Telford hotel helping green space to bloom for local community

STAFF from the Park Inn Hotel Telford are hoping to prove they are green-fingered as well as green-minded when they take part in a voluntary scheme to help bring a community orchard and garden back to life.

A team of at least 10 employees have volunteered their time to help the Green Wood Centre* with a project which involves managing a small orchard and helping to establish a sensory garden.

The half acre site between Wellington Road and the A518 in Donnington is currently overgrown and little used, and has a number of apple, pear and plum trees, the fruit of which mostly goes to waste.

The voluntary work by the Park Inn Hotel staff will be the first stage of a five year plan to bring the area back to life, and help residents of the neighbouring care home, Barclay Gardens, as well as members of the wider community, to get more out of the green space.

The plan envisages using the orchard and garden for a wide number of community uses, including educational trips, apple-pressing sessions, and small events, as well as giving local people the chance to grow their own fruit.

The Green Wood Centre was approached by Donnington Parish Council to help with the orchard and sensory garden project, as part of its Venture Out programme**.

The centre and the hotel are both members of the Green Tourism business scheme, which encourages companies to do as much as possible to protect and enhance their environment, and helped bring the two together.

“As a company, we take our social responsibilities very seriously, and had been looking for a project which our staff could get involved in, which would help make a lasting impression in the local community,” explained Adrian Pickard, general manager of the Park Inn Hotel Telford.

“We are sure this is going to be a really successful project, which will provide people in the area with a great facility, and are really proud to be involved right at the start. Our team is looking forward to getting stuck into whatever work there is to do there.”

Matt Beech, of the Green Wood Centre explained what the team will be doing. “The small orchard area is to be cleaned up, paths improved and reinstated and fruit trees brought back into management,” he said.

“In time, a sensory garden will be planted for the use of residents at Barclay Gardens home, other local residents, and also local schools.”

Staff from the Park Inn Hotel will also be taking part in some more charity work, though this time a lot less arduous, when the hotel hosts a staff fun day, in aid of international charity www.childhood-usa.org

The event will include a host of entertainment, including a bouncy castle, stalls, a raffle, sumo wrestling and face-painting.

* The Green Wood Centre is part of the national charity, Small Woods Association, and based at Coalbrookdale, where it helps in all manner of initiatives involving woodland management and promoting sustainable technologies.

**Venture Out is funded by Telford and Wrekin Health Service, and aimed at helping communities to make better use of their green spaces.