Residents and community groups in east Hull are being urged to shine, say it with flowers and bring some colour into the neighbourhood for this year’s Park Area in Bloom. The charity EMS Yorkshire is running the competition for the first time, in conjunction with Hull City Council’s Park Area Team and Gateway, the housing pathfinder for Hull. Park Area in Bloom is open to residents, businesses, community groups and schools and it is part of the overall citywide environmental challenge, Hull in Bloom.
Neighbours Ken Cromac from St John’s Grove and Paul Lumley from Hilston Grove, Preston Road, were both winners last year, and they will be launching the 2010 competition. Newcomer Mr Lumley picked up the Park Area first-time entrant award while Mr Cromac won the full garden category. Another resident, Dennis Shaw from Arthur Lucan Close, went on to scoop the overall Hull in Bloom title for his rear garden.

Mr Cromac says: “Entering Park Area in Bloom has been a great success for me, Since I started in 2006, I’ve done incredibly well and it makes me want to do better each time I enter, not only with flowers but I recycle a lot of things. The other thing that happened is that it brought in my next-door neighbour as well. With my help, he moved 10 tons of rubbish buried under his soil and entered the competition. To his surprise, he won an award. Now we are very good friends and he’s found a hobby he likes.”

The categories are:

Best Displays by a public house, commercial organisation, community group, and school;

Best Front, Back or Full Garden; and Allotment Garden;

Best Planted Container or Hanging Basket;

Best Contribution to Wildlife.

The closing date is Friday 9 July and judging will take place the following week, with an awards ceremony at the Freedom Centre, Preston Road Village Centre, in mid-October. Park Area winners will also go forward to the citywide Hull in Bloom competition and the winners of this are announced on 16 September in a ceremony at the Guildhall.

EMS Chief Executive Jan Boyd says: “Looking after their garden is a real passion for a number of residents, but taking part in Park Area in Bloom is something that everyone could do. I’d really love to see many more businesses and community groups in the Park Area becoming involved. People don’t have to spend a lot, it costs nothing to enter and colourful plants and flowers really lift the area.”

YOUNGSTERS TEAM UP WITH CHARITY FOR SPRING-CLEAN OF HULL ESTATE

An army of youngsters joined staff from the East Hull charity EMS to give their neighbourhood a spring-clean during their Easter holidays in the first of a series of community blitzes in 2010.EMS, which is responsible for neighbourhood management in the Southcoates East Ward in partnership with Gateway – Hull’s housing pathfinder – and the Preston Road Neighbourhood Development Company, organised the community clean-up. The event was also supported by the area’s community wardens. Between them, some 10 bags of rubbish were collected including four with cans and bottles to be recycled. One of the eager volunteers who gave up her morning to collect litter, 12-year-old Kennadie Hardcastle of Kilnsea Grove, said: “I really enjoyed it and would do it again. There was so much rubbish which could be recycled and I want to see my family recycle much more.”

EMS Chief Executive Jan Boyd is planning more street tidy-ups during each of the school holidays this year. She says: “There was a lot of litter to pick up around Kilnsea Grove, but our team of helpers was a great credit to the area. I hope residents can appreciate the efforts that went into today’s clean-up. We monitor the area regularly for problems such as fly-tipping and today spotted some abandoned bikes, which we will alert the Council to remove.”

EMS, which has been praised nationally for its community safety work with other agencies in east Hull, is launching two more local initiatives with Hull City Council’s Park Area Team and Gateway in the Spring and Summer. It is spearheading Park Area in Bloom, an annual competition to encourage residents, community groups and businesses to improve their gardens and buildings, and the Doorstep Challenge, to spur residents to spruce up their front gardens and be in with a chance of winning £100.

RESEARCHERS ASK EAST HULL RESIDENTS TO RATE THEIR NEIGHBOURHOOD

Residents in an area of east Hull are being asked by researchers to give their latest verdict on housing, the environment, community safety and fear of crime in their neighbourhood.

Staff from EMS Ltd is, a newly-formed charity which specialises in neighbourhood management, are taking to the streets of the Southcoates East Ward around the Preston Road area. The team will be going door to door for more in-depth conversations with residents to find out about their concerns and hear about any initiatives which are improving their quality of life.

It is the fifth annual survey of the 250 households. Previous issues which have been raised and addressed include the increased visibility of police and community safety staff, cycle patrols, dog fouling and fly-tipping. EMS Chief Executive Jan Boyd says: “This survey aims to provide a clear picture as to what residents as customers feel about the area as a whole and the services that affect them such refuse and recycling collections, grass-cutting, housing maintenance and policing. The results will show any hotspots in the area and then the organisations we work with, along with residents, will look at ways of tackling these issues and how to ensure they do not happen again in the future.” The findings will be considered by the Southcoates East Neighbourhood Management Panel, which is supported by public sector partners such as Hull City Council, Humberside Police and Humberside Fire & Rescue Service. The results will also be published online at the EMS website, www.emsyorkshire.co.uk, in April 2010. Jan adds: ”We’ll feed back to residents by letter, telephone call or visit, letting them know of any actions that have occurred as a result of their responses. We’re unusual in our doorstep approach but if residents don’t have the time, they can return their completed questionnaire to us by post.”

For further information, contact Jan Boyd, Chief Executive, 01482 709810 or email info@emsyorkshire.co.uk.

Hull in Bloom 2009

Another fruitful year of gardening accumulated in the Park Area in Bloom Awards Night 2009 held on Wednesday 28th October at the Freedom Centre, Preston Road Village Centre.

Not only had the Park Area had the highest number of entrants in the city but five were placed in the city-wide Hull in Bloom Competition with Park Area resident Dennis Shaw winning in the Back garden Category for the whole of the city. Dennis on the night was given a special award by Places for People as recognition for all of his hard work and 30 years of gardening.

A big thank you goes out to all who attended and here’s to a bumper, blooming 2010.

The residents from Brigham Grove have had enough of rubbish.

And just to prove how much they loathe litter, the Brigham Grove Clean up Crew are going to go out into the streets on Thursday 27th August from 10am to pick up litter. By their actions they are to show the rest of the community how big a problem litter is, and to encourage them to start disposing of it properly.

Figures released by the UK’s biggest anti-litter campaign, Keep Britain Tidy, have revealed:

That council taxpayers in the UK fork out £500m a year to clean the streets.
Over 30m tonnes of litter are collected from our streets each year
That thanks to the growing presence of dropped food, the UK rat population now stands at approximately sixty million
People who are caught dropping litter in Hull can be fined £75

Like everywhere else in the UK, the Preston Road area has its fair share of litter problems. But thanks to the Brigham Grove Clean up Crew they at least have people prepared to do something about it.

The Brigham Grove Clean up Crew will begin to tackle rubbish at Brigham Grove on Thursday 27th August from 10am. They are hoping that as many volunteers as possible will come and join them and that the rest of the community gets the message that dropping litter is ‘simply not on’.

Jan Boyd, Director of Neighbourhood Management said: “This clean up will show others that we care about the future of our local environment and that we are not prepared to live, work and play in an area that is blighted by rubbish. What is good about working together like this, is it creates a sense of community and for some of our younger volunteers it is their first taste of active citizenship.”

The Brigham Grove clean up takes place at:
Location: Brigham Grove
Date: 27th August 2009
Time: 10am to 12pm

You are invited to send a photographer/reporter to this event.

For further information please contact Jan Boyd on 0779 0840995.