Member Article

Community effort spruces up Cowscote Woodland in Loftus

Beyond Housing colleagues have worked with partner organisations on a two-day volunteering event at Cowscote Woodland in Loftus to clean up the park in preparation for spring and summer. Activities included fence painting, litter picking, re-capping steps, planting trees, shrubs and more than 500 spring bulbs, digging out natural drainage, gardening, cleaning and clearing parts of the woodland and Deepdale Lane. Cowscote Woodland was transformed in 2015 from a once overgrown, unsightly area into a picturesque open space to be enjoyed by both the local community and visitors to the area. The piece of land previously housed allotments, garages, coal bunkers and stables before being completely transformed into a fantastic woodland park.

Rachael Crooks, community connector at Beyond Housing, who organised the event, said: “We relaunched Cowscote Woodland in 2015 after a lot of work to provide a high-quality woodland experience for people living in Loftus.

“Under our long-term investment plans for open spaces we returned to the woodland now the trees and plants have had the chance to bed in and revamp the area. It is going to look fantastic and I hope that even more Loftus residents will enjoy the park in the spring and summer.”

Simon Tullock, senior operations manager at Beyond Housing, said: “I’d like to thank all the partners who joined us in the clean-up, from providing paint, equipment and catering to actually getting down and dirty with the plants.

“The Beyond Housing operations team has worked tirelessly for the last two weeks planning and arranging ahead of the volunteer team, who carried out the heavier work including preparing the woodland for new planting. It was a real team effort and the outcome is fantastic.” The partners involved were; Loftus Town Council, Luke Senior Hall, Co-op Foundation, Loftus Leisure Centre, Lockwood View, Johnstone’s Paints, Redcar & Cleveland Council, Loftus Walking Group, East Cleveland Arts, Cleveland Police and Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by News Gathering .