urbanpollinators.co.uk

Welcome to Urban Pollinators

This site exists as an archive of Urban Pollinators’ work. Julian Dobson, Urban Pollinators’ director until 2022, can now be contacted via the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University.

You are here: Home / Archives for green spaces

A critical hope is the foundation to #BuildBackBetter

by

by Julian Dobson and Rowland Atkinson In the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, the hashtag #buildbackbetter became a rallying cry on social media for those who saw the need and opportunity to reconstruct our cities. Demands included closing streets to traffic to reduce pollution and create spaces for play; investing in renewable energy; creating affordable […]

Stimulating debate, challenging assumptions: our work in 2012

by

If the state of the economy and society during 2012 has taught us anything, it is that new thinking is needed to bring us through times that are already a lot harder than anyone imagined at the onset of the financial crisis five years ago. Yet much of that thinking remains on the margins of […]

Inspiration of the month: Offshoots, Burnley

by

Eighteen months ago Gillian Newlove struggled to leave her house. Her confidence was at rock bottom and she did all she could to avoid meeting people. Last Christmas couldn’t have been more different. Her paintings were exhibited at Accrington Town Hall, she met the mayor and visitors were enquiring about buying her work. The change […]

Inspiration of the month: greening the Taff Bargoed valley

by

‘This is not just an ex-mining valley – it’s an outdoor experience valley,’ says Dave Lewis, community director at Groundwork Merthyr and Rhondda Cynon Taff in south Wales. Dave is showing off the climbing centre at the heart of the Taff Bargoed valley, in the middle of a site once deemed too polluted and dangerous […]

Inspiration of the Week: The Parks Trust, Milton Keynes

by

Concrete cows notwithstanding, Milton Keynes has always been a town with a commitment to the natural environment. When the vision for the new town was birthed in the 1960s, the plan was to make it a ‘forest city’, integrating the countryside into the urban landscape. The result was more than 4,500 acres of river valleys, […]