Tamworth In Bloom 2013 portfolio by Tamworth Borough Council

TAMWORTH IN

BLOOM

www.tamworth.gov.uk

2013

Contents Foreword

2013 Judging Route

Horticultural Achievement Impact Horticultural practice Residential and community gardening Business areas and premises Green spaces

7 7 8 9 10 11

Environmental Responsibility & Biodiversity Wildlife areas, natural habitat Resource management Local heritage Local environmental quality Pride of place

13 14 17 18 19 21

Community Participation Development and continuity Communication and education Community participation Year-round involvement Funding and support

23 23 23 ?? 27 27

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Foreword Here in Tamworth, we have always been extremely proud of our floral displays and the community effort which goes into creating them. We are once again thrilled to be able to share our floral beauty with our entry for the prestigious Heart of England In Bloom campaign for 2013. Tamworth has been awarded gold for the past three years – and last year, we were delighted to also win the Community Achievement Award for our Wild About Tamworth partnership with the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. It is the celebration of the 10th anniversary of this partnership which gives us our theme for this year – Wild About Tamworth. Tamworth’s floral excellence and environmental awareness is only made possible because of the skill and dedication of those many people who work so hard all year round – including our Street Scene staff, volunteers and borough residents. We are Wild About Tamworth – and we hope that you will be, too!

Cllr John Garner, Chairman of Tamworth In Bloom and Mayor of Tamworth

Tamworth in Bloom is a showcase for the hard work put in by the staff, volunteers, residents and community groups in Tamworth. It makes a real positive difference to the environment we all share, as well as giving a welcoming image to people from outside the Borough. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to see so many people supporting the Heart of England In Bloom campaign and I would again emphasise how important it is that the people of Tamworth use the opportunity to get involved in Tamworth In Bloom. Our floral displays are among the best in the country and are a real asset to the town - showcasing Tamworth as a great place to live, work and visit. Councillor Stephen Doyle, Portfolio Holder For Environment and Waste Management

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Tamworth Castle

St Edithaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Square

Almshouses

3 Bright Crescent Sheltered Scheme

Tamworth Railway Station

Tamworth Community Fire Station

Judging Route 2013

Dosthill Nature Reserve

Tameside Nature Reserve

The route for Tamworth in Bloom 2013 has been designed to showcase the variety of parks and open spaces, residential and retail areas which are designed, planted and maintained by Tamworth Borough Council, its landowners and partners, highlighting new and reworked areas. This year we are visiting two of our Local Nature Reserves to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Wild About Tamworth Partnership.

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Horticultural Achievement Having received the Heart of England’s Horticultural Excellence Award in 2011, Tamworth has strived to improve on this year on year, replanting and renewing many areas of the town. Despite the current economic challenges and having to accommodate ongoing budget cuts, the Council has once again managed to produce a balanced budget while still delivering quality frontline services.

Impact Tamworth in Bloom 2013 is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Wild About Tamworth partnership with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Local school children assisted in designing a logo for the ‘Wild About Tamworth’ Project and we have themed one of our traffic islands to this year’s campaign. Once again this was designed, interpreted and planted by our own Streetscene staff. Having significantly increased the number of hanging baskets and planters in the town last year, this year we are endeavouring to keep our efforts focused! The hard work undertaken last year in the Castle Grounds is progressing well, in particular the Wisteria and Rose Gardens and has maturedd and blossomed.

BEFORE

AFTER

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Both the Saxon Man and Olympic Torch man have been refurbished for 2013 and following their success in previous years have become tourist attractions in their own right, with the public queueing up to take pictures! The floral Tamworth swans are still living at the Almshouses and the Tamworth Two are back at the railway station for the fourth year running, this year obviously hoping for a good summer.

Horticultural Practice All seasonal bedding is secured through competitive tendering using the Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s electronic tendering system. This enables us not only to compete nationally and secure best prices, but also obtain good quality plants that are grown in an environmentally sustainable way. All plants and bedding are tendered to our required specification and regular visits are made with the supplier to ensure compliance with this. The bedding is received in batches delivered to site to ensure that each plant is planted in the optimum time frame to ensure the best quality. Both winter and summer bedding plants are free from pests and diseases and are regularly checked by the teams, dead-heading and weeding the beds as required. Watering and feeding the plants is undertaken at appropriate times of the day so as to cause as little stress to the plants and inconvenience to the public and traffic around the town. This year we have endeavoured to introduce even more sustainable planting schemes when replacing beds, examples of this are to be seen within the Castle Grounds where large areas have been redesigned and replanted, and also on traffic islands around Tamworth.

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Residential and Community Gardening The judging route was published early again this year, with a challenge to residents and businesses alike to join in judging day by planting their gardens. This year we have introduced a new recognition scheme for beautiful gardens. When Council staff see a lovely garden they post a card through the door encouraging entry into this years campaign. The Council’s gardening competition was again a huge the entries were judged in August by Councillor Garner and Streetscene staff and the winner received £100 in gardening vouchers. This year’s competition is now open.

Our older residents’ sheltered accommodation scheme at Bright Crescent was judged to be Outstanding for the second year running in the Heart of England Neighbourhood Awards, and has inspired of our other schemes to enter this year as they battle each other to be the best. Another sheltered scheme at Glenfield also achieved an Outstanding Award in the Neighbourhood Awards at their first attempt. We are also continuing our own competition for these and other schemes who wish to be judged. Streetscene operate an Assisted Garden Scheme for council housing tenants who meet the required criteria. The lawns and hedges of the tenants are cut for them as part of their tenancy agreement. All Council-owned sheltered accommodation is also maintained by the Council, and many residents work with us on making the communal areas visually appealing.

The Tamworth Sea Cadets have continued their work on the Peelers Way traffic island, providing floral displays all year round. Most of the local schools now have gardening clubs and are continuing to grow their own vegetables and produce. Others have continued with planting up beds within the school grounds, or planting beds outside of the school grounds. Tamworth Borough Council owns allotment land which is managed and leased out by the Tamworth Allotment Society. There is currently large demand for allotments and the Council are still looking into the feasibility of accommodating this demand, possibly through community allotments rather than the traditional individual ones. Tamworth has a total of six Local Nature Reserves within the borough, and has recently finalised the transfer of the Broadmeadow site into Council ownership. This site has significant biological importance both to Tamworth and Staffordshire. Tamworth has also been successful this year in securing Higher Level Stewardship funding for all the Local Nature Reserves and other sites within Tamworth for the next ten years.

Business Areas and Premises The Ventura Retail Park is continuing to expand with the addition of John Lewis, B and Q and others on the Jolly Sailor side. The Council is continuing to provide both summer and winter baskets to Ventura Park creating a floral avenue throughout the year. The Friends of Tamworth Station group are still going strong and are developing plans for the future with the advent of the station refurbishments and the Gateway Project. The pigs have overwintered, put on weight, and are back in full glory! We have seen an increase this year in local sponsorship by businesses, with all the planters sponsored and welcome the return of our main sponsor, the Royal Mail.

Last year Tamworth in Bloom launched a pub competition, inviting all pubs to enter their floral displays, and we had an enjoyable time judging these late last summer... We have opened up the challenge to our public houses again for 2013.

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Green spaces - verges, parks and public open spaces Tamworthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Streetscene team is responsible for the cleansing of streets, pavements, pedestrian areas and verges throughout the town. This includes the emptying of dog bins, litter collection, fly tipping removal, sharps disposal, road sweeping, and the maintenance of cycle paths. They also maintain all Council-owned open space, including all grassed areas, shrub beds, trees and hedges along with 24 football pitches and 22 play areas, as well as maintaining all grass verges for Staffordshire County Council. Once again all football pitch maintenance is carried out in house by our own staff. This year, after five years of being leased out to the private sector, Tamworth Golf Course was bought back into the management of the Council, with all the grounds maintenance now being undertaken by Streetscene. This has created an opportunity for fine turf maintenance experience for the staff. In addition Streetscene manages the burial service and maintenance of the five Council cemeteries; the plans to expand Wigginton cemetery are currently being tendered and the results are due at the end of July with completion aimed at March 2014. Streetscene currently employs 35 Environmental Maintenance Operatives covering the borough as well as a dedicated arboriculture team for all tree maintenance within the borough; this is further enhanced with partnership working with the Probation Service, which recently has been extended to provide teams five days a week year round, significantly increasing the output potential. Streetscene continues to fund additional supervision to support this project. Streetscene is currently looking into alternatives for bulb planting as it is felt that we have exhausted new planting areas. We are currently looking to identify areas for wildflower planting to enhance the visual amenity and encourage native species and insects, as well as reducing maintenance costs in some areas. Streetscene is in its eighth year of its Apprentice Scheme, and is very proud to announce once again that the newly qualified operative has been offered a permanent position within Streetscene; as well as being able to recruit a new apprentice for the following year. Many of the Streetscene staff have again completed further qualifications this year.

Finally, we have recently entered into partnership with Nordic Pioneer providing a ten-week training programme for 16-19 year olds. During the training they gain an NVQ level 2 and are paid by our partners. The scheme gives us willing recruits to train and utilise in the workplace.

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Environmental Responsibility Wild About Tamworth Partnership While every new venture dreams of lasting a long time, many do not, especially when they were planned originally to only last three years. So, this summer, it’s wonderful to be able to look back on a hugely successful first decade of Wild About Tamworth, an initiative that has taken Tamworth’s only Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in 2003 and added land to it, then created another four LNRs, while also taking another two sites to the brink of being confirmed as LNRs. Throughout this time, the solid base upon which Wild About Tamworth has been able to grow has been the network of six community conservation groups which have each supported their local sites and made such a difference on the ground. The volunteers’ input was acknowledged last year when Wild About Tamworth picked up the Heart of England In Bloom Community Achievement Award. Judges stated that Wild About Tamworth had become “a very impressive example of bringing a range of communities from across the Borough together to improve their local environment in a cohesive and sustainable manner.” This excellent achievement recognised the hard work put into the project both by the Wild About Tamworth partnership and the network of volunteers that it supports. Wild About Tamworth started in September 2003 and has always been supported and funded by Tamworth Borough Council, with the single project officer employed and managed by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Big Lottery, via its Wildspace! programme, provided the first three years of matchfunding, with Staffordshire Environmental Fund providing help for another three years from September 2006. Over the last decade, more than £200,000 worth of funding has been secured to manage and improve such sites in the borough; looking ahead, the LNRs look forward to a rosy future now that a Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) grant has been won that will help to pay for annual costs at each site, as well as a few one-offs! Structured payments and maintenance plans will assist Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and Tamworth Borough Council to deliver the HLS scheme across Tamworth. The HLS grant will benefit local people, as the LNRs are well used. Over the last three years, for example, more than 2,500 children have been on educational visits to these natural havens, while well over 500 people, including nine community groups and four schools, helped to plant in excess of 5,000 trees recently, thanks to a Big Tree Plant grant. As part of the tenth anniversary celebrations, a new logo for Wild About Tamworth has been designed, following a competition involving local schools. The winning entry features in Tamworth’s entry for Britain in Bloom this year!

Conservation and biodiversity

- wildlife areas, natural habitat

Hodge Lane Nature Reserve The Hodge Lane Conservation Group formed in 2004 to make a difference to what had been a neglected and vandalised area. The site had previously been a Victorian brick factory and public tip as well as the site of small cottages. The area of site designated a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) was extended thanks to the hard work of this group and the Wild About Tamworth Officer. The group has also improved the site immeasurably for people and wildlife. Paths have been re-established, the pond is regularly cleared, and the area litter picked. The group has created new entrances and paths for families with all ages able to access the area, which in turn protects the area from vandalism. They have created a haven for wildlife with hibernacula to encourage newts and small mammals, as well as clearing woodland and bramble to under plant with blue bells and snowdrops. The group was delighted in 2009 when the wildflower area was designated a Site of Biological Interest (SBI). This nationally recognised designation acknowledges the value of the species present on the site and is a testament to the hard work of the group. In 2010 the group secured a Heritage Lottery Fund Grant (HLF) of ÂŁ50,000. This has enabled further habitat improvements and the development of educational work on the site with several local schools. The group has also carried out an intergenerational oral history project which engaged the local community to come forward with stories, photographs and memories of Hodge Lane and the surrounding Amington village and amenities. In collaboration with a local school, a history booklet and audio CD were developed to document the findings of this project for future generations, with Amington Heath Primary School also benefiting from six Forest Schools sessions this year. The successful completion of the HLF grant was marked at a celebration event in mid-July.

Tameside Local Nature Reserve Designated as a Local Nature Reserve in 2008, Tameside LNR is an 18.6 hectare site situated in Fazeley, in the south west of Tamworth Borough which is owned and managed by Tamworth Borough Council. The site comprises: a stretch of the River Tame; a lake containing nesting islands; ditches and streams; marshy areas; reed beds; hedgerows; grassland; wildflower meadow; areas of trees and scrub. The site is a Site of Biological Interest (SBI), and it is a very important wildlife haven in a busy town. The Tameside Wildlife Conservation Group was established in April 2006. Since this time, the group has carried out monthly management tasks in line with the management plan which have included bench construction, bridge building, footpath maintenance, wetland habitat management, otter holt construction, bird box installation, wildflower meadow improvements and management and Himalayan balsam removal. One key point in the management plan was to improve the value of the river and wetland habitats on the site. After several years of planning and preparing, during winter 2009 the Environment Agency with the support of the Wild about Tamworth Officer, the volunteer group and Tamworth

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Borough Council, began work on site. Work was completed in early 2010 and now the banks of the river have been re-profiled, creating a gentle slope down to the water’s edge; the lake and the river have been linked and a series of small pools and scrapes have been created. The Environment Agency funded the ground works, while Tamworth Borough Council match-funded monies to improve access and improve the biodiversity of the site after these works were completed. Over the last year, Millfield Primary School visited Tameside and despite the regular flooding that upset many planned management tasks, a barn owl box was installed.

Warwickshire Moor Local Nature Reserve Warwickshire Moor is a 5.74ha site in Bolehall that has been managed by volunteer group The Friends of Warwickshire Moor since 2006. During this time the group has applied for, and received, more than £11,000 of funding and has delivered around 3,000 volunteer hours of work on the site. During 2006, the Tame Valley Project and Green Arc Partnership funded extensive wetland improvement works on the site, opening up the main ditch that runs through the middle of the site and creating a series of pools and scrapes of various sizes. These works have benefited birds, amphibians and dragonflies, which in turn have provided a food source for their predators and thus, increased the biodiversity of the site. The group continues to meet once a month to carry out tasks such as footpath maintenance, wildflower meadow management, reed bed management and scrub and tree management. In addition a group of volunteers from BT has visited the site on a couple of occasions to help out with labour intensive projects on the site such as path improvements and reed clearance. The group was delighted when Tamworth Borough Council designated the site as a Local Nature Reserve during 2010 and has produced a leaflet to encourage more visitors to the site. The group are now hoping to design and install an interpretation board near the entrance to the site.

Dosthill Park Local Nature Reserve Dosthill Park is a 12ha site to the south of Tamworth town centre. The Dosthill Park Wildlife Group formed in 2007 and has met monthly since its inception, carrying out practical conservation and community involvement tasks. Tamworth Borough Council designated the site as a Local Nature Reserve during 2010 and the group bid successfully to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for £50,000 to improve the wetland habitats, access and heritage value of the site. As part of that grant, the group worked closely with the Wild about Tamworth Officer and local schools and developed an education pack which enables schools to use the site as a curriculum resource. To mark the end of the HLF grant, there was a celebration day at Dosthill Park in June. The guided trail was promoted, with the new trail leaflet being used to introduce visitors to all the other improvements made to the park, thanks to the grant. Amoung the many displays to highlight both the work of the Group and Dosthill Park itself was one which showcased the history project carried out with Dosthill Primary School.

Town Wall The Town Wall Conservation Group formed in 2008 and began carrying out practical conservation tasks on the Town Wall site every month. The group was keen to improve access to the site and to reinstate some of the original features including a wildflower meadow and the Town Wall, a dry-stone wall which historically would have been the boundary between Tamworth and ‘the countryside.’ Working closely with Tamworth Borough Council and the Wild about Tamworth Officer the group was awarded £50,000 funding through the Community Spaces Grant to return Town Wall to its former glory and increase its value to the wider community. Following completion of these major improvements, the group has continued to broaden their skills by taking part in a series of training workshops, including wildflower identification and Wildplay training in order to educate others about the site and to involve and engage the community. A new management plan was written for Town Wall in October and a full site survey started this spring.

Broadmeadow After many years of negotiation, Tamworth Borough Council recently concluded the transfer of Broadmeadow into Council ownership as part of a Section 106 agreement, then immediately pledged to declare this jewel in Tamworth’s crown a Local Nature Reserve. Broadmeadow is of special biological importance to both Tamworth and Staffordshire and Tamworth Borough Council is relishing the opportunity to improve this unique island in conjunction with partners. This site forms the upper end of the Tame Valley Project, for which a second-stage bid is being made to Heritage Lottery that could bring significant funding to help improve Broad Meadow, along with cash secured already via a Higher Level Stewardship grant. Broadmeadow is also at the lower end of the Central Rivers Initiative, which is involved in gravel pit restoration along the river corridor from Burton to Tamworth. www.centralrivers.org.uk

Wigginton Park Yet again the Friends of Wigginton Park have continued working together with Tamworth Borough Council and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust to enhance the jewel in Tamworth's crown. This year residents, school children and others have taken on another major tree planting programme which has seen a further 400 small saplings planted and 10 major specimen trees sited at several locations in the park. This was funded by money received from The Big Tree Plant. The saplings are helping to create several wildlife corridors linking the well-established copses on the site. Earlier in the spring saw the first stages of a wild flower area of reflection being created. When complete this will form a small area where residents can sit on one of two planned benches and quietly enjoy a more relaxed area of the park. This will join up with wild flower meadow which will hopefully be planted in 2014/15. These two projects, coupled with regular litter picks and schools projects, have seen the group grow considerably these past few years. The work of the Friends regularly sees residents working together to make their community a better place to live. Tamworth Borough Council actively encourages its residents to participate in all opportunities to restore and rejuvenate its natural open spaces.

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Resource management - recycling, impact on the environment Tamworth is proud of its efforts to promote sustainable practices. Our household recycling scheme is one of the most successful in Staffordshire and current recycling rate has increased again to just under 53% of the waste collected following the new waste partnership with Lichfield District Council three years ago. Importantly the weight of residual waste has again dropped by a further 20kg per household last year, down by a whopping 90kgs over the last three years. Tamworth finally has use of its own Household Recycling Centre at Lower House Farm, which recently opened in June. Our Streetscene team have taken steps to be environmentally sustainable wherever possible with all arisings and collected waste being recycled wherever possible. In conjunction with Staffordshire County Council, we determine the most efficient disposal/recycling routes for our general waste. Last year we started recycling all our street sweepings at a facility in Wolverhampton and we are currently looking to see if this can be expanded in other areas. The Street Wardens now use an electric car for their patrols.

Composting All of the green waste collected by Streetscene is composted and either reused on our sites or sent for recycling at our disposal outlet. Reduced Peat Potting Compost In all our bedding plants contracts we specify that only reduced peat material be used. We have carried out trials with zero peat compost with a view to using this in all our bedding plants in the future. Year on year we aim to reduce peat use. Recycling This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bedding plant supplier has supplied all winter and summer bedding in Jiffy pots, thus reducing the time for planting and the disposal of the plastic pots. All winter bulbs and plants are offered to sheltered schemes and schools. The new market contractor has taken on the challenge of recycling the market waste and currently 95% of the market waste is recycled. The extension of Wigginton cemetery is being built to include a recycling area for soil and green waste. Fuel Streetscene has its own purpose built fuel tank at the depot, this reduces costs and enable bulk purchase of fuels. We have used different fuels in vehicles and machinery. A 20% green diesel mixture has been tried in vehicles while a plant-based diesel has been trialled in some machinery. All staff have received training in respect of fuel efficiency use. The tank also provides fuel for other Council departments, hence reducing costs to the Council as a whole. We have recently undertaken a review of all plant and equipment in a bid to create further efficiencies and have trialled the use of electric and/or alternative fuelled vehicles.

Local Heritage Tamworth has a vast amount of local heritage, probably the most visible being that of its Castle. Tamworth Castle was awarded a first-round pass of £121,900 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop its project to enhance visitor displays, conserve parts of the building and allow more people to access and experience Tamworth’s past. The second much larger part of the bid (£759,300) was confirmed two years ago and we are now putting the final touches to the project, much of which will have been seen on judging day.

With the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard, Tamworth Castle has become one of the partner sites in the development of the Mercian Trail, which retells the story of the Hoard. Therefore, more than ever before, we want to ensure that residents and visitors alike can enjoy the Castle and get the most out of its historic landscape, which includes learning about the history of Tamworth as a Saxon village, the building of a Norman Castle and development into a thriving Medieval town, aspects of the landscape that can still be seen today. Tamworth has had a market charter since the 1500s and still actively holds a twice-weekly market in the town centre, bringing the community and traders together. The Council’s contractor, LSD Promotions, runs the market on behalf on the Council, having renewed all the market stalls and increased the footfall, making it one of the most successful markets in the region.

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Local Environmental Quality Local Environment Quality (LEQ) is one of the main concerns of our local communities; this is demonstrated from enquiries and questions put to the Council through the Citizens Panels, PACT meetings and Tamworth Listens events, with complaints of littering and dog fouling highest. All local authorities were previously required to measure LEQ through National Indicator 195. This measured levels of litter, detritus, graffiti and fly posting on our streets. This indicator has now been repealed, however Defra has left the reporting mechanism available for those authorities such as Tamworth who wish to use it. These surveys enable areas of concern to be identified and strategies to improve standards of the service within these areas. The survey is a useful tool to help us achieve our goals in creating a cleaner, greener and more floral town; currently Tamworth rates as one of the cleanest towns within Staffordshire and far cleaner than the national averages. Our residents remain concerned at the perceived level of dog fouling within the town and wardens continue to include dog patrols in our routine monitoring. So far we have been able to establish that the levels of dog fouling are low but the perception within the community is high. Dog Control Orders were successfully introduced in August 2012 to bring enforcement for dog offences into line with the powers we currently use to tackle littering, incorporating a programme of education and engagement. This education has included the distribution of more than 2,000 information leaflets. Saxon Hound and Mucky Pup continue to be at the forefront of the Council campaign to educate dog owners to clean up after their pets. Saxon has made appearances at school assemblies, community events and most recently the St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day celebration event, which attracted more than 10,000 people to the town centre. During 2012, Mucky Pup Clean It Up campaigns were held in the town centre, The Leys, cycle ways to the rear of Blackwood Road , Wigginton Park and Abelia. The campaign will continue in 2013, with a visit to Belgrave. Neighbourhood Services officers and Street Wardens deal with all aspects of environmental crime enforcement, issuing fixed penalties and providing education to schools and the general public on all aspect of environmental responsibility. In 2012, a total of 88 presentations were made to Tamworth primary schools. Environmental crime is now fully embedded in the work of the Community Safety Hub, based at the Police Station where Street Wardens, Police, Housing, Environmental Services, Private Sector Landlords, NHS and Mental Health Services work together to provide a cohesive response to all aspects of antisocial behaviour. Since 1st January 2011, the Neighbourhood Services Team, which includes the Street Wardens and Clean Neighbourhoods Officer, have instigated 300 enforcement actions for environmental crime including littering, dog fouling and flytipping. Tamworth prides itself in offering an alternative restorative justice programme for juvenile offenders, whereby an option to undertake a community litter pick is offered as an alternative to a juvenile receiving a ÂŁ80 fixed penalty for environmental offences such as littering.

To date the following enforcement actions have been taken:180 Littering £80 fixed penalties 49 Supervised litter picks for juveniles (in lieu of the issue of a fixed penalty) 14 Dog fouling £80 fixed penalties Other actions included the issue of verbal, formal written warnings and notices. 154 fixed penalties have been paid without the need for further formal action by the Council. Failure to pay a fixed penalty has resulted in 24 successful prosecutions. In order to ensure maximum safety for the children of Tamworth, the Street Wardens undertake weekly inspections of all outdoor play equipment which has resulted in a year-on-year excellent report from RoSPA. We continue to serve litter clearance notices to landowners to tidy up their land and to secure it from further littering working with the Private Sector Housing team for private land, our own Housing section for our tenants. Our collaborative work with the Planning department to address environmental quality issues arising from empty properties and land which is detrimental to the visual amenity of an area has resulted in one successful notice issued to the house owner. Tamworth continues to be a member of Keep Britain Tidy and as such works with many community groups under the badge of the ‘Big Tidy Up’ – a national campaign for communities to come together to clean up their local environment. Housing and community groups have also adopted the ‘Love Where You Live’ campaign to complement this. There are several events year round, including river clearances, estate walkabouts, community litter picks, stream clearances and general tidy-ups. All street cleansing is carried out in house by Streetscene to ensure the streets are litter-free and all the bins emptied. We also remove small scale graffiti within the town, larger areas of graffiti and the town’s underpass cleansing is contracted out locally. We also aim to cleanse the town centre pavements annually, removing chewing gum and the like from them.

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Pride of Place We have strategically placed street furniture and benches to enhance the Tamworth In Bloom campaign, giving residents and visitors maximum viewing of the area, in particular within the Castle Grounds. Last year we purchased an additional 100 hanging baskets and redesigned landscaping to enhance areas within the town and Castle Grounds. The planters in the Castle Grounds and town are all coordinated with the hanging baskets fitted to our lampposts and barriers for Tamworth in Bloom. We are in our third year of partnership with Virgin Media, which enables us to coat and paint their cable boxes throughout the town while providing a financial contribution to the Council. The War Memorial within Amington Cemetery has been inspected by the War Memorial Trust and significant work is required to renovate the base. We are currently preparing a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for both this and re-landscaping the surrounding area. We are hopeful the works will be completed in time for the World War One commemorations in August 2014. Our work with the Youth Service has continued and we are still involved in several projects where graffiti art is painted onto the walls of the underpasses or more recently the skate park to brighten them. These art projects are themed to individual areas. The Council recently engaged consultants to assist in developing a long term project to link the town to the railway station and also to the shopping outlet at Ventura Park. This project is know as the Gateway Project and its main aim is to kick-start town centre regeneration. Tamworth Assembly Rooms are currently in the second stage bidding process with the Heritage Lottery Fund to renovate and redesign the Assembly Rooms and surrounding area. The bid is due to be submitted early in 2014, with work hopefully commencing in the autumn of 2014. Again this year we have worked extremely closely with Staffordshire County Council in managing and maintaining the hard landscaping of Tamworth. The Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Neighbourhood Highway Team has been instrumental in improving areas. Staffordshireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highway network is the bedrock of the economy, ensuring that goods, people and services make the connections they need. The roads link everything together and are vital for the countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prosperity and growth. Staffordshire County Council has a massive task maintaining and improving more than 3,500 miles of roads, in excess of 1,000 bridges and 100,000 street lights and illuminated signs. Neighbourhood Highway Teams were recently brought into force to help to tackle issues that the public has put at the top of its agenda. The teams aim to deliver more, more often and in closer liaison with local town and parish councils as well as local county councillors. They deal with issues such as weeding and grass trimming, verges and fencing, painting, ditching, cleaning and environmental improvement schemes, and have been of great assistance in the locality working areas within Tamworth.

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Community Participation Five years on, back in the Bloom Campaign, Tamworth has firmly established community participation in ‘ Tamworth In Bloom. Every community project is looked at to see how or where it fits the ‘Bloom mould,’ thus endeavouring to establish bloom within the community and pushing the message that the campaign is so much more that the wonderful floral displays around town. We have two long-standing members of the community who have supported the project group through the last five years. The portfolio cover was designed by our graphics section in conjunction with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and The Rawlett School; as this year we are supporting the 10th year anniversary of the Wild About Tamworth Partnership. Pupils from Rawlett assisted in designing a logo to commemorate the past 10 years of the project. Priority again this year for the Council has been the Locality Working Areas, focusing on the issues that are important to the community.

Development and continuity Streetscene is now in its sixth year of working with the Staffordshire Probation Service; once more we have been able to fund the additional supervision for the Probation Service so as to provide teams for five days a week all year round. This enables additional environmental improvements to be carried out throughout the year, over and above what the Council offers as a public service. For example, they have assisted in preparing the Tamworth In Bloom Route - painting all that does not move, garden areas for pensioners, repaired street furniture and are now firmly embedded in the day-to-day work of Streetscene. They continue to work within the four locality areas within Tamworth; Amington, Stoneydelph, Belgrave and Glascote.

Communication and Education Keep Britain Tidy’s Big Tidy Up Campaign is now well established within the community, with highprofile campaigns throughout the year including more river and brook clearances, community litter picks, boardwalk building on the nature reserves, housing estate walkabouts and many more. Tamworth Borough Council works in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy by supporting the ‘Love Where you Live’ campaign and the ‘TIDY TAMWORTH’ initiative which will complement this. A local resident, Greg Parker, who is passionate about his local environment and regularly organises litter picks with his neighbours, has launched a town-wide Love Where you Live campaign which will encourage residents and community groups to get involved and take pride in their town. The group has managed to involve local business to clean up around where they operate and has removed graffiti from within the community.

The campaign launch included a video of local areas and the clean ups in operation. This has moved on and there have been two more events since last year’s launch. Lidl supermarket sponsored 300 children litter picking early this year and more recently we have held an event for more than 500 young people who descended on the Castle Grounds, bringing all the litter they collected on the way with them. Greg promises much more to come…

Wardens Go Electric During 2012 the Street wardens in Tamworth went electric – thanks to a new eco friendly Citroen C-Zero car to help them patrol the streets of Tamworth. As well as helping them to cover the often wide areas of their patrols, the new car has helped Tamworth Borough Council save up to £2,700 in fuel and lease charges. The car is being heavily subsidised by Citroen and in addition, will produce no harmful emissions. It is ideal for late night patrols, responding to environmental issues, visiting schools and community events. A new charging point has been installed in the underground car park near to the Riverside flats, part funded by a Government grant scheme to promote transport which is environmentally friendly.

New Look for Wardens The faces are the same – but Tamworth’s street wardens now have a new look and a new burgundy uniform which will make them an even higher profile sight around their beat areas. The decision to change the green uniforms was made to distinguish them from civil enforcement officers, who have completely separate roles and powers. Tamworth’s street wardens have been wearing green since they first started their patrols throughout Tamworth ten years ago. The switch was made after a survey showed there was some confusion with civil enforcement officers (parking wardens) who also wear green. The change is at no additional budgeted costs, as the uniforms needed to be renewed anyway. The new burgundy uniforms make the street wardens look more distinctive and easier for members of the public to spot when they are out and about on patrol.

Schools Education Programme Enhanced In 2012 the Wardens carried out 88 presentations to Tamworth schools and community groups covering a wide range of subjects including Anti Bullying, Anti Litter, Internet Safety, Safer Strangers and Street Wise. This will continue in partnership with the Police and include additional presentations on environmental issues to the town’s secondary schools.

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Many more events have taken place with Florendine School, Greenacres School, Coton Green Church group, Friends of Stonydelph Lakes, Town Wall Nature Group and Rawlett School, to name but a few. Street Wardens, councillors, police and StreetScene have supported the community with these events through their presence and provision of extra bags and litter pickers. Tamworth Borough Council housing team have alsointroduced use of the Big Tidy Up clean-ups with their tenants.

Our Schools Tamworth Borough Council has again worked with most of its local primary schools and some of the senior schools, providing seeds for their vegetable planting theme. We asked each school to grow edible seeds which fits with the Royal Horticultural Society’s theme this year, and to send us the evidence…. To date we only have a few pictures, but we are sure there will be plenty more to come.

The students at The Rawlett School have always enjoyed taking a pride in their local community and actively getting involved in Tamworth in Bloom is something our students have always been keen to do. This past 12 months, we have run three different projects. The first involved every student in year 7, 8 and 9 (600+) planting a tree of their own in a remote area of the school site. This was partfunded by The Woodland Trust and organised by the Ecology Club. This project alone generated a great deal of interest from our close neighbours and several residents came and joined students in the tree planting sessions. The second project saw a wildflower area regenerated. This was the brainchild of our gardening club, which wanted to see a natural area created, mainly to encourage a more diverse range of insect species to come onto the school site. This project enable students from across the different year groups to come together to plan, tend and cultivate our new wilderness area.

“Rawlett is proud to support Tamworth in Bloom!" Richard Kingstone, Teacher, Rawlett School

The final project was aimed at students who are having difficulty coping with the normal day-to-day activities in school. These students may have behavioural or emotional needs that need an little extra support. Along with specialist staff these students grew a selection of wild flowers and replanted the Rawlett flowerbed at the front of the school. This not only allowed the rest of the school to see the work of this small band of students but also enabled them to gain much-needed self esteem.

We are really pleased to announce the return of the Royal Mail as our main sponsor, providing many prizes, funding and in kind sponsorship throughout the year, together with this year a new sponsor:E F Edwards Funeral Directors E F Edwards has been arranging and conducting funerals for more than 146 years and is based in Erdington, Birmingham. The funeral home in Tamworth provides a 24-hour service, offering local bereaved families the highest levels of client service, professional advice and sympathetic assistance with all practical arrangements in a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere. E F Edwards can also arrange pre-arranged funeral plans, memorials, headstones, floral tributes and wreaths. E F Edwards can be contacted on 01827 64820. EF Edwards has also kindly arranged the judging dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s travel.

Below is a small sample of the work that has been going on over the last few months:Our Senior Citizens Many of our sheltered accommodation schemes have been renovated over the last year, many having new paving, walls and landscaping. Bright Crescent consists of 28 one and two bed roomed flats, run by Tamworth Borough Council. It has a central courtyard with front and back gardens, these gardens are communal. The residents of the scheme do the gardening and the grass is cut by T.B.C. The residents do the gardens for their own pleasure and for the residents unable to take part and for the pleasure of visitors. The gardeners work to some degree as a team, helping each other, swapping plants and setting up watering rotas. The gardens are a social activity enjoyed by all, also a physical activity for those who do the gardening. There is also a competitive side that involves other schemes and the in-house competition that is run by TBC. The gardens on our scheme are enjoyed by the residents, their families and visitors, and we take great pride in all the favourable comments that we receive all year round. They care about the environment they live in.

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Community Fire Station Tamworth’s Community Fire station opened in February 2011 and is widely used by the community for meetings and leisure activities. We currently have a ‘hub’ here where the Street Wardens have a base to work from.

Raising public awareness of Tamworth in Bloom 2013 For the past three years, we have worked in partnership with the Tamworth Herald, providing regular Tamworth In Bloom press updates, showing the seasonal programme and actively encouraging the public to participate. This year we have publicised the route well in advance of judging day and thrown down the gauntlet to the community to join in.

Year-round involvement Tamworth in Bloom is now fully embedded in the work of Streetscene and the Council; the Councillors have made a long-term commitment to the project and this is reflected in how yearly events are programmed. The Local Nature Reserve volunteers work year round throughout the seasons to deliver their management plans, Streetscene spends the winter months planning for the floral displays of the following year and working on preparing and repairing the infrastructure that support its delivery. Sponsorship for Tamworth in Bloom begins earlier each year and this year we are looking for businesses to support us in additional Christmas trees and lighting. A full programme of year-round events is evidenced in our presentation which will be supplied separately.

Funding and support Tamworth Borough Council recognises the importance of the long-term commitment to Tamworth in Bloom; and this is reflected in the Council’s corporate priorities. Despite severe budget cuts, we have been creative in attracting additional funding, for example through partnership with the business community we have been able to erect the hanging basket avenue through Ventura Retail Parkand sustain it for future years independently of Council funding. Many of the judging day activities have been donated or supplied through sponsorship and the wider community, and the Council would like to thank all local businesses and sponsors for supporting this year’s Heart of England campaign.

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