discovercoventry.co.uk
COVENTRY COMMEMORATES
COVENTRY IN
BLOOM
CITY OF PEACE AND RECONCILIATION
P O RT F O L I O
2014
A1 Impact Coventry City Centre continues to focus on vibrant and colourful planting schemes. Coventry in Bloom continues to be a partnership between city centre business owners, residents and the landscaping contractor for Coventry City Council – The Landscape Group. Our aim is to ensure that our urban environment is complemented by a rich variety of colourful and innovative floral displays. To ensure wide coverage throughout the year, features are rotated seasonally and infused with a mixture of hardy herbaceous planting which includes, Begonia, Dahlia, Marigold, Geranium, Rudbeckia and Antirrhinum. Soil is fertilised using locally sourced recycled coffee beans. This year’s entry entitled ‘Coventry Commemorates’ has been focussed on commemorating 100 years since the outbreak of WW1. Therefore the colour palette has reflected this with the use of reds and blacks to create a Poppy feature outside Holy Trinity Church. Elsewhere in the city centre we have used red, white and blue in our planters and troughs as strong vibrant British colours. Many local schools and nurseries submitted ideas for our two feature beds in Greyfriars Green and we have replicated the two winning designs. We also have had two soldiers fabricated which will be on display in Greyfriars Green. This year the main feature bed in Greyfriars Green is a butterfly to recognise the 50th Anniversary of Britain in Bloom. Beds are maintained on a daily basis by the Landscape Group, this includes watering, dead heading and weeding. Coventry continues to strive towards a greater balance between seasonal and sustainable planting schemes. Currently over 70% of the plants in the city centre are sustainable. Evidence of new sustainable planting can be found outside the council house and elsewhere in Greyfriars Green, Bishop St, Warwick Row, Millenium View, Whitefriars Pocket Park, Hill Street Pocket Park and Lady Herbert’s Gardens all continue to have a strong level of sustainable plants. The levels of planting in the city centre are received with great enthusiasm from the residents, visitors and businesses. They are viewed to vastly improve the perception of the city centre by visitors and instil pride in residents and local business owners.
A2 Horticultural Practice The Landscape Group takes pride in keeping the plants hydrated, maintained, free of pests or deficiencies and disease free. This year Coventry City Council and the Coventry Business Improvement District (BID) have continued its contract with RC Smith who supplies barrier planters, floral statues, tiered planters, bedding plants and hanging baskets. The maintenance of these planters is performed by the Landscape Group. In line with the improvements of the Council House, the planting space outside has been replanted with sustainable plants such as Bergenia ‘Overture’ which are richly coloured with neat foliage and stunning magenta flowers in spring. A great winter dark red foliage colour, the Lavendula angustifolia ‘Imperial Gem’ is a compact, bushy evergreen shrub with narrow grey green leaves and fragrant deep purple flower spikes. Phormium cookianum subsp. Hookeri ‘Tricolor’ has cream and green leaves with a narrow red edge and stunning branched heads of apricot flowers. The Hebe ‘Champagne’ produces a neat mound; the slender olive green leaves have a lustrous sheen and are offset by the purple stems, in winter the leaves develop a bronze hue. From July to September numerous racemes of pale mauve flowers are produced which quickly fade to white.
A3 Business areas and premises Coventry Business Improvement District (BID) is the perfect mechanism to consult and involve local businesses in the annual Bloom initiative. The BID continues to fund over £45,000 towards the seasonal planting displays in the city centre, the watering and maintenance of the displays and various initiatives to promote and encourage the local community to get involved. As well as funding Bloom initiatives through BID, Coventry Cathedral uses its prime location to support Bloom with well-maintained border planting, herbaceous plants and shrubs along with lush, grass verges and planter containers. Thousands of local and overseas visitors take this positive impression of Coventry away with them. Businesses across the city centre request and offer to maintain planters and hanging baskets. Businesses in one of our most historic areas, Spon St, take great pride in receiving and maintaining their hanging baskets each year. This is organised through the Treasurer of the Traders Association. Pubs, shops and office buildings all support the Bloom initiative and their BID levy invests in hanging baskets, three tier planters and half rounds throughout the city centre and in particular the areas of high retail footfall. On what was the site of the old student union and previously a working man’s club, Coventry University’s grounds team have created a pocket park. The demolition of the old building last year for future redevelopment required a temporary landscape scheme to be developed in a fairly hostile environment of concrete and rubble infill overlaid with clay subsoil, the team faced a challenge. The results are a pocket park that provides an attractive, safe open area and walk-through, complete with gabion benches and some excellent herbaceous and meadow planting. Old fashioned roses are used to good effect against the wall of the ‘elephant’ whilst lavenders along the path edge near the seats delight the senses. The swirling prairie bed is designed to showcase draught tolerant plants whilst the mound has been covered with annual wildflowers including poppies for remembrance.
A4 – Green Spaces At Coventry University the edible camps areas continue to prosper and grow both in popularity and in the acknowledgement of their wider role. The area was awarded a coveted “green gown finalist” status in the 2013 awards and has been visited by other professionals as an exemplar of best practice. This year the planting includes more from the garden organic heritage seeds bank and more salad and herb crops from the Asian continent in acknowledgment of our many Asian students and visitors. A new interpretation and information board has been put in place to inform and encourage people to ‘eat the campus’. To help celebrate the RHS’ birthday, children from our nursery have joined us in planting and growing sunflowers for the judges to see and have also benefitted by using them to learn about nature and mathematics. Biodiversity, always a key element in our work, has not been forgotten and this year new nectar-rich plantings have been carried out and we are delighted to be playing our part in a Heritage lottery funded research project, in conjunction with Garden Organic, to encourage the public to identify and count bumblebees via a new phone app. Our campus will be the home for several species of plants that will be monitored in the same way by the researcher and ourselves. We are also collaborating with the University of Northampton to monitor our biodiversity ‘score’ using a system they developed. This will provide us, them and other partners with a way of monitoring, identifying and improving biodiversity across campus.
The public space outside the council house has been developed this year. The idea was to improve the setting of the Council House and the introduction of a one way system will mean that the road will be narrowed right down from four lanes to just one. The traffic lights at the junction of High Street were removed and the area around the road landscaped with new areas of lawn and connecting sandstone paths. It will also connect to the work recently undertaken in High Street and Gosford Street. The work included: • Wider pedestrian areas made using high quality sandstone paving – the same as the paving used in High Street • The introduction of a new one way system along Little Park Street, Earl Street, Much Park Street and St John’s street – enabling the significant reduction of the road width outside the Council House, making better use of the space • The extension of the green area up to and around the Council House • Narrowing of the zebra crossing at Little Park Street • Two new zebra crossings installed near to High Street and The Herbert Art Gallery.
B1 Resource Management Coventry Business Improvement District (BID) set up an initiative with a local franchisee John Kiely from McDonald’s, recycling the used ground coffee beans from his Cross Cheaping restaurant to fertilise flower beds within the city centre. The idea came about after taking inspiration from the restaurant’s Planet Champion, who had heard of a similar initiative in London. Lab tests show that coffee grounds are particularly good for acid-loving plants, but also, as a substantial amount of the acid is ‘cooked out’ of the coffee and drunk the residue is also suitable to be used as a fertiliser for the majority of plants. For the past few months John has been storing the coffee in the restaurant ready for the Landscape Group to collect and re-use in the floral beds in the city centre. So far the team has successfully used the ground coffee in Lady Herbert’s Gardens and Greyfriars Green. The Council will be monitoring how successful this is with a view to using in other areas of the city. As part of necessary works to redevelop Coventry city centre some trees have been earmarked for removal. Coventry City Council’s leader, Cllr Ann Lucas, has however pledged that roads and pathways will be moved to accommodate as many existing trees as possible and where trees have no option but to be removed two will be planted elsewhere in the city in its place.
B2 Local Heritage Far Gosford Street is one of Coventry’s most historic streets and has seen many changes throughout its long and colourful life. Across almost a thousand years of history, the street has seen both good times and bad. However one thing has remained the same throughout time – the street has always been a centre for creativity, innovation and enterprise. Far Gosford Street currently has six grade II listed buildings dating from the 1500s to 1900s and 20 locally listed buildings. The renovation involves preserving the buildings and ensures the economic success of the street continues to serve generations to come. As part of the Councils green bin collection service over 15,000 tons of garden waste were collected in 13/14 and converted to compost. One business in particular has come to light during the works; a chemist’s which has housed different chemists in it for the last 100 years. Whilst the improvements went on, the workers discovered some old medicine bottles dating back 100 years. These bottles were analysed by the Herbert Art Gallery and will take a space within the museum. As well as preserving buildings there will be some additions made to the street, this has been named ‘Fargo Village’. This will be a cultural quarter with small business units selling locally produced goods, making local produce and hosting a small theatre. To make this street really stand out there will also be 30 modern courtyard houses built to fit in with the streets culture and design.
B3 Local Environmental Quality Together with on-going horticultural planting and conservation, the routine maintenance, cleansing and care for the local environment in Coventry City Centre forms an integral part of the Bloom initiative. The Landscape Group work tirelessly throughout the year to ensure that our city centre is free from fly posting, dog fouling, litter, over flowing bins, blocked drains and graffiti. Using the latest technology, chewing gum is removed with chemical free and sustainable substances, which are harmless to the environment and pedestrianised areas. Following from our success in 2012 and 2013, the City Council have continued to action £75 fines to offenders who discard their chewing gum by introducing a team of Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers (NEO’s) to tackle the problem. Due to the Neighborhood Enforcement Officers, there has been an increase in fixed penalty notices for dog fouling issued as part of a City Council initiative to improve the cleanliness of Coventry’s streets, parks and open spaces. Incidents of fly-tipping across Coventry have reduced by more than 10 per cent over the last 12 months. The problem costs Coventry City Council about £300,000 each year to clean up and has led to a concerted effort to educate and crackdown on the problem. This approach has seen the number of reported fly-tipping incidents to reduce by 10.7 per cent over the last year. The success has been particularly impressive in the St Michael’s ward, which includes Hillfields, near to Coventry city centre, where fly-tipping has been a particular problem. Areas of high footfall including Millennium Place, Broadgate, Bull Yard and University Square are regularly cleansed by the Schmidt Hot Jet System, funded by the Coventry Business Improvement District (BID). Improving the overall appearance and cleanliness of pavements and pathways is an on-going priority for
The Landscape Group, who continue to regularly sanitise these areas using high pressured hot water, enhancing their appearance while leaving them clean and safe for city centre visitors. In addition, the four ambassadors, appointed to work on behalf of the city centre BID, provide assistance to ensure that the city centre is patrolled seven days a week reporting cleansing, maintenance, security and greening issues via a handheld device, this then goes to the relevant persons to be acted upon to ensure all issues are raised and dealt with in a timely manner. The City Council continue to enhance the aesthetic appearance of vacant city centre units by dressing windows with attractive artwork throughout the interim period before the stores are again let to new owners. By the same token, The Landscape Group work alongside the Coventry Business Improvement District (BID) to cleanse problematic city centre areas, notably supporting new businesses to enhance the appearance of their outside areas. As a whole, Coventry City Council and The Landscape Group team continue to cleanse a mammoth 10,000 miles of streets per year, picking up approximately 5,000 tonnes of litter whilst emptying almost 2,000 litter bins each week . There is a bus-based ‘Park & Ride’ site serving the south of Coventry; the site is conveniently located in the War Memorial Park for drivers to park and complete their journey into the city centre by bus. At capacity, this service removes almost 600 cars from the roads, not only enhancing the experience for pedestrians with quieter highways but similarly improving the surrounding air quality and environment for all who visit the city centre.
B4 Pride of Place To complement city centre green space, Coventry BID works alongside Coventry City Council and the Landscape Group to ensure that the city centre is well maintained with informative signage which is kept up-to-date. Street furniture plays an important role in this alongside our iconic statues and landmarks. Over the past 12 months development work has continued. To improve the city centre, public realm schemes in High St, Earl St and Little Park St have been completed. Roads have been narrowed, speed limits decreased to 20mph and pavements widened to improve the visitor experience giving pedestrians greater priority in public spaces. New trees have been planted in these spaces to complement the hard landscaping. The work to improve the roads and footpaths in Spon St was also completed late last year, giving greater access to one of our most historic streets. This work has been offset with hanging baskets running the length of the street. Work on a new bridge deck leading from Greyfriars Green to our new business quarter development, Friargate, is scheduled to last 18 months. This bridge deck will provide an impressive and physical greater link to the train station and the city centre and is seen as a catalyst for the regeneration of the city centre. Work has been funded through a ÂŁ12.7 million grant investment from the Regional Growth Fund.
C1 Development and Continuity As always, an integral part of Coventry in Bloom is the involvement of our local, city centre community, comprising of not only local businesses but where possible residents, local nurseries, schools and partner agencies. Together our long term intention is to keep the city centre safe, clean and environmentally friendly. The Coventry Business Improvement District (BID), city council and Landscape Group continue to invest time and resources to aid the local community to be involved in Bloom initiatives creating a lasting legacy for Coventry in Bloom. This year we have worked alongside Starley Road resident’s association to maintain their green space and park. Whilst the BID has provided materials the residents association have planted and maintained them and involved local youngsters to build relationships, which has improved an area previously known for antisocial behaviour. This approach has given the children involved a sense of pride of place and improved the area for all. We have continued to work with Virgin Trains, the management company for Coventry Railway Station. New wildflower planting has been installed on the platforms and the planters on the platforms are maintained on a voluntary basis by the platform staff. Coventry in Bloom worked with local primary schools this year to raise awareness of the campaign and offered children the chance to design a flower bed which commemorated 100 years since WW1. Not only does this help get local children involved in Bloom, it also educates them on an important part of British history. The winner was Manor House Primary School and their prize is funding for a fruit and vegetable garden. We will provide resources and guidance for this to allow the children to plant and maintain the garden themselves.
C2 Business Community and Wider Community Involvement Local McDonald’s franchisee John Kiely and crew from his Cross Cheaping restaurant joined forces with the Business Improvement District (BID) and Coventry City Council to tackle litter in the city centre. The litter party which was made up of 21 volunteers took to the streets around Barracks car park, the Cooperative service area, Argos service area, and McDonald’s, over a three hour period from 9am - midday. This clean up event was set up to encourage the community to take responsibility for keeping their neighbourhood litter-free and to take pride in their local environment. Now in its third year, the event is just one of hundreds of McDonald’s clean-up initiatives taking place across the country in 2013, as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s anti-littering campaign, ‘Love Where You Live’. The campaign encourages the public to take action and help reduce the amount of litter in their local area and across England by 2020. We are currently organising another clean-up where again we will be working together with McDonald’s Cross Cheaping, Coventry City Council and the local community to help support an area within Hillfields, this will involve cleaning the area, planting new flowers and getting local people involved within the project to be proud of where they live and help maintain this throughout the year.
C3 Year round involvement August • Local Volunteers from McDonalds work with Coventry BID to tackle litter in city centre as part of the ‘love where you live’ campaign • Coombe park awarded Green Flag • Coventry BID announce Andy Talbot as new chairman
September • Walking tours of the city centre offered free of charge as part of Heritage Open Days • Council sets up its own Tree Wardens group
October • New council leader pledges more trees for the city • One tonne of paper recycled during the first week of the Council’s Kickstart paper chase • Plans unveiled for development of council house square
November • Cambridge Street and Wright Street cleaned up by local residents with a total of 23 tons of rubbish removed from alleyways • National Tree week launched in Coventry
December • Planning application for Friargate submitted.
January • Christmas tree recycling service launched • ERDF funding secured for bridge deck to Friargate
February • Garden waste collections resumed with 15,000 tons expected to be collected over the year for composting • Coventry in Bloom Schools competition launched
March • Work Starts on Friargate Bridge deck • Historic statue of Lady Godiva restored at St Mary’s Guildhall
April • • • •
Seven sites selected for Wildflower planting £970,000 secured from Heritage Lottery funding for Far Gosford St conservation area Coventry in Bloom Launched to local press Bluebell walk at Coombe Country Park
May • Coventry in Bloom holds annual plant giveaway
June • Winners of schools competition selected and announced • Seasonal bedding installed.
C4 Funding and Support Committed support of key businesses and partners forms an integral part of Coventry’s entry to the Heart of England in Bloom campaign. Coventry’s Business Improvement District (BID) continues to work alongside Coventry City Council to support local business owners within the city centre to provide assistance with crime reduction, CCTV monitoring, marketing and street cleansing. Business owners within the city centre continue to pay a regular fee of which the funds are used to maintain and improve the environment where necessary. The Business Improvement District, alongside local business premises, Coventry City Council and The Landscape Group, see to it that the streets are patrolled seven days a week whilst kept clean and tidy all year round. The membership fee goes a long way to help fund green initiatives such as the street cleansing Schmidt machine, cigarette bins and hanging baskets to make Coventry a more attractive and save place to live, work and visit. Partners such as Virgin Trains and McDonalds have also funded activity for Coventry in Bloom initiatives. RC Smith, bedding plant suppliers for the city have offered outstanding service and support by providing the Business Improvement District (BID) with flowers and plants used in the beds, planters and baskets throughout the year. Recognising that certain procedures for the protection of the environment are now a fundamental factor of any long-term business development plan, together with the BID and Coventry City Council, RC Smith actively seeks to reduce any negative impacts on the environment in the production and distribution of plant products. To enhance the awareness of Coventry in Bloom, members of the BID Team alongside the Communications Team at Coventry City Council have worked to liaise with local press, ensuring that the campaign message is broadcast to a wider audience. The plant giveaway was promoted to residents on social media with a high level of engagement. To increase impact and maximise the audience awareness of Coventry in Bloom, numerous branding and marketing promotional tools have been produced including branded flags which fly high in Broadgate throughout the summer months. Planter box signs are found in high footfall areas of Coventry city centre, these particular signs are doubly effective as the boxes include eye catching, bright floral displays enhancing the appearance of Coventry’s busiest areas. Car park posters have been in abundance throughout.
discovercoventry.co.uk
COVENTRY IN
BLOOM
CITY OF PEACE AND RECONCILIATION