Grounds Maintenance, Landscape Creation, Arboriculture, Sports Surfacing, Parks management, IOS Managing Safely Training, Ecology & Biodiversity, Grass cutting, Horticulture, Street Cleaning, Soft Landscaping, Hard Landscaping
idverde provides a wide range of green services, including grounds maintenance, landscape creation, and advice services, to both private and public sectors across the UK.
From the 23rd of July all the way through to the 1st of August, we are celebrating Keep Britain Tidy’s, Love Parks Week. This last year, our parks and green spaces were more important to us than ever, whilst having a mainly virtual lifestyle with the majority of people working from home, our green open spaces have been an escape into nature. Around 9 in 10 people surveyed by Natural England in May 2020 agreed that natural spaces are good for mental health and wellbeing, and we have definitely seen their benefits whilst in various lockdowns.
“Parks have always been important but during lockdown that became so apparent with government advice to visit parks for daily exercise and people that perhaps hadn’t visited their local park fell in love with parks all over again. Parks are such an important place for a variety of reasons, but they have become the go to place over the past 16 months for so many people. How lucky are people to have an Oasis on their doorstep that perhaps they didn’t even know was there, and now they are a regular park user and recognise the excellent work that all grounds colleagues across the country carry out, it’s great to see!” – Terry Burns, Operations Manager at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
However, all of this use of parks has impacted our green spaces and put them under great pressure. Ourselves and Keep Britain Tidy have noticed a vast increase in the amount of rubbish being left and a greater need for more litter collections, with an average of fifty-seven tonnes of extra waste during the first lockdown alone! This summer the annual Love Parks Week brings more attention to the campaign of theme of Love, Respect and Protect parks throughout the summer of 2021 and beyond.
At idverde we are passionate about preserving and enhancing environments in parks to increase the levels of biodiversity in the area. We work alongside the RSPB at our Bromley Parks contract with an educational scheme to involve the residents with the biodiversity works and improve their knowledge of nature. They are a number of activities going on in the park over the next week, find out more about what is happening and get involved here.
“Parks and green spaces have many functions. They provide amenities, recreation and places to play. They benefit our physical and mental wellbeing. They generate clean air and can contribute to carbon storage & reduction. Parks are increasingly referred to as a key component of “green infrastructure. Many of us go to parks to experience nature and to interact with people, something we cannot take for granted given the last 18 months. Parks are also critical for biodiversity by providing important habitats as well as creating corridors as part of wider networks for nature. They really are the epitome of multi-functional space. In Bromley, we are in a fantastic position to work intimately with people and nature. Through managing our parks for biodiversity, we indirectly and directly benefit people. Our community work gives people an opportunity to contribute to their parks, engage in physical activity and create life-long friends. By working with local people in all aspects of our work, we hope that we can contribute to creating a legacy of engagement and love for our parks, their people and their wildlife.” – John Pemberton, Conservation and Education Development Manager.
Here at idverde, we are more than a leading provider of grounds maintenance and landscape creation services. We work closely with communities and support them in creating better living with parks and green spaces well maintained and blossoming. Our launch of litter picking support service for local volunteers in Winchester has been a great way to support the community and their parks.
Initially, this support was through removing bags of rubbish collected by local volunteers. However, the partnership soon evolved, with idverde supplying volunteers with equipment such as litter pickers and gloves. More recently, idverde colleagues have supported volunteers in Upham and Owlesbury with a regular Saturday morning litter-pick along rural roads. A member of idverde’s team joins the group, providing appropriate safety support, including attending with a vehicle displaying signage warning others that volunteers are at work.
A large number of local authorities are planning to celebrate Love Parks Week with their own events that will allow residents to support their local parks. You can find the one closest to you over at Keep Britain Tidy website.
Find out more about the Parks Management services idverde offer here.
