Our innovative Pocket Parks scheme provides "Countryside on the Doorstep" for people in the county.
Pocket Parks are open areas of land owned and managed by local people, providing free, open access for anyone at all times, whilst helping to protect and conserve local wildlife, heritage and landscape.
Over the past 18 years the county council has worked in partnership with many organisations and other local authorities to help create 80 Pocket Parks varying in size from 0.04ha to 35ha. They are found in all types of locations from town centres to quiet villages.
The Pocket Parks scheme is easily replicable, environmentally sound, good economic value and community orientated. Any available space can become a Pocket Park – all that is needed is political will and grass roots support.
Suitable sites include:
- Disused railway lines
- Old quarries or formal gravel pits
- Former landfill sites
- Old orchards or disused cemeteries
- Riverside fields or abandoned millstreams and pools
To find out more about volunteering at the pocket parks visit the volunteering webpage.
To find out more or how you can set up a new pocket park, visit the Pocket Parks website (see Related Links) or contact the Pocket Parks Officer using the details on the right.