This collaboration between Abundance London and the London Borough of Hounslow’s Housing Department, Lampton Facilities Maintenance 360, and the LBH Social Services Community Support (Adult Social Care) has taken huge effort to set up, but has finally come to fruition (pun intended!) because Andrea Tidy of Housing and Jon Godfrey who is responsible for Health & Safety at Lampton FM were prepared to go the extra mile to help organise it. It requires some people with imagination and willingness to do some extra work to achieve a different – and better- result.
The Community Support guys are adults with special learning needs, and we’ve been going out with them, along with the landscape guys from Lampton FM360 and picking pears. They have really enjoyed it and it’s been great to work with them. Hounslow Housing looks after about 6,000 trees, of which around 200-300 are fruit trees that could be harvested, eaten or juiced, rather than us paying to clear up the mess.
This year was a pilot project, but watch this space next year!