Reclaiming Osborne Street for the Gorillas

When I moved over here from Oxford I was faced with a choice of buying a ‘nice’ new house in a quiet suburban estate (I’m dosing off just thinking about it) or somewhere less respectable. It was a no brainer. I bought a small Edwardian house by Bletchley station and I’ve been doing my little bit to improve the neighbourhood by stealth ever since.

We are a mixed community of Bangladeshi, English, Scottish, Polish, Norwegian and Italian residents and there is a really great community feel to the place – but there is a lot of rubbish and some of the gardens are in a bit of a state. I am now implementing a three point plan to rectify the situation. It goes something like this:

• Clean up and enhance one of the worst public spaces as an example of cheap, independent, sustainable community action


• Use my own front yard as a ‘show yard’ to display what can be done to improve the environment


• Bring together a small group of the willing to develop their own yards, lobby for improved public services and defend the improvements

I’m not a natural door-banger so I have chosen to lead by example and casual conversation. This makes things slow but I think it communicates the sincerity of the mission; and though I say so myself I’ve achieved quite a lot.

The public space I chose to improve was a narrow strip of land neglected by Vincci and Sainsbury and favoured by local yobs and fly tippers. So far I have removed 10 sacks of rubbish, 15 abandoned shopping trolleys, one lot of building waste and a car but it appears that respect breeds respect and the space requires a decreasing level of clearance.

In place of the broken bottles and shopping baskets I have planted over 400 bulbs, 20 or 30 native hedging plants, various free reclaimed shrubs and a riot of the most delicious hollyhocks. Most of it was free or freely given – some by neighbours. The transformation is amazing.

My ‘show yard’ is also taking shape. So far I have only spent £10 on compost and £8 on a hippo bag with the plants and tools all being gifts from family and loans from neighbours. The idea is to transform the depressing concrete rectangle into a tea theme garden with a small camomile lawn, a herb parch with mint, bergamot and (ornamental) nettles and a small hedge of Camellia Sinensis. I am pleased to say that the concrete has now gone and the earth exhales. Mmm… maybe I’ll get cabbages.