Breathing Places

With our help, three community associations have secured Big Lottery Funding to regenerate their local green spaces.  At Abourthorne Ponds, Parkwood Springs and Longley, local people have organised community work days to clean up their green spaces and improve wildlife habitats; have held events to engage the community, particularly involving young people and local schools; and have carried out various landscaping works.  Working in partnership with these groups, the Trust has lent its expertise to involve as wide a section of the community as possible, and has devised work programmes and provided tools for work days.  Although we have been on hand to support local people, the motivation for enhancing their green spaces has been theirs alone, demonstrating how fundamental outdoor spaces are to a good quality of life.

Regenerating parks, open spaces and communities

Parks and open spaces are the lungs of the city, giving us all a chance to breath and to get away from the pressure of urban life. Scientists have shown that spending even a small amount of time in a natural environment substantially brings down stress levels, and the importance of urban green spaces as wildlife habitats is increasing as the countryside falls ever further into decline.

In the past Sheffield’s parks suffered from a lack of funding that now means that their value to people and wildlife isn’t as high as it could be. The City Council is working to improve the amenities and bio-diversity in its parks, and Sheffield Wildlife Trust is one of the main partners in the long process of giving the city the parks and open spaces it deserves.

Regeneration programmes from Burngreave, Foxhill, Parson Cross, Shirecliffe and Southey in the north to Norfolk Park and Manor and Castle in the south are focused on rebuilding inner-city parks. The work takes place in close consultation with local people, ensuring that redevelopments meet local needs and supply the facilities that people want as well as leading to healthier, greener open spaces. Wildflower seed is sown on temporarily vacant brownfield land, making for a more colourful neighbourhood and discouraging flytipping. ‘Pocket parks’ provide formal park facilities on the doorsteps of new housing. The Wildlife Trust is developing innovative natural play spaces using landscaping and the natural environment.

Our flagship park development project is a partnership between Sheffield Wildlife Trust, Sheffield City Council and Manor and Castle Development Trust that will create a vast new district park at Deep Pits in the heart of the Manor estate.