Agnes Riley Gardens faces an uncertain future.
Lambeth has had funding cuts of 50% and more are likely in future.
Get involved and support our park.
Volunteers needed to help with paddling pool
The Friends of Agnes Riley Gardens have been working towards being able to keep some services in the park going even though the Council, for the time being, isn’t able to support them. One of these is the paddling pool. The Friends have been able to secure funding from Groundwork to get the pool repaired and ready to go. The repair work will start on 19thJuly. Once it is complete, the pool will be ready for use. But in order to run the pool we need volunteers. We are hoping that we will have enough volunteers so that each one would only have to offer their services at most a couple of times a month.
If this is something you would be willing to do, please contact ChingWah Wong (cwong@claphampark.org.uk or 07958 337 305).
There will be a training session on Thursday 2nd August from 9:30am for 4 hours. So you would be fully briefed on what would be required of you.
ChingWah is looking forward to hearing from you.
Food Growing in the park
We want to run food growing workshops in the park for local people, young and old, making great use of the polytunnel, the existing raised beds and also the covered growing spaces in the park.
The park is located next to a number of large social housing estates. Clapham Park Estate, just over the road, is being redeveloped and large numbers of people will be moving into the area. There are three primary schools in the immediate area, plus a new secondary school soon to be developed. We already have some very committed volunteers giving their time to gardening in the park and they have told us they would like some support to run weekly gardening sessions which can help people grow some of their own food. We also want to help children better understand where their food comes from.
What we’ll deliver:
- We will run regular gardening sessions for a year
- We will plant and harvest crops from our community garden
- We will educate children about where food comes from and about the benefits of healthy eating
Why it’s a great idea:
This is a great idea because it promotes healthy eating and environmental sustainability. Regular gardening sessions are also a fantastic way for people to come together informally and work together. This helps develop friendships and promotes understanding between people from different backgrounds – it reduces social isolation.
Steps to get it done:
- Run 5 workshops for local people
- Grown enough produce to create a community meal in the park
- Grown enough produce to have a plant sale
What we need, is for you to pledge to support the project; find out more details at https://www.spacehive.com/food-growing-in-the-park and encourage your friends and neighbours to support this project.