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Peterborough Garden Park: wants to grow good community relations
EVERYBODY needs good neighbours – the words of a song introducing a well-known TV soap. But the good neighbourly philosophy should also apply in business as well as in everyday social life.
EVERYBODY needs good neighbours – the words of a song introducing a well-known TV soap. But the good neighbourly philosophy should also apply in business as well as in everyday social life.That's the view of Gordon Edington, chairman of Garden Park Investments, the developer behind the 25 million Peterborough Garden Park. The massive site on the edge of the city, off Eye Road, is set to become a flagship model, the pinnacle of garden centres in the UK.
Gordon is keen that it engenders a positive community side as well as being a commercial success.
"We will be leading this, but I am also keen to foster a 'good neighbour' culture among our retailers so that they also engage with the Peterborough community at large," he said.
"I want to explore setting up various community projects to involve tenants, shoppers and Peterborough residents alike."
It is a subject dear to the heart of the man who, for six years, was chairman of the board of trustees for the UK's largest children's charity, now known as Action For Children. It's an organisation that carries out some 500 projects to assist up to 180,000 young people nationwide.
Gordon said it is an "anathema" to him when developers simply drop into a city, build their project and then become disinterested rent collectors rather than accepting the opportunity to make further positive difference to the community they are benefiting from.
He would like to assist the city to achieve the aims of the Safer and Stronger Communities initiative – a good idea informed, initially, by central Government policy aimed at tackling crime, empowering communities and improving disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
At a local level, it is the Peterborough City Council's Sustainable Community Strategy – 2008-2021 that he has embraced. It has four priorities each of which has four sub-priorities.
For example, by considering the first priority of creating opportunities and tackling inequalities, Gordon has asked, how he can help to contribute to that?
The first sub-section is about improving health. So, the developers will encourage retailers to engage with this strategic policy.
For example, the garden centre operator, Van Hage, will understand the underlying philosophy and be given the opportunity to contribute. The company may wish to promote the idea of healthy eating through encouraging people to grow their own vegetables. Van Hage has a long history of offering such support at its other centres.
When it comes to supporting vulnerable people, Gordon would like to work with the voluntary sector and the city's support services to assist people to develop their skills and life opportunities. Work experience would be an example of that.
The third sub-section centres on regenerating neighbourhoods.
This part of Peterborough has high unemployment levels and Peterborough Garden Park will provide a variety of jobs; managerial, operational, part-time and seasonal – a real variety. The vast majority of staff at the centre – which could eventually total 200 or more – will be locally recruited.The developer and Van Hage, which has just started to recruit, are keen to work with the city council's asylum and migration service, New Link, which is there as a bridge between business and people from a diverse community seeking employment.
On the matter of improving skills and education, Van Hage is enthusiastic about going into local schools to promote horticulture. Gordon, as well as the contractors – local firm RG Carter – have also met the Youth Offending Team to see if relevant work experience could be provided to young people, who, through their unlucky circumstances, have got into trouble.
Youngsters are also the theme of an unusual piece of artwork planned in front of the caf at the garden park.
There will be a children's tile project involving seven local schools and some 300 names.
Individual names of children, at reception class age, one per tile, will be honoured and celebrated.
In addition, Gordon wants four and five-year-olds to help design a woodland walkway which, when completed, should prove a great place for children to explore. Peterborough Environment City Trust is supporting this work and advising on environmental operating standards more generally.
So, the developer will engage with the community, to promote the local community and the city as a whole, and provide an attractive place for children as well as for mum and dad when they go shopping at the garden park.
The centrepiece is the spectacularly-glazed 50,000sq ft garden centre, leased by leading garden centre retailer Van Hage and, in addition, it has 80,000sq ft of external sales area selling everything a gardener could possibly want.
Another 17 shop units are being built, with household names such as Hobbycraft, Pets Corner, Cotton Traders, Maidenhead Aquatics and Cotswold already confirmed as tenants. French cookware manufacturer le Creuset has also agreed to open what will become its first shop in a garden centre development in Britain.
The Peterborough Garden Park complex, scheduled to open on February 1, 2010, will also feature a caf, picnic area and playground, and should attract thousands of shoppers to the city from at least an hour's drive away. Gordon is determined to ensure that the garden park is excellent in every respect, that it contributes to the prosperity of the city and becomes a UK landmark that Peterborough can be very proud of.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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