Peckham Rye Park Community Wildlife Garden

I was delighted to be shown round what will be the community wildlife garden in Peckham Rye Park today. This is a project that has been driven forward by the Friends of Peckham Rye Park. Not far from the park toilets is a fenced off area that I confess I had never noticed before today. Behind the gates is a substantial area that, once transformed, will include a pond, some beehives, a summer and winter garden and a pergola. It's marked on the plan below:

Despite the Friends of Peckham Rye Park successfully bidding for several pots of money, only work on the pathway in the garden is complete. Sadly, this project was let down by the previous Lib Dem-Tory administration which failed to make as much progress as it might have done. The Friends are now determined to have one final push to get the wildlife garden completed in time for their September 2011 fete.

As well as committing some of their own funds to the project, they are also bidding for National Lottery funding. As a result of today's meeting I'm delighted that Gavin, Renata and I will be doing all that we can to support this bid.

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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

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Peckham Rye Labour

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