Award for volunteers

VOLUNTEERS from Lagan Valley Regional Park are celebrating after being announced as a recipient of the prestigious Queen’s Award.
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The Lord Lieutenant of County Down will present the award later in the year.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service recognises the contributions made to local communities by groups of volunteers; it has an equivalent status for voluntary groups as the MBE has for individuals.

Volunteering in the Lagan Valley Regional Park became established through the Laganscape Project, a Landscape Partnership Scheme, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Manager, Andy Bridge commented: “This is fantastic news. Lagan Valley Regional Park’s Volunteers are a great group of people from a range of backgrounds and abilities. Their hard work and dedication is second to none.”

The Regional Park’s volunteers fall into four groups - The Saturday Conservation Volunteer Group, Heritage Guides, Volunteer Rangers and Wildlife Surveyors.

The Conservation Volunteer group carry out work such as hedge laying, woodland management and pond management, whilst our Heritage Guides offer a warm welcome to anyone visiting the Lock Keeper’s Cottage. Volunteer Rangers support and enhance the work of the Park’s Ranger Service and our Survey Volunteers take part in monitoring wildlife including butterflies, squirrels, and otters.

Lagan Valley Regional Park (LVRP) secured a successful bid for a Landscape Partnership Scheme (LPS) from the Heritage Lottery Fund for £1.617million. This scheme, named Laganscape, recognises the Regional Park as an important landscape and aims to improve the understanding and promotion of heritage conservation. The total LPS is valued at £2.23million, with the remainder of funds coming from the 15 partners listed.

The Landscape Partnership Scheme (LPS) is a programme managed by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The programme promotes the development of a framework of integrated projects focused within a distinctive geographic area, within which organisations and communities work together to represent their interest in landscape and heritage conservation.

Lagan Valley Regional Park is located between Stranmillis, Belfast and Union locks, Lisburn and covers some 4,200 acres of countryside and eleven miles of riverbank. The Regional Park is a mosaic of countryside, urban parks, heritage sites, nature reserves and riverside trails.