Over the past few months, our partners Sustrans and Seekers have been engaging with the community on our behalf to discover improvements for the Foxes Forest area for our enhancing woodlands and green space part of the Hilsea Lines project.
To get the community involved and share their experiences and memories of the area, we’ve held:
- Three ‘walk-shops’ at Foxes Forest
- Workshops at Anchorage Park, Cosham and Hilsea community centres
- Events to capture people’s opinions in Cosham High St, Mountbatten Leisure Centre, Highbury Primary School, Gatcombe Park Primary School, King’s Academy Northern Parade Primary School and at Casemates Studio
We also had an online interactive map and community mapping tool for people to get involved ‘virtually’.
We’ve engaged with over 200 people from ages six to over 60, from diverse backgrounds including those with disabilities, refugees and local groups including:
- Portsmouth Forest School
- Volunteer rangers
- Horizon Disabled Anglers
- Run Walk Local Portsmouth
- Ageing UK
- MAKE
- Dynamite
- Tea over Chai
Stephen Baily, Director of Culture, Leisure, and Regulatory Services, said: “This has been an exciting phase of our enhancing woodlands and green spaces element of the Hilsea Lines project, engaging with residents about their memories and connections with Foxes Forest, our hidden gem, which is rich in heritage and full of wildlife and biodiverse green space to explore.
“We’re looking forward to moving on to the co-design phase, which is another opportunity for us to encourage residents and visitors to visit Foxes Forest and the wider Hilsea Lines area, in line with our vision for a happy and healthy city.”
We’re now using the findings from our co-discover stage to help plan the next phase of the project, our co-design stage, which will run from May – July 2023.