A NEW outdoors space that aims to run forest school sessions for the community has opened.

NaturEscape outdoor space was constructed on a disused mini-golf site at Florence Park in Oxford and was opened to the public last week.

Oxford City Council has worked in partnership with Flo’s the Place in the Park Community Hub to create NaturEscape.

The project has also benefited from community involvement through fundraising, volunteer-led design and doing the actual work, which has included planting a meadow and trees and hedges, sponsoring stones for the sensory pathway, creating the fire pit and digging the site that will become a pond.

Oxford Mail: NaturEscape: Mark Lygo, Merryn and Zain - cutting the ribbon

The City Council invested £7,000 for fencing and to convert the space from its former use. This has been more than matched by community fundraising of a further £15,000.

Annie Davy from Flo's the Place in the Park said: "We have been amazed by the support this development has received. It has been exciting to see it take shape and it will continue to evolve for many years to come. We hope people who have sponsored a stone and others will come and find ‘their stone’.

“Next steps include fundraising for a pond for the water area, some shelter for rainy days, and sound sculpture the ‘air zone’, as well as living tree arches and more. As well as regular forest school sessions for our nursery children, we hope to develop regular outdoor grandparents group - and other sessions for families with young children.”

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