Rewilding People & Places

Funded through the Safer Keyham Home Office Grant and Green Minds, Keyham’s greenspaces are improving for people and wildlife. Since September 2021, we’ve been working alongside the community to co-design improvements to Alexandra Park, North Down Crescent Park, Knowle Avenue, Marley Park, and Linear Park.

How were the greenspace designs created?

Following feedback from an Environmental Visual Audit, Community Voices events, ward councillors and local community groups, draft greenspace designs were created with landscaping firm, YGS, for the five parks as part of the Keyham Greenspace Improvements. During consultation in winter 2021-22, we received incredibly positive feedback from the community and started to deliver some improvements like tree planting and bulb planting with the community. These included social action events with the mini-police from local schools, and working with local residents and scout groups planting trees.

In June 2022, co-design workshops were held with the community to look in detail at the ideas for Alexandra Park and North Down Crescent Park, which informed the final designs. In total, we've worked with over 100 Keyham residents and community groups during the consultation and co-design of the greenspace improvements.

The final designs:

During Green Minds, the majority of improvements will focus around Alexandra Park, North Down Crescent Park and Knowle Avenue. The final designs for these greenspaces can be viewed below, along with explainer videos talking about changes you can expect to see on the sites. From 2023, improvements to Marley Park and Linear Park will be planned, and the designs for these greenspaces (based on feedback from the consultation) can be found below.

The improvements to all the Keyham sites will be phased over the next few years, so not all changes will happen at the same time. The purpose of these designs is to give an overview of things to expect: they aren't necessarily exactly how improvements will be delivered on the ground and don’t necessarily include everything we plan to do – for example, we know a lot of people were keen to create wildlife homes in the parks, so we’re planning to do this too even though it’s not specified in the designs! These designs are also focused on the natural improvements to the greenspaces, and don’t include improvements focused on safety (like lighting) which were organised through Plymouth Together.

What's been happening?

Wildlife meadow creation and tree planting:

Over the last couple of years, local residents and groups including Keyham Neighbourhood Watch, 1st Keyham Scout Hut and Black Dog Honey Bees Ltd, have been involved with tree planting including community orchard creation in Knowle Avenue and North Down Crescent Park. Local residents and the mini police from Keyham Barton Catholic Primary, Drake Primary, and Ford Primary schools, have also had fun bulb planting and improving the wildlife meadow areas of Alexandra Park and North Down Crescent Park. Small areas of wildlife meadow have also been created in Knowle Avenue, Marley Park and Linear Park.

The wildflower sowing and tree planting is focused on planting native species (plants naturally found in the UK) – this means the majority of planting will be better for wildlife with fewer ornamental species. Following feedback from the consultation and co-design sessions, trees have also been chosen so they do not impact views and give a variety of colour and blossom through the seasons.

Benches for all to enjoy:

While co-designing the improvements, many people said they wanted more picnic areas in the parks, and shared ideas for where picnic benches could be
placed. In summer 2023, some picnic benches will be installed in North Down Crescent Park and Alexandra Park, ready for families and friends to enjoy. Later this year, a couple of bespoke wildlife themed benches (designed by Thrussells, Earthjump, and the Keyham Young Voices Participation Group) will also be installed around the edge North Down Crescent Park.

What's next?

Not all changes will happen at once – improvements will continue over the next few years, and it will also take time and good long-term management for natural improvements such as wildlife meadows to fully establish. To find out more about how these improvements fit into our city-wide plan to manage some of our grassy spaces for wildlife, follow this link to the Plymouth City Council 'How We Manage Our Grass' page.

While Green Minds is due to end in August 2023, plans are in place to continue working alongside the community on the Keyham Greenspace Improvements - scroll to the bottom of our urban rewilding page for previous updates and keep an eye on our news page for the latest ones!

Get Involved!

Keep an eye on this page and the Safer Keyham webpage for more updates on the Keyham Greenspace Improvements, and visit our events page for opportunities to get involved.