You can watch a short film about our visit here https://youtu.be/d09MewozgBA
From rockets, swimming pools and zip wires, to rollercoasters, water slides and an on-site hospital for people who fall and break their bones whilst playing – these are just some of the things Year 3 pupils at Threemilestone Primary School would like to see included at Langarth Garden Village.
With some of the current pupils at Threemilestone Primary School likely to live, work or visit the Garden Village in the future, we are always keen to keep them up to date with what is happening with Langarth and to get their views on our plans.
During the past three years we have visited the school a number of times to speak to different groups of pupils, and have taken others to visit parts of the site and help us plant trees in our tree nursery.
This time two of our project team – Sarah Treliving and Lindsey Faulkner – went to the school to talk to Year 3 pupils about what we have been doing at Langarth over the past few months and invite them to come up with designs for the new play areas, multi use games areas and skateparks which will be provided as part of the scheme.
Creating the Garden Village will provide many hundreds of jobs of all kinds and we began by asking the children to name some of the people they thought would be needed to build the roads, houses and other buildings on the site.
As well as builders, architects and planners, they also suggested landscape architects and, our personal favourite, people using wrecking balls!
We then invited the youngsters to come up with their designs for the skateparks, play spaces and multi use games areas – and were blown away by their suggestions.
As well as the usual swings, slides and roundabouts, our young designers were keen to see rockets, rollercoasters, swimming pools and water slides in their play areas. They also wanted to have zip wires and climbing walls, football pitches, trampolines, sand pits and monkey bars together with benches for grown ups ( who will definitely not be allowed to use the equipment !).
Other more unusual features included a horse riding area, an on-site hospital for people who fall over and break bones, a place for pets, and a special area for people who are sad.
We were particularly impressed by the children’s insistence that all play and sports areas at the Garden Village must be fully accessible. Pupils also highlighted the need for providing quiet areas for those who can get overwhelmed by lots of people and noise, and for play equipment to be brightly coloured to support children who are visually impaired.
We share these views and will be working with our designers to ensure that all play and sports facilities and equipment are accessible to all children.
We ended our visit by inviting the two classes to ask us any questions.
As well as wanting to know the overall size of the site (620 acres), how many houses will be built at Langarth (up to 3,800 over 25 years), and how many people will live there ( between 8,000 and 10,000), the children were also keen to find out how many new trees will be planted (50,000, with over 5 hectares of new woodland) and if there will be cafes, parks, shops and play areas ( yes – these will be provided in all of the village centres ).
They also wanted to know if we will be providing new schools ( yes – two new primary schools), and what we are doing about protecting wildlife ( our plans will increase bio diversity by up to 20% by creating new Cornish hedges and wildflower meadows and planting natural and wildlife friendly species of trees, plants, and shrubs , which support more wildlife, using sustainable drainage with swales, ponds and wetland areas as a natural flood prevention system, and providing habitats for insects, songbirds, badgers, otters and other amphibians).
They also asked if the Garden Village will be mobility friendly (again yes – we will be providing new pedestrian and cycle links, with a new road and interconnected green corridors providing joined up and accessible transport links).
They also questioned Sarah and Lindsey about what they did in their roles, and were keen to find out how much they were paid!.
A big thank you to teachers Miss Body and Mr Rowland for allowing us to spend time with their classes, to Evelyn, Eloise and Zak for taking part in our film, and to all the Year 3 pupils for making us so welcome and coming up with such amazing designs.
We have already shared their ideas with the teams working on designing the play areas and will certainly be making sure that the facilities at the Garden Village are fully accessible to all.
We look forward to continuing to work with Threemilestone Primary School as the Garden Village develops.
Ends
