Landscape Institute East midlands AGM, CPD and Social – 19 April 2018

It kicked off with a presentation by Melvin Cryer, Park and Street Care Manager at Gedling Borough Council who described the ecology, landscape design themes and some of the challenges with this restoration scheme.  This was followed by Cathy Gillespie, Via East Midlands who described the management of water and land settling in relation to the landform created by former extraction of the site.

“As a regular user of the park I know the park continues to grow from strength to strength – they may have to increase the parking allocation for all the weekend use, particularly if this lovely weather continues!”

View of All Hallow’s Church in the Trent Valley

As part of the AGM, Andrew Morris from the Landscape Institute delivered the LI’s vision of the forthcoming year.  He talked about four new themes primarily focussing on People, Places and Nature.  The LI are interested in attracting young talent into the industry and are going to introduce landscape apprenticeships at level 4 and level 7.

The LI as a whole wants to better promote the work of landscape professionals.  To achieve this, they intend to open up CPD provision to outside agencies as well as making it more accessible to new and existing members.  Another focus will be promoting landscape led housing development and the East Midlands branch would like to take a lead on this.

The visitor centre and play park are recent additions to the Gedling Country Park.  The design of the visitor centre was inspired by work undertaken by students from Nottingham Trent University.  The building is of rectilinear form, mimicking the natural form of coal.  The playpark has a distinct industrial feel, including a slide resembling a pithead.

It was great to meet up and talk with other local Landscape Architects about their work.

To read about heritage projects by Influence, click the links below:

Harbury Depot

International Bomber Command Centre