Get Fit for Free in the Fresh Air of Bashfordsland Wood

LtoR: Lee Gorman, Jamie-Lee Mogey, & Stacy Keatley

Carrickfergus Borough Council has unveiled a new outdoor gym in partnership with The Woodland Trust and generous funding from BIFFA Award. The twelve-piece gym provides a great work-out in the beautiful surroundings of Bashfordsland Wood. The gym is completely free to use and is suitable for all, from experienced gym goers to beginners and offers any user of the park an opportunity to increase their physical activity. Designed to give a mix of cardiovascular, strength and toning exercises, each piece of equipment has clear guidelines for proper use and information on which part of the body it is benefitting.  

Alderman May Beattie, Chairperson of the Parks Sub-Committee said: “The Council is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our residents. This outdoor gym shows how we continue to maximise the services available in our parks. The installation has been specially configured to allow users to get the maximum benefit of the equipment in the shortest time. By concentrating the equipment together, we have made things easier for people in the park who want a quick exercise routine during their lunchtime or after a walk. Physical activity produces real benefits for people and is important for all ages and abilities. It can help you keep a healthy weight and help improve your mood, reduce anxiety and protect against depression. Other outdoor gyms in the Carrickfergus Borough area are located at Diamond Jubilee Wood and Blackhead Path in Whitehead. These gyms provide a fantastic opportunity to get fit on your doorstep and I would encourage people to try them out.”


The BIFFA Award is a multi-million pound environmental fund, which utilises landfill tax credits donated by Biffa Waste Services.

Link: Bashfordsland Wood

Planting the Hedgerow - Free Fun Day Out

Come along to this free event and find out what wildlife our native hedges support and why they are one of nature’s greatest assets.

EVENT DETAILS: Saturday 23rd February 2013 from 10am to 1pm at Diamond Jubilee Wood, Whitehead.

You can access Whitehead Diamond Jubilee Wood via the pedestrian entrance at Bentra Golf Course car park. This free fun day out is for all the family. Please bring suitable outdoor clothing and footwear! Wellies are recommended for this site.

Species-rich hedgerows are important to us as well as to our wildlife. They are of historical importance often marking townland or estate boundaries. They also provide colour, shelter and food; act as stock barriers; and prevent soil erosion. Unfortunately, many of our native hedgerows have lost a lot of these values due to neglect or mismanagement. So, we’ve teamed up with Antrim, Belfast and Newtownabbey councils to restore and enhance the hedgerows in these areas.

You can play your part too. We want people to get involved to help restore and manage the habitats. We’ll provide you with training to help you develop skills required to support the restoration programme. Over the next two years we will be running foraging events and training workshops in autumn and winter. To get involved come along to this event or use the contact information below.

Hedgerow Hopes Initiative is a Heritage Lottery funded project.

Big Garden Birdwatch

The RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch is back on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 January 2013, giving people across the UK the chance to be part of the World’s biggest wildlife survey.

Almost 600,000 people across the UK took part in Big Garden Birdwatch in 2012 and between them counted more than 9 million birds.

To take part, people are asked to spend just one hour at any time over Big Garden Birdwatch weekend noting the highest number of each bird species seen in their gardens or local park at any one time. They then have three weeks to submit their results to the RSPB, either online at www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch or in the post.

Now in its 34th year, the survey provides the RSPB with an important snapshot of garden bird populations in winter and has helped to highlight some dramatic declines in UK garden birds.

Get fit by joining the fight against litter!

Need a New Year’s Resolution? Get fit by joining the fight against litter! Litter Champions is a community project in Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey that aims to support role models in their efforts to rid the borough of litter. The project aims to offer support by providing members of the public with equipment! Litter Champions are already hard at work throughout the Borough; some collecting litter from beaches, some from local walking routes and with others focusing their attention on improving their local neighbourhoods. As a Litter Champion, each volunteer will be provided with a FREE litter picker and a volunteer information pack. It doesn’t matter where individuals decide to volunteer or how often they volunteer, as Litter Champions they are role models in their community. Sharon from Newtownabbey who takes part in the project regularly said "Going places that you can walk and pick up litter are enjoyable". The Litter Champions project is being coordinated by Amanda Wilson, a young person from Carrickfergus who was recently awarded a grant worth £2,500 from O2 Think Bigger. Amanda said, "We are asking people to come forward to do their bit for their communities, and enjoy time outdoors keeping fit and healthy at the same time". The project is also being supported by Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey Borough Councils. For more information about the project or to get involved, please visit the weblink: http://www.carrickfergus.org/environment/litter-champions/

Launch of Tree Week in Carrickfergus Borough

Alderman May Beattie, Chairperson of the Parks, Countryside & Amenities Sub-Committee launched National Tree Week in Carrickfergus Borough at Whitehead Primary School on Friday 23rd November 2012. The launch will highlight the TREEmendous achievements since the year 2000, in which Carrickfergus Borough Council has planted 160,000 trees and by the end of this tree planting season we will have planted a further 5,000 trees around the Borough.

Alderman Beattie said “Now more than ever has confirmed the need to plant more trees. Recent events have confirmed that the view across the countryside and in our towns is set to change faster than anyone could have expected. In recent years, pests and diseases have started to threaten some of our most loved trees, such as oak and horse chestnut, but the spread of ash dieback and the anticipated devastation of the UK population of ash trees has left everyone considering what the next steps should be.”

“Planting a tree is a very positive thing to do and is great fun, even in the depths of winter. There are plenty of reasons to get planting – it's great exercise, children love it, and you'll be making a valuable contribution to our community woodland. To take part in a tree planting event or for further information contact: Stephen Daye, Parks & Countryside Development Officer at Carrickfergus Borough Council. t: 93358039 or e: parks@carrickfergus.org”. ended Alderman Beattie

“Anyone with land of their own, whether a garden, woodland or field, can make a difference to their view by adding a tree”, said Pauline Buchanan Black, Director-General of The Tree Council. “This year, though, the campaign carries particular significance as we look for ways to minimise the impact of ash dieback and carefully consider what to plant. Rising concern about tree diseases has also reminded us of the importance of checking not only where the seed of their tree started life, but also where it was germinated and grown. Not since Plant A Tree in ’73 has there been the same urgency to safeguard a view for the future”.

Alasdair Douglas, Chair of The Tree Council, added “It is almost exactly 40 years since Secretary of State for the Environment Peter Walker stood up in the House of Commons and announced that the following year was to be designated National Tree Planting Year. This was the Government initiative to encourage the planting of new trees to replace those millions killed by Dutch Elm Disease. The Tree Council was formed from that initiative and has been running National Tree Week ever since. We couldn’t have foreseen that we’d be faced with the losses from a tree disease of similar epidemic proportions just as we go in to National Tree Week but this seems a timely moment to ask the public to think carefully about what will happen to their view and what they will do to restore it for future generations.”

Next Tree planting event: Tree Planting Day at Amphitheatre Mill Ponds on Thursday 29th November at 10am. For further information please visit www.carrickfergus.org/treeweek

For further information on this or future tree planting events please contact Stephen Daye on 9335 8000. More tree planting events will take place in January, February & March to keep in touch visit www.carrickfergus.org/treeweek.

“Blooming” Busy Pupils Help Local Traders!

Downshire School’s Year 11 and Year 12 Horticulture classes were busy this week preparing floral hanging baskets for traders to display in the centre of Carrickfergus.

Chairperson of the Parks, Countryside & Amenities Sub-Committee, Alderman May Beattie who visited the blooming busy pupils said “The aim of the project, which has been funded by the Council’s Carrickfergus in Bloom initiative, is to brighten up the town centre this Christmas and use the horticultural talents of the Downshire School pupils.”

“Downshire pupils were a natural choice to create the floral displays due to the delivery of the subject of Horticulture which has had enormous examination success; and the interest in the Gardening Club which runs at lunch time and after school. Such examinations and clubs promote vocational opportunities for the young people and certainly their work on the planters for the Council has let them see a possible horticultural career path.”

“Carrickfergus in Bloom is a beacon of community gardening good practice, as it encourages residents to get involved, builds community spirit and improves the environment we all live in. With initiatives such as the school growing clubs, real opportunities for health, wellbeing and learning are being created.”

Principal Mrs Stewart commented on how pleased she was that the school had been given the opportunity to engage in such a civic venture and noted that the pupils now would be able to see their work on public display and would therefore take an even greater pride in their contribution to the local community. Everyone looks forward to seeing the lovely baskets adding a splash of colour to the newly refurbished town centre in the run up to Christmas.

Teachers Mrs Pauline Cowan (Downshire School) and Mr Robert Simpson (Newtownabbey Regional College) observed that doing work like this adds an extra dimension to the pupil’s experience of school and certainly provides added value to their educational experience.

Robert Stewart from Carrickfergus Traders Association thanked the school on behalf of the town centre shops benefiting from the floral displays this Christmas. He added “The Traders Association has been working in partnership with Carrickfergus Regeneration Partnership to roll out a floral scheme initiative. It is hoped that further work including community gardens within the town centre will compliment the completed public realm improvement scheme and that this will be an opportunity for more schools across the Borough to be involved”.

National Poetry Day

To celebrate National Poetry Day today (Thursday 4th October 2012), Carrickfergus Borough Council has announced the winners of the Carrickfergus in Bloom Poetry Competition. The winners are:

Winner: Laura Wright, Whitehead.
Runner-Up: Anna Bricle, Carrickfergus.
Runner-Up: Eve Hughes, Carrickfergus.

Read the winning poems at http://www.carrickfergusinbloom.org/newwinners.htm