Community Wildlife Garden opens in Peckham Rye Park

Vikki and Gavin with fellow councillor Barrie Hargrove, Cabinet Member for Transport, Environment & Recycling

Today saw the opening of the Community Wildlife Garden in Peckham Rye Park - well done to the Friends of Peckham Rye Park for making this happen!

The 'old depot' site near to the Park toilets has long been out of use and out of access. In fact many locals will have walked passed and not known this little pocket of land within the Park existed as it is surrounded by mature trees. The site originally contained greenhouses for the Park that were dismantled in the 70s and it was then used as a depot until the late 80s.

Since 2005 the Friends have been working hard to bring the site back into use as a wildlife garden. With the help of Southwark Council Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding and then a Big Lottery Fund grant that we were delighted to support, the last two years have seen the site transformed. I visited the site just after we were elected councillors and going back today you can see it has changed completely. Rather than just a waste land there are now wheelchair friendly paths, meadow areas, beehives, a pond, raised beds adopted by community groups and an insect 'loggery'.

You'll be able to visit the garden during park opening hours and there will be monthly maintenance days for local residents to get involved with caring for the garden. To get involved contact the Friends on foprp@aol.com.

Comments

Know Your Ryes!

A few weeks ago I was in a meeting with some local residents and council officers. During the meeting one person started referring to Rye Lane, when in fact they meant Peckham Rye East. Later on another started talking about Peckham Rye Common and it took us a little while to work out that they really meant Peckham Rye Park. You can't really blame people for getting a little confused. There are so many references to "Rye" in our little bit of South London that even the locals can get mixed up. So I thought I'd have a go at writing a little glossary of all the Ryes hereabout. Clearly I'm making a rod for my own back here, so please point out any errors I've made in the comments box below. Anyway, here are my definitions of the ubiquitous Ryes. Some serious, some not so serious, and in no particular order: Peckham Rye Ward - The council ward area. Peckham Rye Ward was created out of Rye Ward, Waverley Ward and Bellenden Ward following the Local

Lib Dems claim they're not in charge in Peckham Rye

(A tweet from the Peckham Rye Lib Dems) Peckham Rye Lib Dems are now claiming that Labour 'run' Peckham Rye (take a look above). When asked by a local resident "Am I right in thinking Lib Dems run Southwark but Labour run Peckham Rye?", a Peckham Rye Lib Dem candiate replied, "Yes you're right. For the next three months Lab run Peckham Rye. Then we take over..." Given that, just like every other area in Southwark, Peckham Rye is run by the Lib Dem-Tory Executive it seems this is just the latest in a string of attempts to mislead people into thinking they've got nothing to do with Southwark's failures. Of course, Peckham Rye does have three Labour councillors, who do a great job of representing our area and our concerns at the Town Hall. However this is very different from 'running' Peckham Rye. If only we could just opt out of the Lib Dem chaos! In truth, the policy levers and almost all the money spent by the council are under the cont

Peckham Rye Playground Opens

Gavin and I were delighted to open the new playground on Peckham Rye this morning - and to test out the equipment! The opening marked a long year of campaigning to get the playground built after many years of delay. As locals and regular visitors to the Rye may know, the new playground has been in the pipeline for some time. To make matters worse, back in August 2010, the Tory-Lib Dem Government ‘clawed back’ most of the funding for the project, leaving its future in doubt. Following a lot of hard work we are really pleased that in the end we secured the funding and that the work has been completed - just in time for the school holidays. During the election last year we made a firm promise that we would get the playground sorted-out. Today has been brilliant because, despite Government cuts we have kept our promise and local children have another great area for play.

Peckham Rye Labour

Search This Blog