Public urged to have their say to help shape green training courses

Residents in Castleford, Chester and Dagenham are being encouraged to take part in an online survey to help shape a proposed new project which will offer free environmental training courses.

Green Angels is a BIG Lottery-funded free programme which seeks to boost the quality of life for local communities by providing introductory training opportunities in subjects such as countryside management and horticulture.

Courses are managed by national land management charity the Land Trust, which also owns and manages Beam Parklands (Dagenham), Countess of Chester Country Park (Chester) and Fryston Country Trails (Castleford).

The Green Angels pilot project recently ran from November 2013 to October 2015 at Festival Gardens in Liverpool, proving to be a huge success with 44 per cent of Green Angels trainees who were actively seeking work subsequently finding employment after undertaking the programme.

The Land Trust now wants to roll out the scheme further and wider and as part of its funding bid to realise this, wants people to have their say about the type of green space activities they would be interested in seeing at their local park, from learning gardening skills to bringing the family along to pond dipping sessions.

Taking part is easy:

• Castleford residents, click here
• Chester residents, click here
• Dagenham residents, click here

Carolyn Hassall, Green Angels Project Manager, said: “These activities have proved to be a great way to learn new skills, meet new people and change future prospects and we’re excited about the vast potential if we can introduce new Green Angels courses across the country.

“In order to make this happen, we need to know people’s views so that we can structure the project to meet local needs. Please do help us by filling in our on-line consultation questionnaire and help make a difference in the process.”