It’s been some time since we had a new community mission come up in the borough and today was all about pitching up and doing whatever tasks would help a local group of volunteers to make the best of the green spaces in their neighbourhood.

We met Stephen at Acton Town station and made the short 4 minute walk to the first green space on Triangle Way, in the Gunnersbury Estate. Stephen introduced us to the lead volunteer Tony who was coordinating a group of around 10 neighbours to clear leaves, dig out unwanted roots and cut back Ivy.

There were two plots of land that the community are keeping tidy as part of a campaign to keep the area free for local residents to enjoy.

In the first space we were asked to help by digging out two relatively simple looking bushes and clear mountains of leaves. The roots needed a fair bit of brute force, and a saw, and a pick axe. Chris was in his element. Florian got involved, while Tish and I worked around the smaller of the two roots and soon had to call for help from the neighbour with a saw, since the root was lodged under a tree root.

Luis and Pippa meanwhile cleared and bagged up piles of leaves.

After an hour we moved onto the second space and continued collecting leaves, clearing paths and Florian and Pippa made use of the best loppers we’ve ever had at our disposal, clearing the ivy that was threatening to take over the rest of the greenery.

A solid 90 minutes of effort led to 2 uprooted bushes, 4 wheelie bins and countless sacks full of leaves and ivy and 6 hungry stomachs. Two of us had another task to go to so we headed off for a quick bite all together to celebrate this being our last task of 2023 in Hounslow.