOD THE BADYPP install Two interpretations

signs ~ One describing Butterflies& Moths and the other

Damsels and Dragonflies

Within 5 days one of the signswas smashed off and thrown

into the waterway.

This was repairedand reinstalled

ASAP ~they shall NOT win!

THE VERY BEAUTIFUL

AND

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