Issue 02Spring 2012

Inside this issue...

page 2Solar street lighting making communities safer

page 3Crestra Limited gains MCS accreditation

page 4Groundwork training centre has successful Ofsted visit

page 5Groundwork in the districts - Mansfield

Results of photography comp announced

A celebratory event has been held to announce the results of an amateur photography competition aimed at capturing local life across the Trent Vale area.

Entrants and their families gathered at The Willow Works in Beckingham to hear the results of the year-long competition announced.

There were two categories to enter, one for under 16s and one for over 16s. Jo Metson-Scott, a local professional photographer, has judged the entries and selected a winner and two runners-up in each category.

In the under 16 category, Emma Nicholson, aged 15, took the top prize for her picture ‘Sunset on the Trent’. Emma has been a

Gainsborough resident all her life and loves exploring with the first camera her father bought her. This is the first competition Emma has entered and she can’t believe she has won. Collecting the prize with her mother and brother Emma said, “I always enjoy exploring around the area, gazing at the nature and enjoying the wonderful wildlife and landscapes.Thanks to this opportunity I’ve managed to combine my two favourite hobbies and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing it.”

Emma takes away a large canvas of her picture and a £100 voucher.

The overall winner in the over 16 category was Anna Millard with a May Day photograph of Rattlejag Morris dancers at Laxton. The picture

captures the annual celebrations on the site of the Motte and Bailey Castle.

All of the winning photographs will form a permanent exhibition at the Willow Works heritage building. The winners will also see their photograph on buses throughout the region, promoting the Trent Vale Festival year.

This project has been led by Groundwork Creswell, Ashfield and Mansfield as part of the Trent Vale Landscape Partnership which is funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Trent Vale area extends from Newark in the south, to East and West Stockwith, just north of Gainsborough.

A packed audience finally hears the results of an amateur local photography competition in the Trent Vale area

The Groundwork Centre96 Creswell Road, ClowneChesterfield, DerbyshireS43 4NATel: 01246 570977Fax: 01246 813200creswell@groundwork.org.ukwww.groundwork-creswell.org.ukwww.crestra.co.uk

Creswell, Ashfield and Mansfield Newsletter

page 6Clowne head office going very green

Renewable heating system for historic buildingThe Willow Works heritage building in Beckingham, Notts provides an excellent example of the benefits of renewable heating systems with the installation of a ground source heat pump.

This renewable technology now provides heating to the entire building which spans nearly 20 rooms over two floors. Underneath the field adjacent to the building lengths of pipe are buried one metre deep. These pipes extract heat from the ground and use it to feed the radiator system. The sun then replenishes this energy in the ground. This replaces the need for a gas or oil-based system saving hundreds of pounds a year – the ideal solution for a community building.

The alternative for the Willow Works would have been an oil-based system. This would have increased running costs dramatically in the long term.

Mike Dare, Heffalump Energy, said:

“A ground source heat pump is perfectly suited to a building like the Willow Works, in fact it is probably as near to perfect conditions as it could be and an excellent working example to all. To be able to use a

relatively new technology on an important heritage facility also shows that it isn’t just a solution for modern buildings”.

The heat pump installation completes the final phase of the building refurbishment by Crestra Limited. The Groundwork-owned Willow Works building now houses offices, exhibition and training rooms, a function room and full welfare facilities. The local Beckingham history group is based in the building, while the Trent Vale Landscape Partnership has made the offices its headquarters.

In total, eight lights have been installed on a footpath and multi-sports games area. Each light has its own panel, which, during daylight hours harnesses the solar energy, powering the light from dusk until dawn.

The impact of the installation was immediate with vastly improved safety in what is a mainly residential area. Children can now cross the path from school to nearby residences on a fully lit path. The lights around the games area have resulted in the facilities being used more in the dark evenings.

The project was funded by Blackwell Parish Council, with Crestra

Limited working with the client to advise on specification, producing drawings and acting as agent for the proposal for planning. Solar-powered street lighting is becoming a popular choice for parish councils due to the long term benefits. There are no electricity bills to pay and money was also saved from the normal electrical connection fees. The lights to MUGA are back ground and not for competitive sports, however, lighting levels are more than sufficient for the local community. Crestra can offer design and build and happy to offer competitive quotes.

Solar power making communities saferA field and multi sports play area in Westhouses, Blackwell parish is making full use of the sun’s energy with the installation of solar-powered street lights.

Crestra now fully accredited to install all types of renewable technologies

Crestra Limited, Groundwork’s trading company, is now a fully accredited installer under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).

The MCS is an internationally-recognised quality assurance scheme showing the installer has the highest quality of service on energy installations.

This means that Crestra and Groundwork can install PV, solar thermal and ground/air source heat pumps to the highest standard recognised. This process can include consultancy, design, installation and commissioning of microgeneration technologies.

The Britvic-sponsored Transform your Patch initiative will be supporting projects in Walesby and Newark (Barnby Road) over the coming months. Additional funding applications have been submitted to support these play area projects; hopefully the schemes can commence in late summer.

Groundwork has also been working with Bilsthorpe Parish Council to design a skate park for the village, a community consultation took place in April with a view to finalise plans and submit funding applications in May.

Groundwork is working in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council, Bassetlaw District

Council and the NHS to develop a masterplan for Sandhill Lake in Worksop.

Proposals have been developed and funding applications submitted for sensory gardens at Asquith Primary School and Sutton Road Primary School, both in Mansfield. Projects for skate parks,

natural play areas and junior play areas are in development with many parish councils including Blackwell and Scarcliffe (both in Bolsover).

If you know of an area of land that could do with redeveloping, get in touch with Groundwork to discuss it further.

New community patch on allotments officially opened for businessCrestra Limited has turned a disused piece of land into a community allotment plot in Killisick in Arnold.

The Killisick allotment community plot will be used by a number of local residents including a parent and toddler group and a group of adults with learning difficulties.

The £15,000 project was funded by Nottinghamshire County Council’s Local Improvement Scheme with a contribution from Greenwood Community Forest for tree planting.

The improvements carried out at the plot off Hawthorn Crescent include raised beds, a polytunnel, a nature garden area with small pond, fruit trees and wildflower corner, a seating area, disabled friendly surfacing, fencing and a shed for storage. A number of flower beds were also planted.

This is one of many LIS-funded projects that Crestra has done in Nottinghamshire.

Grand designsGroundwork’s landscape department is busy designing projects throughout many parishes and schools in the area

During February this year, Groundwork’s South Normanton training unit was selected as one of six sites to receive an Ofsted inspection by Derbyshire County Council.

Over two days, inspectors visited the site to observe classroom and practical work. The centre trains young people, mainly aged 14 - 16, in accredited qualifications on construction skills, painting and decorating and health and safety.

The centre is equipped for indoor and outdoor training as well as having a classroom environment. Young people from local schools thrive in a learning environment very different from school.

One young man, Warren, said that the support he received was good and that the staff treated him like an adult, listened to him and clearly showed him how to do the practical work.

Tha ‘hands on’ attitiude of the staff was particularly praised while the quality of the young learners folder work was highlighted as very good.

The inspector commented that the education offered by Groundwork is a model and standard that other providers should work towards.

Duane Fox is the main training supervisor involved at the site. As a result of the successsful inspection, he was awarded a Groundwork ‘Going the Extra Mile’ Award for his efforts.

Students benefit from Dobbies and Groundwork supermarket sweep

Young people in the area are benefitting from a kind offer from Dobbies garden centre donating goods to be used by Groundwork in local schools to the sum of £200. The resources are for a new Groundwork programme offering horticultural training to young people.

Members of the Groundwork training team met with the manager of Dobbies to pick up the goods. Armed with a shopping trolley, they went around the centre ‘supermarket sweep style’ choosing items including vegetable plants, fruit trees, ph testing kits and a whole lot more.

The resources will be used on a newly developed programme offered to the local schools in the Chesterfield & Bolsover Learning Community.

The programme is called

Foundation Learning Carousel and consists of different vocational subjects being offered; Horticulture is one of those subject areas. The Learning Community Manager,

Jacqui Kinch commented, “In a recent evaluation of the Foundation Learning Carousel, all the schools were incredibly positive about the contribution of Groundwork Creswell and the Horticulture provision.”

Adding horticulture programmes to the curriculum opens up many avenues to students, teachers, parents and the local community by improving open space and promoting the benefits of healthy eating.

Due to the success of the Horticulture provision within the Foundation Learning Carousel programme, the Learning Community is seeking to extend the programme to offer, not just the carousel of different subjects, but also as a one year dedicated horticulture course where learners can achieve accredited qualifications.

Groundwork training praised by Ofsted

Groundwork in the districts - Mansfield

Empty Home RenovationsIn 2011, Crestra Limited completed extensive refurbishment works on several properties throughout Mansfield, Bolsover and Warsop for client South Yorkshire Housing Association. The works, saw new doors fitted, windows, floors and roofs, plastering, kitchens and bathrooms, new wiring, new central heating systems and the external yards and gardens re-landscaped. All the properties were fitted to a high energy efficiency specification, including photo voltaic on the roofs where possible.

Up to 34 local young trainees worked on the project gaining valuable work experience.

During 2011, a community Green Team supported Mansfield District Council’s Street Care staff. The young people were trained and managed by Groundwork Creswell, Ashfield and Mansfield which will also gave them employability skills training to help them in the future.

The five trainees, Chris Ward, Michael Tryner, Shane Thomson, Chris Lockyer and Troy Radford and their supervisor, Shane Dennington, started work in February 2011.

The council supported the trainees by providing them with the opportunity to

get hands on experience of treating and tidying the link footpaths both around the district and on industrial estates.

The team worked 25 hours over three days. The Council provided the team with tools, transport and a contribution to the salary of the supervisor.

Groundwork worked works with the Council’s Housing Services and worked with the Council to set up this project through the Future Jobs Fund (FJF), a national programme administered by the Department for Works and Pensions that ended in September 2011.

Groundwork Creswell, Ashfield and Mansfield works in partnership with eight local authorities. This covers large parts of North Nottinghamshire, North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. With so many projects running it is hard to showcase them all. Here is a selection of projects that have benefitted the Mansfield District....

The Safe and Secure Homes programme has been operated by Groundwork since 2006. It aims to make homes in the Mansfield

district safer by installing and maintaining solar powered alarm systems. Typically residents are either young families, vulnerable adults and the elderly. The programme is backed by Mansfield District Council.

Since the programme started thousands of homes have benefitted from the initiative. The length of time it has been in operation is a mark of its success with the model spreading to other districts in the locality.

Bruce Bell, SASH engineer, has worked on the scheme since its inception and regularly receives letters of thanks from residents that feel safer.

SASHGroundwork has had a long history of working with schools and training providers in the Mansfield area. Groundwork’s

training unit has been working with Oakdale Pupil Referral Unit for several years on projects for its students.

Typically, young people aged 14-16, that have been excluded from school, are taken out into the community for two days a week to work on land-based projects. This can include fencing, path laying and woodland clearance. Groups of six are taken at a time. The current crop of young people have qualified with their Ascentis Level 1 accreditation in Health and Safety. Previous groups have done other accreditations such as Environmental Sustainability Level 1 and 2.

Oakdale Pupil Refferal Unit

Groundwork staff spotlight: Alex Khatib, Central Services Clerk

Trevor WittsExecutive Director GCAM/Crestra Ltd

Specific enquiries to:

Darren PollardConstruction, housing and landscape

James TrowsdaleDevelopment and community

Caralynn GaleEducation, training and skills

Lindsey-Jane BuxtonMarketing and communications

Head office:96 Creswell RoadClowneChesterfieldDerbyshire S43 4NATel: 01246 570977Fax: 01246 813200

Worksop office:Rear of Sandy Lane Retail ParkBabbage WayWorksopNotts S80 1UJFax: 01909 479695

Key Groundwork contacts...

E-mail: creswell@groundwork.org.ukWebsite: www.groundwork-creswell.org.uk www.crestra.co.uk

How did you come to work for Groundwork and when did you start?

I joined Groundwork nearly two years ago through the FJF programme, initially on a six month temporary contract. As I was still completing my experience

here when the programme came to an end, the option of a contract was put forward and I accepted the chance of a more permanent job here as a member of staff. What does your job involve?

A little bit of everything. On a day-to-day basis I attempt to tackle all sorts of jobs, answer the persistent ringing of the phones and engage with external clients and staff members with various tasks, questions and announcements. It’s never quiet or dull and work ranges from serious and stressful to light hearted and at times quite entertaining! What do you enjoy most about the role?

Having a mingle, chatting to staff and visitors and seeing new (and old) faces on a daily basis. Perks of the job also

include sitting right next to the sweet box, the ability to constantly top up my man size mug of coffee and the odd nifty biscuit pinch. What do you hope to do in the long-term future?

I plan to move on to a more relevant role which would support and expand the knowledge gained during my recent degree, completed before I began work here. But then, this was also my plan three years ago.... I still fancy my chances at winning the lottery. The futures bright....

What sort of things do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I have a small but very close family and enjoy spending as much time as possible with them all. With five young children between us - we all have our hands full! Weekends usually consist of obscene lie in’s followed by shopping trips which include visits to several coffee and cake shops. This is a recent activity, I used to be a competitive swimmer. For over a decade I committed my free time to training long hours and competing up and down the country. I stopped the training as I finished University - needless to say, the cakes are now more appealing!

The past few months have seen the Groundwork offices in Clowne get a bit hot under the collar with the installation of a new air source heat pump system.

Replacing the outdated gas-fired boilers, the office is now basking in warm, consistent temperatures. Three heat pumps transfer heat from the outside air and use it to warm water in a tank feeding the radiator system. No gas is needed in the process. The pumps run on electricity but at a much lower rate of consumption compared to the output.

This latest installation adds to the suite of renewable technologies that Groundwork has already invested in. The site now also has a ground source heat pump, sustainable drainage to car park, photo voltaics for electricity, solar hot water, energy saving light fittings and motion sensors.....all this to an existing building.

Groundwork aims to lead by example and showcase to the community that the measures are a realistic and acheivable option for the future.

Groundwork offices going very green