2019-22
The Woodland Trust, Uffmoor Wood
Transforming a site into a communal asset by tackling Anti-social Behaviour and dog problems
Background
Uffmoor Wood is a long-established Woodland Trust site just south of Halesowen in Worcestershire but, in 2017, it had a history of serious Anti-social Behaviour that led to its temporary closure that year and, with no sign of improvement, the threat of permanent closure in 2018.
Project
Share-with care were commissioned to deal with this problem site in late 2018. Following a site review in early 2019, a detailed proposal was assembled and, over the following year, this plan underwent a series of iterations. While in essence the plan was primarily designed to counteract the site’s significant Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) issues, in addition it sought to tackle some dog related problems as well.
Watch the Uffmoor Wood Project video
This community engagement project set out to encourage locals to see the site, not as a Woodland Trust property, but regard it as more of a communal asset. This required shifting the locals’ vision of Uffmoor Wood from being just a ‘space’, or convenient location, into it being regarded as a ‘place’, or valued destination.
To evolve this image of the site a comprehensive series of tasks, falling under six main headings, were undertaken and coordinated:
- Encourage community spirit
- Exploit local media
- Install dog measures
- Secure authorities’ commitment
- Provide support for ambassadors
- Make site improvements
The central task, alongside developing measures to encourage considerate behaviour, was the creation of a programme of events to serve as a catalyst for yet more site users to become actively involved with the Wood.
Before the key objective, namely the enhancement of the site’s community spirit, could get underway, two task-areas needed immediate preparatory action. First, a review of the volunteers, involving an assessment of their site wardening capabilities then, as it was recognised there was a need to recruit dog ambassadors too, the provision of a full communications toolkit to enable them to talk effectively to the public. In due course a detailed training package was developed to support them in the performance of their ambassadorial role.
The next task-area was to deal with the site’s dog issues. This involved the installation of an anti-dog fouling infrastructure, the creation of a compensatory dog run-free zone, the securing of regular on-site dog training plus, in the future, efforts to create a site-based dog walker club.
To achieve the main task a programme of wildlife and wellbeing events was arranged. This programme culminated in a bi-annual late Summer event when all aspects of the woodland’s benefits were to be showcased. The Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 and resulting lockdowns only served to delay this feature of the plan by a year.
In addition to this public-focused activity, was an approach in spring 2022 to local primary schools, offering them use of the site as a Forest School. Despite interest in this Trust facility, owing to pressures on these schools’ finances, this has not been taken up,
Finally, a good rapport with the West Mercia Police force was built, and approaches are to be made to the adjacent Bromsgrove District Council and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council to ensure their awareness of the Trust’s efforts to solve the site’s issues and welcome more local visitors.
Outcome
By the end of 2022 site management considered this programme of activities had “turned the page”. ASB site users were now a distinct minority, with local families increasingly happy to use the site. Additionally, dog fouling had been significantly reduced and there were welcome signs of an overall improvement in the quality of dog behaviour as well.