Capel Manor Open Day

Capel Manor, Enfield had an open day on Saturday, I visited to research how people use public spaces for recreation and education.



Capel Manor is probably best known for its land-based studies college. The college has facilities for garden design, horticulture, animal care, floristry and arboriculture.

The Manor has 30 acres of land, which have established gardens and temporary plots which the students use.

Several alumni of the school were awarded medals at this years RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2010. The Upwardly Mobile (Gold medal), Plants against Crime (Silver Lindley Medal), Christian Before Dior (Bronze Medal).

The gardens are open daily to the public between March and October. There are admission fees, but these are waived on an open day if you print out an entry voucher, which can be found on their website.

Take part in the poll!

If you've visited Roundwood Park or are a regular park user let me know your thoughts on what you'd like to see improved! If what you want to add isn't in the list let me know and I'll update the poll! Use this post to add any additional thoughts.

It starts here ...

So here begins the journey! I thought a good place to start was to contact the existing Friends of Roundwood Park, but I couldn't find their contact details on the web, the only lead I had was to Brent Council's website.

The council staff member I spoke to was very helpful but told me that the groups was in a state of transistion, which was unlikely to be resolved until December 2010, it turned out the person who was behind group had moved onto other things.

The council people told me there are a lot of interested, but disperate individuals that they are keen to try to bring them all together. They told me it is easier to attract grant funding when the local community are actively involved in the process, but it needs an overall vision and plan.

We have agreed to meet up, I am waiting to hear back from them for a date, a key individual is on holiday for another week, it is difficult to be patient as I am keen to get cracking.

In the meantime my mentor has advised me to try and get some of my neighbours on board, I have to admit it is this part that I find a bit intimidating, I've never been a fan of doorstepping people, but I will have to put my reservations on hold while I get this started.

Some other good advice I've received involves speaking to my local ward councillors: Cllr's Lincoln Beswick, Janice Long and Helga Gladbaum represent the area covering Roundwood Park and the Cllr James Powney is the Lead Member for Environment and Culture. As they are elected by the community to represent them they will likey hold more sway/clout when research and engagement is needed, they may be able to assist with surveying.

My instinct is to hold off getting others involved until I've met with the council to see what the position is. Then speak to the councillors to see what support they may be able to offer me.

In the meantime here are some links that have been inspiring me this week:
Roots and Shoots - http://www.rootsandshoots.org.uk/
Royal Parks - http://www.royalparks.org.uk/
Floating Farm Shop & Tearooms - http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2006/05/the_floating_fa.html

Willesden Green not Harlesden!

I was just reading James Powney's blog and I have learnt that Roundwood Park lies in the Willesden Green ward and not Harlesden, which is different from the info I got from the council. No problem, just need to catch up with different councillors. According to Brent council's website the new contacts are: Cllrs Anne Hunter (Lib Dem), Lesley Jones (Lab) (Lesley's blog) and Gavin Sneddon (Lib Dem).

Roundwood Park

The lovely Roundwood Park, this morning when I got up. In the next few days I'll start adding more information about my area, so you can get a feel for the place.

Welcome

I live in Brent, London, an area of London that is very exciting and diverse. My particular motivation for starting this blog is to make the area more appealing to its locals by making the most of one of its main attractions - Roundwood Park.

The park itself is the star, it has green flag status, it has a fabulous cafe and beautifully landscaped gardens, well used basketball courts and a developing wildlife garden. I'll fill you in on the park more later.

What it needs is a boost to make the most of its assets that are either under-used, run down or dilapidated such as the summer theatre, the paths, annex and the aviary. I am really keen to work with other people to achieve this, at the moment I'm not sure what shape that will take, I need the input of more people to decide what they want from it and hopefully make it a reality.

Through this blog I hope to learn about how the park is used, what improvements locals would like to see, rally some support for the initiative, be a contact point for people interested in the park, learn from the collective wisdom out there, share my experiences and hopefully help improve my neighbourhood.

This is a learning experience for me so I've decided to call this blog 'workingprototype', until a time where the community wants to set up a dedicated Roundwood Park group and give it its own name.