Giant Picnic 2012 Sunday 26th August 11am - 3pm

 Herne Bay in Bloom are very fortunate to have secured funding courtesy of Herne Bay KCC Councillors supplemented by Herne Bay Rotary Club to once again organise this marvellous family event in our regenerated Memorial Park. There will be many FREE activities for all the family provided by 30+ voluntary organisations ranging from creating your own piece of art,playing rounders,singing along with a rock choir,seeing how high you can jump and how fast you can run and planting Mr Cress Heads to making heart cushions for breast cancer patients. In fact something for everyone!

Live music from U'Zambesi,Jezreels Ceilidh Band and  a display from Da Vinci Dance all compered by local musician David Shepherd will really get the party going.

So bring a picnic and all the family and tell all your friends to come along to enjoy an absolutely fantastic day.

We are grateful for the support of all our sponsors  including  KCC, Herne Bay Rotary ,Herne Bay Town Partners,Canterbury City Council Festival personel  and "People United" charity for enabling us to help make Herne Bay a better place.

Learning and design

Parks and open spaces present an opportunity for people to grow too. We are now starting to work with a range of education and training organisations to deliver design and small to medium scale projects.

These organisations include Canterbury College, Appleseed Landscapes (under the umbrella of Kent Enterprise Trust) and Family Investment Homes. The colleges are major local employers and providers of future gardeners, and cater for students with a wide range of abilities including learning difficulties.

In particular they will be working on projects in Herne Bay Memorial Park and at Hampton play area landscaping an area of untidy ground, next to the recently refurbished Play Area.

Schools

Schools continue to play a major role in the 'In Bloom' campaign. Bulb planting in Herne Bay Memorial Park has turned in to an annual event, and children from local schools helped to plant 1,000's of bulbs in the park commemorating Remembrance Day. Members of the Royal British Legion also took part and supported the event, so that future generations are reminded of the sacrifice made by past generations.

Many of the local primary schools enter the 'Best School Grounds or Environment' competition. They are given valuable support for their projects by the Street Scene Section, who make available a range of goods including plants, bark chippings, water butts, and committee members offer support by giving gardening advice.

All schools are provided with a list of materials they can use free of charge, which includes labour, advice and training.

Herne Bay Memorial Park Regeneration Project

This is an on going project to regenerate the centre of Herne Bay. It was a premier Victorian resort, which is divided into three distinct areas including the seafront, the town centre and the Memorial Park, which is its green heart.

The park is close to the town centre and seafront and links to the coastal cycle path. Connecting the seafront, town centre and the park is key to Herne Bay's regeneration; the future market position of any destination is linked to the economic prosperity and quality of life of its residents. This will create a strong sense of place.

Tourism is an economic driver, and people will travel to distinctive destinations that also deliver quality of life and are visually attractive to residents and visitors. Key to regenerating the town is restoring its green heart, the park. The city council has consulted widely on the future of the park, and an active and supportive 'Friends of' group has been formed. £500,000 has been made available from the council's capital budget and a further £50,000 has been awarded from the government's 'Playbuilder' scheme.

The play area was refurbished earlier this year and is now open, and other projects in the park include installing CCTV, restoring and improving the lighting and paths, refurbishing the garden area, installing signage and toilets, creating a community hub, refurbishing the street furniture and up-grading the lake. The aim is to turn the park in to a 'green flag' park.

Other notable horticultural achievements include the installation of a kitchen garden plots in Memorial Park which will be offered for the use of community groups. This project was designed by residents of the Family Investment Homes Project, who have also produced a design for a sensory garden. The gardens will be installed by Oakapple who have worked on other projects in the district.

Last year Family Investment Homes held a competition to design a new bed at the Kings Road entrance of memorial Park next to the Parklife centre. This area had been particularly neglected and was in need of a revamp. They then carried out the installation of the new bed using plants they had grown at their nursery.