Below are a range of links to useful documents that your open spaces Friends Group might find useful. Use the side menu to navigate to more pages where you can information about setting up a Friends Group & Model Constitutions, find templates of important policies such as an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion policy template, info about returning your group’s volunteering data, and more!
Birmingham Dog Control – New Laws
Following a full public consultation, Birmingham City Council is to go ahead with implementing Dog Control Orders under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. These orders were introduced on 1 March 2014 and are been seen as measures to tackle issues caused by irresponsible dog owners who fail to control or clean up after their pets. Offences will be dealt with by a Fixed Penalty Notice and fine of £80.
Click Here to download the Poster that you can display on your notice boards.
Blue Sky Green Space Executive Summary – Understanding the importance of retaining good quality parks and green spaces, and the contribution they make to improving people’s lives.
Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment. The national survey on people and the natural environment – Natural England, Defra and the Forestry Commission commissioned a new survey called Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) to provide baseline and trend data on how people use the natural environment in England.
MENE Spatial Report – To find out more about who visits the natural environment, what motivates them to go, and ultimately what experience they get from visiting. Pages 18 – 21 show more detailed information on Birmingham – Mene report3 Final JAN12 amends
MENE Headline reports and technical reports 2016-2017, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 Click here for the results for the eighth and ninth year of the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment survey, which provides data on how people use the natural environment in England -2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018. Click here to read the MENE headline report 2018 to 2019
The Green Living Spaces Plan for Birmingham introduces a new approach, that of valuing all the city’s natural spaces and features as Natural Capital, by applying the latest scientific thinking behind the National Ecosystem Assessment – Email version- Green Living Spaces PlanV7
Benefits of Urban Parks – Green areas and parks provide many benefits to urban spaces. That’s what people have said for years – but without an awful lot of evidence to back it up.
Now there is an evidence-based report, Benefits of Urban Parks: A systematic review, offering some support to that assertion. Click here to read the report.
The recent study, one the authors believe is a first-of-its-kind, draws conclusions based on green space related research published in a number of top-level scientific publications.
It offers a comprehensive and critical assessment that evaluates the strength of the evidence supporting a series of park benefits.
Green Infrastructure – Valuation Tools Assessment – There are an increasing number of tools available that aim to value green infrastructure. Many of these focus on specific services provided by the green infrastructure and estimate the economic value of these services.
This report was commissioned to draw together a number of the most widely used tools and assess them against research standards for natural science and economics. The aim is to help people wanting to value green infrastructure to choose the best tool for them.
The Big Tree Plant – report monitoring the outcomes of the project can be found on the DEFRA website. Click here to go to the link for the Full Document and the Executive Summary characterising community groups engaged in the Big Tree Plant and identifying the benefits and challenges of involvement for participants.
Charity Commission Guidance on handling safeguarding allegations in a charity
Health & Green Spaces
Our open green spaces are essential to our health and wellbeing. For documented reports demonstrating this please see the links below:
BBC News – Green Spaces Improve Health
BBC News – Green Space Boosts Wellbeing of Urban Dwellers
Community Green – Using local spaces to tackle inequality and improve health – an archived report from CABE
Growing Health Report – Food Growing for Health & Wellbeing. This review sets out to demonstrate the strength of evidence for the benefits of gardening and food growing for physical and mental health and wellbeing.
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