A £49,828 Severn Trent grant has turned unused ground at Chelmsley Wood's Riverside Family Hub into a sensory garden. 151 local families voted on the design.

A patch of unused ground outside the Riverside Family Hub in Chelmsley Wood has been turned into a garden, paid for by a £49,828 grant from the Severn Trent Community Fund. It opened last week (Solihull Council).

The garden is split into three parts: a creative area, a sensory area, and a relaxation area for adults, positioned so that parents and carers can sit while children play in sight of them. The council says the space is fully secure.

151 people were asked what should go in it

The detail that separates this from most council landscaping is that the design was not simply handed down. A total of 151 local young people, parents and carers were asked to vote on their preferences for what the garden should contain.

Two local community interest companies backed the bid with letters of support:

  • Super SEN CIC, registered on 26 July 2024 and still active (Companies House, 15859941)
  • Re-Imagine Me CIC, registered on 3 May 2019 and still active (Companies House, 11977050). The council spells the name “ReImagine Me”; the register spells it with a hyphen.

That a special educational needs group put its name to the bid matters more this week than it would have a fortnight ago, for reasons set out below.

Where the money came from

The Severn Trent Community Fund is not a council pot. The water company says it is putting over £20 million into local charities and community groups in the ten years from 2020, and that the fund “is overseen by an independent Community Fund Customer Panel who review applications, so ultimately it’s up to customers to decide where our money goes” (Severn Trent). It runs two streams, new project funding and core funding, both by online application.

In other words, this was won rather than allocated. The council says the funding opportunity was “identified and championed” by its Climate Change and Sustainability team, as part of the Your Future Chelmsley Wood programme, which the council describes as “an initiative designed to enhance residents’ health and wellbeing through sustainability and community-driven improvements”.

Natalie Cunningham, Community Fund Manager at Severn Trent, said the garden’s layout was the point: “The distinct areas allow for parents and carers to take a moment whilst their little ones explore the sensory and creative areas, both of which are in sight from the relaxation area.”

It took longer than planned

Worth recording, because the council published both ends of it. When the award was announced on 20 February 2026, the council said works were “expected to begin this spring with an estimated completion date of around June 2026”. The garden opened in the first week of September, roughly three months later than the estimate.

Councillor Karen Grinsell, Leader of the council, thanked “our construction contractors for their hard work even during the height of summer”, which places the build in July and August rather than the spring.

Riverside Family Hub garden: from award to opening Timeline. 20 February 2026: a bid of £49,828 to the Severn Trent Community Fund is announced as successful, with completion estimated around June 2026. Around June 2026: the estimated completion date passes. Early September 2026: the garden opens, about three months after the estimate. 151 local young people, parents and carers voted on the design. Sources: Solihull Council announcements of 20 February 2026 and 4 September 2026. £49,828, and about three months longer than estimated 20 Feb 2026 Bid successful £49,828 awarded around June 2026 Council's estimated completion date early Sept 2026 Garden opens 151 local young people, parents and carers voted on what went into the garden Sources: Solihull Council, "Riverside Best Start Family Hub garden awarded Severn Trent Community Funding", 20 February 2026, and "Riverside Best Start Family Hub garden opens", 4 September 2026. Graphic by The Solihull Post
The council published both the estimate and the opening, which is why the gap is checkable.

Why a family hub, and why now

Four days before the garden opened, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission published their inspection of SEND services across the borough. They were critical of a good deal of it, but they singled out the family hubs for praise, saying early help services support the prompt identification of special educational needs and that “the family hubs are integral in this”. Inspectors found that early help practitioners are “skilful at developing trusting relationships with families”.

That is the network this garden has just been added to, in the part of the borough where it is most used. We covered the inspection in full in Solihull SEND Inspection: Long Waits, Inconsistent Plans.

Best Start Family Hubs are the borough’s front door for support for families with children, and Riverside is the Chelmsley Wood one.

What it means for you

  • The garden is at Riverside Family Hub, Chelmsley Wood, and is open to families using the hub. The council points people to the Solihull Family Hubs Facebook and Instagram pages for pictures.
  • It cost the council nothing directly. The £49,828 came from Severn Trent’s fund, decided by a panel of the water company’s own customers, not from council budgets.
  • If you run a local group, the same fund is open to applications through Severn Trent’s community fund pages, in two streams, new project funding and core funding. This award is evidence the panel will back Solihull applications.
  • It is a sensory space, not just a playground. The creative and sensory areas were designed to be visible from the adult relaxation area, which is the detail parents of children with additional needs tend to ask about first.

Sources