Crowdfunding campaign raises £50,000 for local renovation project

Residents at a previous community gardening event

A rundown strip of land near West Acton station is to get a facelift, thanks to a determined crowdfunding campaign and consultation exercise by local residents.

More than £50,000 has been raised for the project, which will clear out dead wood, prune any healthy remaining trees and plant new trees and shrubs on land between two roads on the Hanger Hill Garden Estate (HHGE).

Bill Bailey, HHGE Residents Association Chairman, said: “It has been clear for a while that our central reservation needed attention, But as more and more trees started dying, we faced a stark choice: leave the area to deteriorate into a pile of dead wood, brambles and ivy, or try to restore it to its former beauty.”

A working group of volunteers has been co-ordinating plans since the Association’s annual meeting in March and will start work on a trial section this Winter. The bulk of the work will follow next year, to allow birds to build their nests in the spring first.

The project’s name, ‘Cherry Tree Walk’, took its inspiration from the flowering cherry trees planted when the Estate was built nearly a century ago. Planting new cherries, among other types of tree, will ensure continuity. But it also celebrates the Estate’s contemporary Japanese community, for whom cherry trees hold a special symbolic significance, in preparing the Estate for the decades to come.

Consultation among residents highlighted a range of other priorities, including the need to improve road safety and concerns about vehicle pollution and biodiversity.

Nim Maradas, who co-ordinated the fundraising campaign said: “One of the most exciting aspects of the project has been the debate it’s stimulated about how to protect the remaining green spaces around our Estate. We’re delighted to have been offered funds, outside this project, for an environmental study that will help us draw up a master plan for the whole Estate.”

More than 70 individuals and organisations have contributed funding, led by Ealing Council and the Mayor of London. Other donors include Car Giant, which owns land bordering on the Estate, an offer of 20 trees from Transport for London, and several other local businesses.

The project has also been the catalyst for other community activities, including a very successful Harvest Festival at the end of September, a new volunteer gardening group and Twitter feed.

“Raising the money has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster,” says Kate Crossland, a member of the project team. “But it’s been great to see neighbours getting engaged with the plans, and we’re all excited to see the area looking beautiful again.

For more information is on the Hanger Hill Garden Estate web site.

08 November 2017