Grabbing ears helps local children

Parachute games at last year's Festival

I spent a very pleasant day at Queensbury Eco-Cultural Festival on Sunday running the Brent School Without Walls stall and organising parachute games. Brent green groups were well represented with Friends of the Earth, Brent Sustainability and Brent Cyclists running stalls. As usual there was amazing dancing from various local groups.

The event is organised by the Friends of Eton Grove Park who have been extremely effective at, as they state writing a few letters and grabbing a few ears, to make improvements to a park that was run down: 'cracked walking paths, no tennis courts anymore, no football posts, no cricket crease and no flowers!'.  The group was formed in 2008 to 'bring back life, energy and security to the park'.

Since then they have managed to get:

• New fencing up along segments of the park boundary
• The children's playground has been revamped
• The reintroduction of tennis courts and a new multi-use games area

They have worked with local local schools and the community in a number of projects to improve safety in the park and local area. They have spread the environmental message working with Roe Green Junior School and Kingsbury High School.

In many ways this is an excellent example of community action which has succeeded in making real improvements in the quality of life for local people, especially the children.

There are more projects in the pipeline including a cricket pitch and facilities for older residents. I wish them well.