The scale of the task was daunting – imagine a huge garden that’s been overgrown for nearly twenty years and you start to get the picture! Lightbowne Country Park needed some help… During the last week of August 2003, over 100 young people involved in the Festival Manchester city-wide Christian celebration event helped start regeneration work on an area of woodland in Lightbowne Country park, North Manchester. After initial meetings with Rev. Peter Gilson from Lightbowne Evangelical Church and community representatives, Local resident Wendy Hughes, helped Irk Valley Project Officer Dave Barlow to draw up a woodland and access management plan for the site. For four afternoons, young people between the ages of 15 and 25 split up into five groups and undertook a range of tasks including litter clearance, woodland manangment, path reinstatement and fence painting. All tasks were supervised by group leaders, with community support from Alison Gregson, Carol Knight and Peter Martin, everything under the under the watchful eye of Dave Barlow. Achievements included: - Making safe and accessible a previously overgrown 300m stretch of footpath within the woods - Thinning the woodland edge either side of the path to allow better tree growth - And increse biodiversity - Successfully five burned out cars, firmly entrenched in the woods - Repairing and Painting the timber fence that surrounds the perimeter of the site - Reinstating the “lost” footpath linking Kenyon Lane to Joyce Street - Clearing tons of litter and rubbish Many thanks to all involved – partnership working at its best meant that City Council staff worked constantly on many tasks, including removing rubbish and chipping green waste, Groundwork Manchester arranged for some skips to be delivered, Mersey Valley Countryside Wardens helped their Irk Valley neighbours by winching out the Burned cars while Kevin and Angela, our community police support got stuck in and arranged for the cars to be removed… in less than an hour!! Watch this space for further improvements on site. <<back