Doug said:
Again I would be more than happy to get involved with a community project to help put matters right, even throw a few bob at it if need be, but we have to involved HBC and local commercial interests to get realistic funding together…..any ideas? ……..Mrs Knight?
http://www.woodscape.co.uk/frame.htm
Mid Pennine have already contributed to a community project in the nature reserve, about three years ago. I wasn't with them then but by all accounts it was a difficult project to manage for a couple of reasons. Anyway, the output of it was a beautiful carved shelter type area and some willow weaving sculptures - all designed to be temporary but not as temporary as it turned out. Within one week, the sculptures were ripped down and the shelter had grafitti all over it. After another week when they'd tried to set the shelter on fire a couple of times it was taken down.
Another attempt at making the area nice with some more willow weaving a few months ago has probably gone up in smoke with the latest fire.
I live right next to the reserve as well and know all too well what goes on in there. Ironically, I had only spoken to our new community beat officer PC O'Boyle on Monday night about the general problems in the area. He is also well aware of them and is creating a heavier police presence around the area to deter them, unfortunately he can't be there all the time and certainly not at around 2 in the morning.
It's such an enclosed area that the kids can get in there without anyone seeing them and can hide out drinking and doing drugs in the knowledge that they're out of view.
I don't see it as so much a nature reserve problem as an issue that we have in general with the youths of the town. Because when we move them out of the nature reserve they shift up to rhyddings park and vice versa. We have to start communicating with them and providing something to give them some pride in the area instead of them wanting to vandalise everything. As an example, in Brierfield MPA did a project in one of the worst areas in the town for young disaffected asian men. MPA engaged them and got them to create a peace garden which they did with great pride. Five years later that garden is still there and in exactly the same condition. The guys who did it make sure that all the little old dears in the town feel comfortable using it and they make sure it's kept clean. They were invited down to a special party at the Eden project in Cornwall to talk about how they achieved this and why this small area of land has come to mean so much to the community and how it is looked after.
I'm not suggesting an arts project is the way to go here but we need something that they can own and take pride in, whether it's tree planting or art or something else and how we go about doing something like this in Oswaldtwistle I don't know but we have to do something soon or these thugs will start having kids themselves and instilling the same lack of pride in them.
