Green-fingered LMH leads garden clean-up

Published by Jean Clarke for Liverpool Mutual Homes in Housing and also in Communities, Environment

Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH) has organised a three-week communal garden clean-up so tenants can enjoy the great outdoors and have more pride in their homes.

LMH has joined forces with the Prince’s Trust, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Merseyside Police and local affordable housing specialist Lovell, to transform the outdoor space at Beechwood Gardens, Aigburth.

Young volunteers from the Prince’s Trust are also raising funds to organise a community lunch to celebrate handing the garden back to residents once it is completed.

LMH is providing equipment such as protective clothing and gloves, as well as donating a £500 grant from its Community Fund to tenant Karen Bell, who has a horticultural degree, to maintain the garden and offer green-fingered advice to others once the project has finished.

As part of its improvement project, LMH staff will remove graffiti and also take the opportunity to carry out tenancy enforcement work at homes that are not being maintained to the necessary standard.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service will be on hand to offer tenants fire safety advice and install fire alarms where needed.

And throughout the three weeks, Merseyside Police will be using the innovative SmartWater crime reduction technology to help protect tenants’ property from thieves, while Lovell has arranged for skips to be on site to collect and remove the rubbish.

Chief Executive at LMH, Steve Coffey, said: “As part of our work to instil more pride into our neighbourhoods, we are transforming the communal gardens at Beechwood Gardens to improve conditions and give ownership and responsibility back to tenants.

“The work is going to take three weeks to complete and once finished, it will make a tremendous difference to the area and provide tenants with not only an aesthetically-pleasing garden but also an interest and opportunity to develop it in the future.

“We would like to thank those giving up their time to help us with this project and are really looking forward to seeing the end result.”

Lovell is working with LMH, helping deliver the housing association’s housing improvement programme under its Decent Homes framework. The company is currently carrying out a £13.8 million scheme to install new kitchens and bathrooms for 2,000 homes in the west and south of the city over the next two years.

Lovell site manager George Shaw said: “When LMH approached us to see if we would we able to assist them in giving Beechwood Gardens a facelift, we were only too pleased to lend a hand. In addition to supplying the skips, we’ve spoken to one of our equipment suppliers, Speedy Hire, and they have kindly agreed to provide some gardening tools for the project free of charge.

“Myself and some colleagues will be joining the other volunteers to help with the makeover and we’re really looking forward to putting our horticultural skills to the test.”

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Photograph: Volunteers are helping LMH improve Beechwood Gardens.