Lambeth: residents spruce up Raleigh Gardens

Residents of Raleigh Gardens in Lambeth gave their neighbourhood a new lease of life last Saturday (27 June).

Community Freshview is a Lambeth Council initiative. It provides equipment, expertise and workers for the day to residents who want to play an active role in improving where they live.

Raleigh Gardens residents organised one of these days with support from L&Q. They also had helping hands from police officers and a supervised team of offenders under the Probation Service’s ‘Community Payback’ scheme.

Everyone worked hard to cut down trees, paint columns, clear rubbish and get rid of bushes and excess foliage.

Grace Samuels of L&Q said the day was a great success: “You could feel the buzz of the community spirit and everyone rose to the challenge. It was great to see everyone taking pride in where they live. As a result of the day, a residents association has been set up to do more work like this in the future.”

Could you make a difference to your neighbourhood?

If you are a Lambeth resident with plenty of ideas on improving your local environment - and you can gather some extra volunteers - you could be eligible for help from Community Freshview.

It could be brightening up some local green space, giving a facelift to disused areas of land, or anything else to improve your local environment. Community Freshview can supply equipment, expertise and extra pairs of hands from at least two of their officers to help make your clean-up day a success.

If you are interested, contact Community Freshview on 020 7926 0524 or streetcare@lambeth.gov.uk, or Sheryl Martin at L&Q on 020 8875 5534 or smartin@lqgroup.org.uk.