Category: Community Building

Community Litter Pick

Saturday 26th March 2022 from 10am to 12 noon

Come along to the Community Litter Pick organised by Little Waltham Parish Council in collaboration with the Channels Residents Community Group and help keep your local area tidy!

Equipment will be provided. Children may attend but must be supervised.

At the end of the event you can claim complementary food courtesy of the McDonalds store at Essex Regiment Way!

Please meet on the central communal area in the Bellway locality by the noticeboard and pre-book by emailing info@channelsresidents.org.uk

If you fancy helping out in Little Waltham village centre please meet on the pavement in front of St Martin’s Church and pre-book by contacting the Parish Clerk on 01376 331251 or clerk@littlewaltham.org.uk

Community Gardens

Almost two years ago the idea of having Community Garden areas was suggested. Over the last 18 months, and partly funded by grant monies with volunteer help, the first stage has been developed on the Bellway phase at the location shown below:

The intention was (and remains) that the garden areas promote community involvement, are for the enjoyment of the whole Channels development and if a success, can be developed across the wider estate.

As the areas that are currently being developed are on Management Company responsible land, directors have asked that a more formalised sub-committee of the CRCG jointly takes responsibility for management of the project to ensure consistency and continuity, especially in the event of key volunteers being unable to continue to provide input. This is necessary to minimise the risk of the land being left unmanaged which could lead to additional costs having to be covered by the Service Charge.

If you are willing to be part of a small CRCG aligned group that will jointly manage the project, please let us know by completing the form HERE.


If a sub-committee cannot be formed by 31st October, preparations will be made to return the land to it’s original state so please do get involved and keep the Community Gardens project alive!

Community Gardens Update (Sept 2021)

Please see a newsletter (pdf format) that can be viewed and/or downloaded. Thanks to Nick Bailey for writing it and to Neil Crumpen for the photos.

For those that are new to Channels, the Community Garden is located near the entrance to Eagle Rise, near to the ‘Fountain Lake’:

If you want to get involved, Carroll Crumpen is leading the Community Gardens project (which will hopefully be expanding across the wider Channels development over the next few months) and you can get into contact via info@channelsresidents.org.uk

Community Garden Update

The Community Garden is celebrating it’s first birthday! Please see a newsletter (pdf format) that can be viewed and/or downloaded and thanks to Tanisha Lohia for pulling the update together.

For those that are new to Channels, the Community Garden is located near the entrance to Eagle Rise, near to the ‘Fountain Lake’:

If you want to get involved, Carroll Crumpen is leading the Community Gardens project (which will hopefully be expanding across the wider Channels development over the next few months) and you can get into contact via info@channelsresidents.org.uk

Community Wildlife Garden News

Our wildlife garden is open!

Please come and have a look at the spring flowers. There are daffodils, grape hyacinths, snake heads , wild primroses and hellebores.


Our log pile makes a good home for the creepy crawlies!


Thank you to the volunteers that have prepared the bed for the flower seed. With some of the grant money received we have bought “Wildlife seed mixture rainbow garden and summer sunshine”. These will be sown shortly and the pack says we will have flowers all summer long, so fingers crossed.

From April we will be sowing seeds in pots, and then once they have germinated, the pots can be taken from the garden and looked after. Once the roots are showing through the bottom, please bring back to the community garden and either plant in the bed, or leave them ready for volunteers to plant. So far we have the following seeds, ready to sow.

  1. Love in the mist
  2. Flanders Poppy
  3. Corn Marigold
  4. Borage
  5. Snap dragon
  6. Calendula
  7. Cosmos


What are your thoughts on the community garden and do you have any ideas for the next few months? Visit the Community Garden Page and fill in the feedback form!

To get involved please email Carroll via info@channelsresidents.org.uk
🙂

Spring Photos

There are signs beginning to appear that show us that Spring is arriving and we thought it would be lovely for our community to share photos taken locally of the stunning nature that can be found all around us. By ‘nature’ we mean photos of local wildlife, plants, trees and flowers.

We are asking for any photographs to be added to the relevant Facebook post (in whichever group you see it), or if preferred, e-mailed to info@channelsresidents.org.uk by Sunday 11th April. A shortlist of photos will be created for residents to vote for their favourite.

  • Include first name & age range (under 12, 12-18, 18+) with your entry;
  • Maximum of 5 photos per person;
  • Entries to be in by 8pm Sunday 11th April 2021;
  • Any photos not fitting a nature theme as outlined won’t count;
  • It’s a bit of fun 🙂

We look forward to seeing what you’ve captured so get snapping!

Community Gardens Update

The Community Group has completed the initial stages of setting up a Community Garden. Carroll Crumpen (who lives on the Bellway part of the development) is leading the project and a location was identified in the summer of 2020 which has become home to the project.

This Community Garden is for the use of the whole Channels community and we have been awarded £400 from the Community Initiative Fund which can be used to purchase plants, wild flower seeds and tools. It is a community garden, so it should be for the community to decide how it is developed.

Take a look at the full update and please do get involved by submitting your ideas or by volunteering to assist taking the project forward.

Happy New Year! 🙂

Bird Feeders Project

As you may be aware, we are taking forward a Community Garden Project and linked to this was a proposal to install bird feeders and bird boxes across the development to encourage more birds.

A natural bird feeder station, which will eventually be concreted in, has been installed along the southern border of Eagle Rise as an initial test so that we can monitor the way that wildlife reacts to it.

So far the cats don’t seem interested, the squirrel has not found it, and the pigeons cannot access the feeders! The birds have gone mad accessing it mostly during the day, but particularly first thing in the morning.

If the initial test feeding station proves successful longer term, the plan will be to install more bird feeders around the development at suitable locations.

We would also like to introduce an “adopt a bird feeder” system, so if anyone is interested in being involved with this, or if anyone has suggestions for additional locations, please do make contact via the form below. Please do not install anything without checking that the location is appropriate!

Information submitted via the above form will be used only for the purpose of contacting volunteers in relation to the Bird Feeders project.

Carroll Crumpen
Channels Residents Community Group

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