04/01/22

Lindsey Holmes, Project Manager

I joined the Nene Park Trust team in November as Project Manager for the National Lottery Heritage funded Your Community Greenspace Project (YCG), an exciting and ambitious project with a wide range of outcomes across the work of the Trust, made possible by National Lottery players.

I have a background in delivering Lottery funded projects. Most recently, I worked for RNIB’s Sensing Culture Project working with partner sites across the South East, exploring ways to make museums and heritage sites more accessible for blind and partially sighted visitors. I came to Nene Park fresh from studying, after completing my PhD at the University of Derby, focusing on Arts and Wellbeing. Both themes will be a key feature in the Your Community Greenspace project and something, which I hope, will benefit from my research background.

During the most challenging stages of my doctorate, I found myself spending time outside, tending to my dye plants or walking the familiar paths around Nene Park. So I am excited about the chance this role gives me to make positive changes in the city I have made my home, and to a place I spend much of my free time enjoying.

Over the next five years, you will see many changes in the Park thanks to the Your Community Greenspace project:

• One of the first places you see when you arrive at Ferry Meadows, is the welcome area. This includes the toilets, Visitor Centre & Gift Shop and the Ferry Meadows café, and is set around the brick pathed 'Centre Point' area. Part of the YCG project will involve redesigning the welcome area to provide better facilities and a clear introduction to the Park and the events that are taking part during your visit, with the aim of improving the experience for both new and returning visitors.
• Over the life of the project, you'll see the new Schools in Residence Programme and the creation of a World Garden, which will be designed and planted by volunteers and will reflect the diverse communities living in Peterborough.
• As you walk north past Lynch Lake and turn right at the mound, you are soon crossing Pontoon Bridge. Its distinctive wobble divides visitors but it has now reached the end of its life, and as part of the YCG project will be replaced with a metal arched bridge designed to reflect the surroundings. It will also allow boats and other lake traffic to travel underneath it. The new bridge should be in place and ready for maiden crossings by the end of this year.
• As you leave Ferry Meadows, along Ham Lane, you pass the site of what will become a volunteer-led plant nursery. In addition to growing trees and scrubs for the Park, it will also work in partnership with NHS Prescribers to deliver wellbeing sessions, allowing more people to benefit the feel good chemicals released when you get your hands in the dirt, just as I did while struggling with my studies.

We want to make sure our Park is welcoming and engaging for all of Peterborough’s residents and we recognise to do that we must first address the many different barriers and personal preferences people have regarding green spaces. With this in mind, this year, we will be taking Nene Park on the road to communities across Peterborough, exploring what we can do to better meet the needs of our wonderfully diverse city and to make everyone feel welcome, so everyone is able to enjoy the wellbeing benefits of spending time in nature. Keep an eye out for our “Pop Up Park” around Peterborough later this year.

You can get in touch, or follow the projects progress via our Twitter account @YourCommunityGS where we welcome your thoughts and ideas. If you would like a monthly update on the project progress, please email [email protected] and I will add you to the projects mailing list.