Love Parks Wandsworth Round Up 2020
A Whole Lotta Park Love!
All summer Wandsworth Council has been running a series of socially distanced events under the Love Parks banner. In celebration of our fabulous green spaces we’ve organised a series of sold-out live music events, theatre performances for children and adults, outdoor fitness classes and we even teamed-up with the Putney School of Art and Design to run themed art classes!
As a result thousands of people have been encouraged to enjoy our wonderful green spaces which cover an impressive 40% of the borough.
But it hasn’t been all about entertainment. A rise in the amount of people enjoying our parks and open spaces – especially during lockdown – has, unfortunately, resulted in an escalation of litter. So the Loves Parks campaign has also involved reminding the public about the importance of not littering and taking rubbish home with them.
Covid-compliant community clean-ups have been organised in our parks and commons, the event in Wandsworth Common saw the Friends group join forces with Plogolution to collect 34 recycling bags full of rubbish, while the one in Tooting Common saw 25 bags collected.
And the final clean up, hosted by the council, saw families joining in a litter pick in Wandsworth Park, as part of the Great British September Clean, which involved the local Friends group working together with the council’s parks and open spaces contractor, Enable Leisure and Culture.
“The families absolutely loved it and we’re now looking at doing something again soon because it was such a hit,” said Pat Gross, chair of the Friends of Wandsworth Park. “I’ve even heard from parents saying their children are now obsessed with rubbish – so a lesson has been learned! We collected a lot of small pieces of rubbish embedded in the ground, including bottle tops and cigarette butts, and we learned the most astounding piece of information – a cigarette butt takes ten years to decompose!”
Under the hashtag #LoveParksWandsworth hundreds of pictures have been posted on social media in what has been a fitting celebration of our green borough which boasts the highest number of council-owned parks and open spaces in inner London.
“Once again Wandsworth has led the way in encouraging its residents to make the most of our beautiful parks and open spaces, while the clean-ups and litter picks have reminded people to do so in a socially responsible manner,” said Cllr Steffi Sutters, cabinet member for community services and open spaces. “It has also been a great pleasure to engage with so many of our excellent Friends groups whose volunteers work tirelessly to make our green spaces so pleasant for others.”