My first Friendship Bench Chat was with the Friends of Perry Park on a sunny Sunday afternoon. One member of the Friends Group is Val and she has been a City of Nature Green Champion from the start of the programme in 2022.
You can find out more about the Perry Park Friends Group here: https://bosf.org.uk/members/friends-of-perry-park-fopp/
I asked Val if she would like to start off the Friendship Bench Chat conversations in Perry Park and she jumped at the chance but there was a small problem.
At one of the main entrances to the park where the group often start their litter picks there are no benches or around most of the park.
Not put off by this, instead of sitting on a bench chatting we stood in the welcome shade of large lime trees to discuss the good and bad about the parkland, which includes a lake, that wraps around the Alexander Stadium which hosted the Commonwealth Games.
The Stadium is well known but the park is often missed by people visiting the stadium something the Friends Group wants to change. They believe if more people knew what the park had to offer their group would grow in number and more people would come and use the park.
The park was used to support the highly successful Commonwealth Games that was enjoyed by thousands of people living in and visiting the city, but it is time now for the park to benefit from the success of the games and be returned not only to it pre games state but also enhanced for the use of all park visitors. Those enhancements would include benches so Val doesn’t have to prop herself on the table tennis table to take a rest while walking round the park as part of her recovery from a recent accident.
The City of Nature Plan includes a standard for Parks and Green Spaces call the Future Park Standard. The concept behind the standard is if we were to build a brand new park what would it need to have, what would be the minimum acceptable standard for that park and what would make it a good park, which would be Green Flag Standard https://www.greenflagaward.org/about-the-award/what-is-the-green-flag-award/
We retrospectively apply that standard to existing parks using any funding we have available to ensure that all parks are raised to the same standard of any future parks that may be built. This is not a quick process and it needs everyone working together to achieve it, but together we will be able to do it.
The group also wants to ensure that children can use the park for playing and although having the park on their doorstep is very beneficial being able to access good quality play equipment encourages families to get out into their green spaces and then explore further.
There was lots of wildlife using the park when I visited, the birds were singing around us and we could see butterflies fluttering around the long grass behind the carpark. But the Friends Group wants to see the park offer more for residents and people using the stadium. Being able to use the whole park for exercise and also to be able to stop to notice nature and chat making sure that as many people as possible can benefit from this wonderful city asset.
You can listen into our chat here:
Find out more about our Friendship Bench Chat project here: https://naturallybirmingham.org/2024/08/16/friendship-bench-chat/
Naturally Birmingham Future Parks Project 