Groundwork Partnership for Action - Chapter Extract

A view from Oldham and Rochdale Lindy Kelly

I was brought up in farming country in the far NW corner of the state of Victoria. The area was only opened to farming in the 1920s. It was poor, marginal farming, where good years were separated by many that were lean and drought stricken.

I spent my childhood exploring, catching rabbits, chasing emus and kangaroos, swimming in creeks, fishing, idyllic and barefoot.

In 1985 I came to the UK on a study tour of environmental organisations. Having quit (technically deferred) university, I had spent the previous two years working for the Australian Trust for Conservation Volunteers – delivering conservation work in many of Australia’s outstanding parks and forests and working on a demonstration programme dealing with combating inland salt issues — a major problem for my dry home region. In September 85, as part of the tour, I was invited by the Groundwork Foundation to visit one of the Groundwork Trusts – Oldham & Rochdale.

On my first day I was taken to see the Trust’s work on Sholver Estate in Oldham. Nothing in my life had prepared me for the experience of visiting Sholver (or as I was soon to discover, the many estates like it); the Australian bush was a huge con60

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trast to the poor urban environments of the north west of England.

Sholver estate was built in the 1960s, visible for miles around, located on an open windswept hillside, isolated miles from Oldham town centre with very few services within reach of those living on the estate. The housing was in a very degraded state, one flat burnt out and boarded up, the charred stains of arson evident; but net curtains and a pot plant or two on proud display on the windows of someone living next door.

This pattern of derelict and boarded up flats littered the estate. But it wasn’t just the houses that were in poor condition but the whole local environment.

Rubbish everywhere; not just paper and small items but household furniture, metal, wire, building materials. An open sewer spilt foul smelling liquid onto waste ground between the buildings. There were no playing fields, playgrounds, trees, or benches. It was the most depressing place I had ever seen.

The Trust’s antipodean volunteer sparked local media interest.

Yet in this bleak place something extraordinary was happening.

A group of children on the estate were meeting with a Groundwork project officer several evenings a week and on weekends. Groundwork Ranger Tim Edge would arrive with his Landrover and trailer and local kids would come out to help clean up around the estate.

Over time the numbers of kids grew and adults joined in. They started to develop new projects – environmental education and establishment of the Sholver Rangers organisation strongly led by

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Executive Director Robin Henshaw supervises ‘Leap Frog into Spring’.

local resident Martin Atkinson. This determined local leadership that would not take no for an answer led to the rangers acquiring land to create a nature reserve, visitor centre and training facilities.

My study tour ended but I was left with the remarkably positive memories of what is possible when people are given the opportunity to make decisions and carry out actions for themselves and their communities.

The study tour was actually a stop off on my way to Africa — I wanted to work with lions — but in those days with no internet, email, iphones, skype or even faxes, my confirmation letter to the Parks Service didn’t make it (until a year later). So I had no idea whether to head to Victoria Falls or back to the state of Victoria.

It was early 1986, 5 days before I was due to return to Australia

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with £30 in my pocket and an airline ticket for Melbourne when I called Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale to ask if I could come back and work for them. They wanted me to join but had no spare resources to employ me. They said I could volunteer and they would pay for my board and lodgings (£20 week). I was young, free and inspired so said yes. And from the outset I seemed to be involved in everything and without doubt given opportunities, roles and responsibilities way beyond my years of experience. I ran community meetings, met with local councillors, worked on new business ideas as well as helping deliver projects.

A year later I had a full time job working on footpath access improvements. Funding then (as it is now) was always an issue.

There were a lot less sources of funding and less grants available. I don’t recall if we had much central government funding – if we did I didn’t see much of it! But Oldham & Rochdale always seemed to deliver more for its size and funding, partly to do with the large number of volunteers it attracted. It was clear to me that our work was delivering to its purpose and that environmental projects were delivering social and economic benefits. You could see it across the broad range of our work.

Our work included landscape improvements – pocket parks and nature areas in housing areas and around businesses and industrial estates. The business environmental improvements expanded through the highly successful ‘Brightsite’ programme, funded by Shell. Brightsite provided business owners with free sketch designs and cost estimates for improving their sites. The visual image of what might be possible was hugely influential in convincing the landowner to pay for the improvements. We had an amazing 75% success rate in turning sketch designs into physical improvements.

One of my largest areas of work was countryside access improvements, linking town and countryside. This is where I spent my

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first 5 years – building footpaths, boardwalks, stiles and ‘kissing’ gates. It all became very exciting and innovative when we started to work on the Oldham and Rochdale section of the Pennine way.

Mollie Porter, the Pennine way management officer at the Countryside Commission, had spent two years analysing the problems of erosion on this popular and very worn major walking route across the Pennines, and was looking for solutions to stem the spread of erosion that was increasing at an alarming rate. The solution was to construct a raft using geotextiles and then stone, with the top stone being a mix of gritstone and basalt to ensure it was hard wearing but would blend into the environment. The exciting bit was ours – to use helicopters to bring in all the materials. The Pennine Way is remote and most of the areas that needed repair were in deep peat so 4 wheel drive vehicles were out of the question. We did have an all–terrain vehicle but as it was only able to carry a tonne of stone at a time, it would have taken thousands of journeys to cover the length of path we eventually built. The helicopter experience was fantastic — quick, efficient, no environmental damage and of course lots of fun! The all–terrain vehicle was very useful (and fun when no one was watching is another story) but also helpful when dignitaries would visit. I recall a visit by the government minister David Trippier who quite enjoyed his time behind the wheel.

But it wasn’t all fun. Funding was always tight and that often put a huge strain on us to find new ways to keep dedicated teams employed delivering our work on the ground. Another key area of our practical work was environmental improvements on local farmland. The farms on this urban fringe were marginal — many farmers poor and making just a subsistence living. Farms and therefore the countryside had become degraded; neglected drystone walls that had crumbled and not been rebuilt; hedgerows not maintained so no longer effective stock boundaries; removal of hedges and trees resulting in depleted wildlife corridors. We

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started to work with local farmers to help them improve their land and to improve both the visual image of the environment and to create new and improved areas for wildlife. It was often this work that filled the gaps in work streams, when the grant approvals were delayed or planning permission took longer than expected. In these difficult times I would spend my evenings and weekends visiting many of the local farmers to drum up work.

I had a team of highly skilled and hardworking staff who I had to keep gainfully employed and the farmers always responded – they needed help too so it worked for all of us. Win, win.

We also took our message on the road and delivered a large environmental education programme with schools across the two boroughs. And to encourage community engagement and raise awareness of Groundwork, we ran many ‘campaigns’; Barbara Brooks and her team led all of this side of our work.

Back then I have to admit I often thought the campaigns were a bit mad. I remember one in particular — ‘Leap Frog into Spring’, a day when school children from both Oldham and Rochdale would come out to leap frog down the Rochdale Canal?! Mad but the kids loved it. We laughed loads. And their parents got to hear a bit about our work.

Our Executive Director, Robin Henshaw, always liked to come up with catchy titles for our work. Take the Countryside Recreational Access Programme or was it just his sense of humour that meant the programme was forever known as CRAP (and over the years CRAP 1, CRAP 2…..). This approach extended to the name of the Trust. When Groundwork Oldham and Rochdale expanded to Tameside you might have expected the abbreviation to be GORT, but Robin changed the order so that it became GROT. GROT by name, but definitely not by nature. GROT changed places, changed lives. It certainly changed mine.

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