frequently asked (or anticipated!) questions
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We do not have off-street parking available at Chapel Street Park! Unless you need to drive for accessibility reasons, please support our environmental carbon-reduction aims by walking, cycling, wheeling, scooting, running, skipping or otherwise actively transporting yourselves to Bluebell Green 💙🌍💚
The nearest bus stops are:
- Levenshulme Old Library and Barlow Road / near Broom Lane (172 – 0.1m/0.2km walk)
- Stockport Rd / Carrill Grove (192, 197 – 0.4m/0.7km walk)
Levenshulme train station is about 0.5m/0.8km walk but sadly still doesn’t have step-free access.
Bluebell Green is a fenced off area within the northern section of Chapel Street Park, behind the Blue Bell Inn pub (M19 3HF).
The double main gate into Bluebell Green (///puff.fried.chemistry) is nearest the gate into the park from Barlow Road.
There are also entrances into the park from Chapel Street and Lincoln Avenue, which are closer to the single “back” gate of the Green (///extend.weedy.shadow).
All our regular sessions run on a donate-what-you-can, free-if-you-can’t basis – no pre-booking required. You can support us to continue keeping Bluebell Green accessible to everyone by setting up a regular donation on our Donate page.
We are actively working to improve access at Bluebell Green for the disabled members of our community but please be aware that we currently don’t have a toilet (coming soon!), drinking water or accessible signage.
We do have raised beds, seating, a covered area inside the polytunnel (good for keeping out of the rain, but gets very hot in summer!), and a secure fenced-off site with plenty of space to find a quiet calm spot when needed.
A new hard path has recently been installed inside Bluebell Green, connecting the main gate, polytunnel and pergola, but we know that the paths to get to Bluebell Green from within Chapel Street Park are still in need of resurfacing. The Barlow Road gate into the park is now more accessible to wheelchairs, mobility scooters and double prams, but the Chapel Street gates are sadly not. The Friends of Chapel Street Park group continue to raise these issues with the council Parks team. Please let us know at the contact details at the bottom of the page if you have any questions, or if there is something more that we or the council could do to improve your access to the park or Bluebell Green.
[More photos will be added here soon x]
No, sorry. Only service dogs (specially-trained assistance dogs) are allowed in Bluebell Green, so that we can keep the space safe for our early years children’s groups.
Everyone is welcome to come to our community and volunteer open sessions (nearly*) every Saturday 10am – 2pm. We also have other regular weekly or monthly sessions for specific age or interest groups – check our seasonal timetable for more information. We also welcome school groups – these sessions will not be open to the public. Special events and occasional ad hoc open sessions will be advertised through our social media channels and newsletter. To keep Bluebell Green and our community safe, the gates are locked the rest of the time, and the space can only be opened up by trained volunteers.
All the people who lead our groups and sessions are volunteers, often bringing their own kids, so please be patient with them if the gates aren’t open when you expect them to be! We will always aim to keep you updated via social media or WhatsApp if someone is running late or has to cancel at short notice, but we hope you understand that unfortunately sometimes it’s unavoidable.
If you’re interested in getting involved as a volunteer, please come along to one of our groups and chat to a session leader (usually wearing hi-vis!). You can also get in touch at the contact details at the bottom of the page. If you are interested in holding an event at Bluebell Green, we may occasionally be able to accommodate non-profit community projects with a shared ethos (subject to volunteer availability and committee approval) but we are unable to hire the space out for commercial purposes.
Come along! Drop in whenever we are open and chat to a session leader (usually wearing hi-vis!). You can also get in touch at the contact details at the bottom of the page. There are loads of different ways you can use your skills or learn new ones, especially with gardening and growing – all abilities and experience levels welcome!
We are always looking for volunteers to help with:
- Maintaining, fixing and building (especially plumbers and joiners!)
- Keeping plants alive, the space tidy and welcoming newcomers
- Planning events, running sessions and organising people
- Creative design, decoration and artwork
- Fundraising, communications and advocacy
- Improving accessibility, outreach and inclusion
- Increasing and conserving biodiversity
If you have any other questions that aren’t answered here, please do get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of the page.