Growing Green Aylesbury: Connecting People, Places and Nature

The core purpose of this interactive workshop is to bring together community groups, and environmental organisations to spark ideas, share successes, and co-design volunteer-led projects that strengthen our local green spaces, biodiversity, and wellbeing.

We’re inviting groups across Aylesbury to join us in learning about what has worked well for organisations in working in the green space and want you to share what you think would work best to help connect people and nature across Aylesbury.

We’re inviting groups from across the town to come along, learn from what’s already working, and help shape what happens next. Your experience, insight, and ideas are vital in creating practical actions that truly connect people with nature.

Speakers on the day include the following:

• Heather Haydock, Trustee of Community Impact Bucks
• David Wilding, RSPB Volunteering at scale and its successes
• Nicola Metcalfe, local illustrator and designer will share her work around ‘The Marlow Donkey’ highlighting the story of the Marlow to Bourne End railway line.
• Eliza/ Hannah, RBOR initiative and green space volunteering.

• Learn what works from organisations like the RSPB and BBOWT on engaging volunteers and delivering successful green space projects.
• Help shape local action by co-designing practical ways to connect people, nature and green spaces across Aylesbury.
• Build valuable connections with community groups, charities and environmental organisations from across the area.
• Be inspired by creativity and innovative approaches that deepen community connection to place and nature.
• Leave with ideas you can use to support biodiversity, wellbeing and nature recovery in your own work.

• This event is open to anyone (paid or unpaid) involved with charities, community groups, or social enterprises that deliver services in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

• Click on the 'Get tickets' button to secure your free place.

• For any enquiries, or if you need further help, please contact [email protected] or call us on 0330 236 9350

Heather Haydock, Trustee of Community Impact Bucks will chair the event. Heather Haydock took early retirement in May 2023 following a successful career in environmental consultancy where she led projects primarily related to greenhouse gas mitigation, climate change policy, energy technologies and programme evaluation. Highlights included supporting the Climate Change Committee to develop the UK’s carbon budgets, being the lead advisor to the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Perspectives project and contributing to climate change action planning in Albania, Kenya, Nigeria and Myanmar. Heather is now a Buckingham Town Councillor and volunteers with a range of local environmental and community groups, including Community Impact Bucks, Bucks Climate Action Alliance, the Buckingham Environmental Action Network (previously Climate Cafe Buckingham) and Citizens Advice. She is a Tree Keeper for the local Tiny Forest and helps to maintain the Buckingham Edible Woodland.

David is the Site Manager of RSPB Otmoor nature reserve, a beautiful wetland site in Oxfordshire. About 14,000 people volunteer for the RSPB across the UK, performing a variety of roles. At Otmoor over 100 people volunteer, David will share what volunteers do at Otmoor to help run this incredible reserve.

David brings valuable experience in managing, supporting and empowering volunteers, and in turning local enthusiasm into meaningful, long-term action.

David will share insights from the RSPB’s work — including what’s worked well, what they’ve learned along the way, and how community groups and environmental organisations can apply these lessons locally as we look at Growing a Greener Aylesbury by connecting people, places and nature.

Nicola Metcalfe is a local illustrator and designer who led creative workshops in the community working closely with local community groups, to gather memories, stories, and creative responses to the railway and surrounding area. She will share her work around ‘The Marlow Donkey’ highlighting the story of the Marlow to Bourne End railway line.

During summer 2025, Nicola won a pitch to collaborate with Buckinghamshire Council and GWR on a community project in celebration of 200 years of the modern railway. She undertook a series of art workshops with local groups in Marlow and Bourne End and the outputs from these events were used to create a beautiful collage which was displayed in local libraries and on the station platform at Bourne End. Nicola also incorporated some of these outputs into eye-catching permanent information boards for Bourne End station. She has also recently created artwork for a pack of illustrated playing cards for both Marlow and Henley, merchandise for the River and Rowing Museum, Henley and prints, cards, postcards, bookmarks and tea towels which are sold in shops and libraries throughout Buckinghamshire.

Eliza/ Hannah RBOR initiative and green space volunteering.

Reconnecting Bernwood, Otmoor and the Ray (RBOR) is a landscape-scale conservation programme that aims to increase habitat connectivity and communities’ connection to nature across the nationally important BOR landscape, which straddles the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border. It is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The programme lead is Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT).

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) is one of 46 Wildlife Trusts across the UK working to achieve the shared aim of securing a better future for wildlife. BBOWT has a wilder vision of more nature everywhere for everyone and aims to put nature into recovery on 30% of land across the three counties by 2030. BBOWT has over 60,000 members. BBOWT brings people and nature together to protect our environment. Our experts work with more than 1,700 volunteers to look after over 80 nature reserves, five education centres and run hundreds of amazing events. We rely on the generosity of individuals, charitable trusts and businesses. Find out more at www.bbowt.org.uk

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