Community
One of the Colne Valley Park objectives is to encourage community participation including volunteering, events and environmental education, and promote the benefits of health and social well-being afforded by access to high quality green space.
We are committed to promoting community participation through volunteering, organising educational programmes, leading walks, and running conservation work parties etc.
If you have some spare time, want to learn new skills or share talents of your own there are plenty of volunteer opportunities in the Colne Valley Regional Park. Come along and get involved with a variety of important conservation tasks to help us look after the Park. See here for for more details and how you can join our volunteer team.
We run a regular event here in the Colne Valley Park; one day volunteer events, children events, guided walks to name few. Check our events page here to see what’s on the schedule.
Iver Environment Centre, which are located in the Colne Valley Park, offer a range of inspiring education programmes and activities for primary school children. Their skilled and experienced educators deliver engaging, hands on learning activities, encouraging children to explore and understand the natural world through applying scientific enquiry skills. Find out more on their website here.
Example of projects focused on Community in the Colne Valley Park
Many of our projects we work on have the focus on encourage community participation. During 2019 -2022 we worked on a project funded by the Lottery Heritage funding called Landscape on the edge. Within that project we worked on many different projects that focused on engaging the community with the countryside. These projects were:
Nature conservation group support project, which aimed to help, support and connect conservation groups in the Colne Valley Park to enable them to garner skills and continue the amazing work that they do.
Your place in the Colne Valley aimed to improve people’s access to the countryside by improving path networks and increasing awareness of available walking routes.
Bridge to the country. For this project four sites were improved as gateways, to help connect people to the Colne Valley Regional Park . One at Batchworth Canal Centre in the north, at Langley Park in the west, at Denham Country Park in the east and at Lammas Recreation Ground in the south. These sites were improved with new interpretation and signage that will help orientate people around the specific site and around the Regional Park as a whole.
Colne Valley Trail Project. The Colne Valley Trail weaves its way through the heart of the Regional Park and connects the major towns in the Valley including Uxbridge and Rickmansworth. The project aim was to update the signage to provide clear, attractive and informative signs to mark the route and allow people to easily follow the path through the Valley. Wooden finger signs, waymarker disks and lamppost fingers have now been installed up the trail to direct people.
The Ancient Woodland Project: the project focused on Ruislip Woods but encompassed all the Ancient Woodland in the Colne Valley. We re-designed the interpretation room at the Woodland Centre and with the help of additional funding from the Grundon Landfill Fund and London Borough of Hillingdon there is now a vibrant and engaging display covering everything from the history of the Woods to the wildlife and woodland crafts.
Events flowing through the Colne Valley sought to enable the running of events for the wider public as well as individual groups. A wide variety of events were organised over the three years (2019-2022) including talks and presentations, school holiday activities and challenges, and guided walks.
River Rangers project was created looking for local residents to become River Rangers volunteer, to help, conserve, survey and champion their local watercourse.
