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GREEN SPACE
PARTNERSHIP LAUNCHED WITH CASH GRANTS TO HELP PROMOTE HEALTH AND
WELL BEING
COMMUNITY groups across
Liverpool have been given cash grants to help them use local green
space to improve people’s health and well being as a new partnership
is launched for the Decade of Health and Wellbeing.
Projects to help people to grow their own food, initiatives to
create new community gardens and orchards, and plans for new sports
facilities and wildlife areas have all received help from Liverpool
Primary Care Trust’s Natural Choices for Health and Wellbeing
programme.
The programme has awarded small grants to 38 groups across the city
as part of ongoing efforts to use the city’s natural environment to
boost people’s health and wellbeing.
Residents in Jubilee Park, Kensington, have been given £6,710 to
transform an area of derelict land into two football pitches. And in
Edge Hill, residents around Overbury Street will use £6,205 to
create their own ‘green corridor’ of fruit trees. Dozens of projects
to create new community allotment space to grow fresh fruit and
vegetables have also secured funding.
The Natural Choices programme invited communities to bid for small
cash grants to run their own projects aimed at improving health and
wellbeing using local green space. The package will help pay for all
aspects of project delivery including training, recruitment of
participants and volunteers, evaluation and employment of specialist
experts (eg. horticulturalists). Cash awards from the Natural
Choices programme include:-
► Rice Lane City Farm in Walton which received £7,000 to fund a
project to get local people involved in rejuvenating hedges along
the farm’s fields and paths.
► £7,500 to the Daisy Roots ‘n’ Shoots project which aims to help
disabled children to grow, harvest and cook fresh produce by
adapting an allotment site at Old Swan.
► A grant of £2,000 to help Bradbury Fields Tandem Group and
Bradbury Walkers to fund a volunteer programme to help visually
impaired people to enjoy walking and cycling in a popular area of
green space.
► Breckfield and North Everton Neighbourhood Council which secured a
£7,500 grant which residents will use to create a new wildflower
garden.
The Natural Choices programme is part of the Decade of Health and
Wellbeing and grew out of last year’s Green Infrastructure Strategy
– a groundbreaking PCT and Liverpool City Council initiative which
audited all the green assets in the city. Merseyside environmental
regeneration initiative The Mersey Forest Team produced the strategy
which mapped the city’s entire green infrastructure – everything
from gardens and street trees to parks and allotments and are now on
board to help foster the Natural Choices projects in this new
partnership.
Gideon Ben-Tovim OBE, Chair of Liverpool PCT said:- "These
community projects will make a big contribution to our campaign to
make Liverpool a healthier, greener and more equal city over the
next decade. They’re a major part of our campaign to encourage
people to take up the 5 Ways to Wellbeing which are central to the
decade’s success. These projects will create hundreds of
opportunities for people to get out and enjoy the fresh air, take
some exercise, meet their neighbours and enjoy the pleasures of
growing and eating your own food. All of these things have been
proven to have a significant and positive impact on health
outcomes."
Kirkdale’s community learning project the Rotunda Learning Centre
has secured £7,500 from the Natural Choices programme to create an
accessible edible community garden for local residents. Rotunda will
work in partnership with Merseyside Probation Trust and Merseyside
Disability Foundation.
Donna Williamson, Rotunda’s volunteer co-ordinator, said:-
"This funding is a wonderful boost for the Rotunda project and will
bring enormous benefits to one of the poorest neighbourhoods in
Europe. It will help us to create a green oasis in an urban area
which currently lacks good quality shared open space.
We live in something of fresh food desert in Kirkdale, you have to
travel some distance to get access to fresh fruit and vegetables in
the shops. With this money we’ll continue to clear a previously
derelict area of land which is on the site of a demolished school.
With help from the probation team we’ve already made a start and put
2 raised beds in. Now with the Natural Choices money we’ll be able
to add more raised beds and improve access for disabled people.
Local residents of all ages will be able to get involved, sharing
knowledge and experience and learn together about the benefits of
home grown produce. Connecting people with the earth, getting
out in the fresh air, and the physical exercise involved in
gardening will bring significant health and wellbeing benefits to
the residents of Kirkdale."
Gideon Ben-Tovim added:- "As
Liverpool’s health services continue to look for innovative ways to
improve the city’s health outcomes and make the best use of limited
resources, this programme putting support and resources into our
communities represents a sound investment and really can make a big
difference.
Natural Choices focuses on communities where there is significant
potential to improve wellbeing as a step to improving overall health, and crucially it’s the communities themselves who will be
delivering these projects and making them a success. We’ll be
continuing to support the groups as they deliver their projects over
the coming year. There’s strong evidence of a powerful link
between access to high quality green space and improved health
outcomes4. And as part of this partnership we will be evaluating the
programme to show the health and wellbeing benefits which are being
delivered. Through the Natural Choices initiative, the Decade of
Health and Wellbeing and the Green Infrastructure Strategy,
Liverpool is leading the way when it comes to using green assets to
promote a better quality of life in our cities."
Funds from the Natural Choices for Health and Wellbeing programme
were awarded this month with project delivery being carried out
between now and November.
A ‘real food film festival’ is also planned for venues across the
city in October. The festival will be run by Squash Nutrition which
has also been awarded cash from the Natural Choices programme to
create a flagship green community hub around the Windsor Street area
of Toxteth. The film festival will show documentaries around food
issues as well as films about the projects funded by the Natural
Choices programme.
A full list of projects which have been awarded cash under the
Natural Choices programme is available on request. |
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Female quotas
for Britain’s boardrooms?
PRIME Minister David
Cameron was lambasted for failing to rule out the introduction of
female quotas into top FTSE boardrooms when speaking at the
Stockholm summit yesterday.
Almost exactly a year ago, Lord Davies launched his independent
review into Women on Boards. His report recommended that UK listed
companies in the FTSE 100 should aim to have a minimum of 25% women
board members by 2015.
One year on from the Davies report, the figures show a steady, but
fairly modest increase. Board Watch recently reported that the
percentage of female board directors of FTSE 100 companies has risen
from 12.5% in 2010 to currently 15%. For FTSE 250 companies, the
figure is 9.4%, up from 7.8%. This is set against a background of
roughly half the working population being female.
Board Mentoring report that only 56% of FTSE 100 companies state
they have a policy on boardroom diversity, and only 33 companies
have set themselves targets for the percentage of women on their
boards, a mere 10 of which are greater than a 10% increase.
All agree it would benefit British businesses to have more women in
their boardrooms, but nothing sparks as much controversy as the
question of whether we should follow Scandinavia and introduce
quotas to remedy the situation.
Lord Davies did not recommend introducing any last year, but said
that the government would reserve the right to introduce more
prescriptive alternatives if the recommended business-led approach
did not achieve significant change. Is it too soon to do so now?
Would quotas be helpful? The debate has opened up once again.
Legion Appeals
for Help
FORMBY Royal British Legion
are looking for a responsible person or persons to take charge of
the Poppy Appeal in Formby. They would be responsible for running
the Poppy Committee which meets throughout the year and organizes
various fund raising events. The main aspect would be to organize
the preparation, distribution, collection and counting of poppy
boxes and tins in November and the manning of stalls in the
supermarkets.
Help, advice and support will be
available. It would suit recently retired persons but there is no
remuneration for this position. The Legion are also looking for
someone to train as a Deputy Standard Bearer. Anyone interested in
helping should contact the Legion in Whitehouse Lane directly or
ring:- 01704 877477 between 9:30am and 11:30am.
BINGO
Formby Royal British Legion are hosting a Bingo Night on Friday,
17 February at Formby Legion in Whitehouse Lane in aid of the Poppy
Appeal. There will be cash prizes,doors open 7:30pm, eyes down
8pm. All money raised goes to help service and ex-service personnel.
Letter to the
Editor:- "Salomond must trump objection."
"I was astounded to see that
Donald Trump is objecting to the possible erection of a 'monstrous'
windfarm near to his new Aberdeenshire golf course. His claim that
our First Minister is 'hell-bent on destroying Scotland’s coastline
and therefore Scotland itself' reminds me of the remarks made by the
many nimby locals who unreasonably objected to his golf course in
the first place. Mr Salmond's government was quite right to reject
this kind of argument then and should do so in this case where the
possible economic benefits far outweigh a few small changes to
rather indifferent scenery. Mr Trump's golfing customers are, in any
case, likely to keep their eyes on the ball and will be unlikely
even to register the distant sight of essential green generating
infrastructure designed to benefit all the people of Scotland."
John Eoin Douglas.
Editors note:- "Thank you for the
letter, but we are a bit puzzled as to what the connection to
Merseyside? We added it anyway as it might be of interested to any
Aberdonian living on Merseyside> We have also sent you a few
contacts media contacts that might help, like the Caledonian
Mercury.
Government
E-Petition Launched
CLLR Jake Morrison,
Councillor for Wavertree, has set up a Government E-Petition calling
on the Government to take action on Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.
Jake Morrison has set up a petition saying the following:- "We
call on the Government to take action on Sudden Adult Death Syndrome
(SADS). SADS can go on undetected, and is something which can affect
people aged between 12 & 35 years old. It can be detected by simply
having an ECG test. The Oliver King Foundation was set up following
the death of Oliver King, a 12 year old boy who died in Wavertree of
SADS. We call on the Government to introduce defibrillators to all
public buildings by 2017, and provide staff with the appropriate
training. We also call on the Government to offer all people aged
between 12 & 35 a simple ECG test, which could reduce the current
death rate of 12 young people a week."
Cllr Jake Morrison, a Patron of The Oliver King Foundation said:-
"I’ve been working with the family over the past few months, and
they are doing invaluable work to raise awareness of this silent
killer.
What the foundation is calling for is something simple, we want all
12 to 35 year olds to have an ECG at some stage, with the aim to
reduce the death rate of 12 young people a week. If the work of the
Foundation can save the life of one young person, it will be a huge
success.
From what I hear of Oliver, from his parents Mark & Joanne, he was a
young boy much loved by everyone who surrounded him.
I’m delighted and proud that Mark & Joanne have asked me to play a
part in this cause. The Government need to take action on this
silent killer as soon as possible, it is not an unreasonable
request."
Mark King, Oliver Kings Dad, said:- "We want to bring
awareness out about SADS. We need to get these defibrillators in
Schools and Screening introduced to save young peoples lives. If
this e-petition can raise awareness nationally, that can only be
good."
Luciana Berger MP for Liverpool Wavertree, a Patron of The Oliver
King Foundation, said:- "I would urge as many people as
possible to sign up to this e-petition. The more support this
campaign gets the more likely it is the government will take notice
and act. Together we can ensure that no young people die
needlessly."
Online plans
will penalise farmers
FARMERS and landowners in
the North must have access to a reliable broadband connection before
plans to push all farm payment applications online are carried out,
the CLA has warned.
The Association says that plans unveiled this week by the Rural
Payments Agency (RPA) to abolish paper-based Single Payment
applications by 2015 will penalise hundreds of CLA members still
struggling with slow broadband or dial-up connections.
CLA North Regional Director Dorothy Fairburn said:- "This move
by the RPA is an example of the Government and its agencies saving
their own costs without appreciating that a significant number of
rural businesses do not have the broadband connectivity required.
Until the Government can guarantee a quality broadband service for
everyone, they simply cannot force farmers and landowners in the
‘internet slow lane’ to waste hours of their already pressed time
trying to fill in forms online."
The CLA is lobbying to ensure that every household can access a
broadband connection of at least 5Mbps. The Association estimates
that up to a third of the country; predominantly in rural areas;
still cannot access a fast and reliable broadband service. |
